We got up and walked to Checkpoint Charlie which is only a short walk (for us). We also toured the Checkpoint Museum. There is so much in this museum it would take months to see it all. There was a great deal of history plus the ingenious plans of how people escaped East Berlin. There were many exhibits of the cars, ultralights, balloons and disguises that people used. Then we took the subway to go to a large department store, Ka De We, to see the gourmet food section. It is similar to Harrods which means it is absolutely fabulous. When we were done at Ka De We we walked to the Tiergarten which is a large park that houses the zoo. We walked in the park and found a biergarten. See pics. These places are wonderful . You can stop in to meet friends, rest or have a drink and some food. Everything is self service so there is no pressure. We were there right after 5pm and it seemed to be a gathering place for people after work. After a drink and we cooled off ( it has been hot here) we walked the entire park on our way back to our hotel. See pic of Marsha drinking wine again. Yes, we have walked across Europe by now. If we had pedometers they would say Tilt!!!. We found a nice restaurant on the way back to the hotel and stopped for dinner. The appetizer was a sampler platter, of course all good. Marsha had baked vegetables covered in cheese and I had schnitzel with French fries and a salad. After dinner we walked the rest of the way to the hotel. I should mention we walked a major portion of Berlin and it is a nice city with many wide boulevards and modern buildings. There are construction projects everywhere we went. Tomorrow we are going to Potsdam and then taking an overnight train to Krakow. I don ‘t know when I’ll have a net connection to post again.

Here are the pics.

We arrived in Berlin at approx 1pm. We found our hotel, a Holiday Inn Express can you believe it! We dropped our luggage and headed for the sights of Berlin. We went to the Brandenburg Gate and Unter den Linden Blvd. See pics. Around the corner is the Bundestag with the glass dome. We had make reservations to go up in the dome so we waited an hour to make them. The Dome is closing tomorrow for several days for cleaning so today was the only day we would be able to see it. Our reservations were for 9:30pm but we were lucky to get them as there was only a few places left.
Marsha had called friends of hers and arranged to meet them at a local biergarten. These people are American citizens who have lived and worked in Berlin for about 20 years and they love it. James said Berlin is becoming very cosmopolitan and is rapidly becoming the Silicon Valley of Europe. We had dinner at the biergarten – see pics- self explanatory food and all was delicious. Marsha’s friends are great! They were warm and friendly and we had a great time until we had to leave to tour the Bundestag. There are many picture from the dome and of the dome. It was really an unusual experience.

We made it! We were an hour late, but that didn’t matter since we are spending the night in Dresden. We could only get reservations for 2nd class which meant we slept in seats. Don’t panic they are roomy and recline a lot – much better than an airplane. At 11:30 the lights went out and everyone settled down to sleep, only bad thing was every time the train stopped we all woke up. The train did not stop often fortunately. When we got to Dresden we had to figure out how to get to our hotel – the U-Bahn ( a kind of el). We found the hotel and it is charming!!!! See pic.

We are now sitting in the little garden having a beer (local Dresden beer
and a wine (local). The menu looks great! They are so accommodating. The restaurant is hosting a wedding so we are trying to make it easy on the kitchen. I am sure we will eat well. Back to Dresden
After we checked in we headed to the old city. We saw the historical Grünes Gewöble (Baroque treasure chamber). Lots of gold, silver, jewels etc.- of course no pictures- in fact we had to check our purses. While walking thru the town there were quite a few bachelor and bachelorette parties. One of these parties stopped us and the groom asked us to donate to his wedding- see pic.

We walked around most of Dresden seeing the sites. See pics. There are many,many churches here. At the Hofkirche there is a restored Silverman organ that is world renowned. We went to the church for a 4pm performance, but the schedule had been changed. It seemed as though many other people read the same date and time on the net since there were a lot of people waiting around the organ.
We walked around town some more – there are many beautiful buildings and it was a lovely day. I have a lot of pics on my camera. Then we decided to return to the hotel. Both of us were a little tired from all the traveling the day before.
Well- we did eat well. Marsha had a Camembert cheese w/cranberry as an appetizer and the salad pictured that has goat cheese. I had pork medallions, sausage, chicken and small schnitzel over potatoes with onions and a salad. Food was great!!!!!

More pics