To Berlin

Today was a busy day! It started with breakfast at my Leipzig sleepingplace, then packing and hopping an ICE train to Berlin. (I'm going to miss those trains! So nice!) After purchasing a 3-day Welcome Pass and finding my sleepingplace in Berlin, I headed out to see the sights.

Historical

First stop was the Märkisches Museum, which is perhaps a kilometer or so from my sleepingplace. Instead of taking public transit, for which I now have unlimited rides, I decided to walk and see/experience more of the city. This museum focuses on the history of Berlin, from its time as a collection of grass huts through to its founding as a city, usw. It was an interesting place, built specifically to house some of the older artifacts. Then, of course, newer finds were added on top. Nothing too contemporary, but I will get to that in tomorrow's museum plan.

He let a lot of people through

I did take the U-Bahn to my next stop, the Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie. I don't think I've seen so many Americans in one place since my last trip to New York City! It was an interesting place, full of stories of people fleeing the DDR. Very interesting. A bit one-sided, though. And expensive. But, hey, I had a discount on my snazzy city card. Plus, there was a guy standing outside at a checkpoint mock-up! (I heard him speaking with a group of German students...in English, presumably because he was supposed to be American. :) )

From there, I walked to Potsdamer Platz, what is probably the newest neighborhood in the city. It lies on top of where the Mauer stood and has some lovely buildings and pieces of art. The part I walked through was not terribly interesting, though, so I moved on. In retrospect, I probably should've gotten some food there. Oh well!

Purdy!

A bit north is the Brandenburger Tor. Beautiful, and not so covered with tourists as I had thought it would be!

There's some great public art here, as well. I passed a number of examples. I hope to see more tomorrow. Off to bed now, though. I have a date with Queen Nefertiti at 10:30a, so want to be sure that I'm at Museumsinsel and situated well in advance. I only have a half-hour window in which to enter the museum -- it's so popular that they have to stagger entrance!