First day in Berlin

Well we finally made it to Berlin after a long day of traveling. So far our first day has been great. We had a short bus ride from the airport to our hotel and along the way we got a glimpse of some of the architecture around Berlin. It will be interesting over the next few days to look for differences between east and west Berlin. Even though the wall fell over twenty years ago, I'm sure we'll be able to see some substantial differences in the way buildings look in west and east Berlin. After we got back to our hotel and took a much needed nap we stopped in at the thai restaurant next to our hotel, which ended up being good and, more importantly, having Berliner Weisse. I had wanted to try a Berliner Weisse for a while and finally got my chance today. I wasn't sure what to expect and was caught off guard when the beer arrived with a straw. I could not get myself to drink a beer out of a straw so I quickly took it out and took a sip of my green tinted beer. It had slightly sour taste, but the syrup definitely dominated the beer. I really want to try a Berliner Weisse without any syrup at some point in the next few days. Lunch was great, and it was especially great that it was Gudrun's treat! We were also reminded of an important cultural custom at restaurants in Germany. If you don't flag down the waiter or waitress, then you could potentially spend all day at the restaurant. Its refreshing to be able to sit down in a restaurant and not be forced out by the waiter. After our lunch we meandered over to an imbiss stand and Brian was nice enough to buy all of us some glühwein, which we drank as we walked along one the main shopping streets in Berlin. This is obviously something you must do if you ever come to Berlin during December or January. I am excited for the days to come!

Prost from Deutschland