About that absence...

I've been remiss, more remiss than usual, in updating my blog lately, but I have a good excuse: Ken and I made a trip to Eastern Europe in mid-May. We flew to Berlin on May 15.

This was our third Globus Tour, so we finally wised up: We arrived in Berlin two full days before meeting the other group members and starting the actual tour. Ken suggested we do this in order for us to "get our bearings" and adjust to the jetlag before visiting the various countries on our itinerary. It was a smart suggestion, as it turned out, and one we'd do again.

The spot where President Reagan implored Gorbachev to
"take down this wall."

I was a little intimidated at the thought of our being in Berlin on our own, though. I'm not half the intrepid traveler I was in my twenties and thirties! I think I was too young and innocent to be nervous about tackling a foreign city back then. Ignorance, as they say, is bliss.

As it turned out, though, Berlin proved to be an extremely friendly, inviting, and beautiful place to start our trip.

The weather in Berlin couldn't have been nicer. Well, maybe it could have been a tad cooler. Temperatures in the 80's greeted us. Ken hadn't packed enough short-sleeved shirts, so one of the first things we did upon arrival was visit Galeries Lafayette and purchase two more shirts for him. (In retrospect we over-reacted a bit, because the farther south we traveled in Europe, the chillier it became. By the time we got to Vienna, I was wishing I'd brought along my winter coat, and that's no exaggeration.) Galeries Lafayette was an experience all by itself, never mind the rest of the city!

Lafayette Shopping Center, much grander than
anything you'd find in Maine!

The food court in the basement has the most enormous selection of olive oils I've ever seen, for starters.

We spent our two days "alone" enjoying the architecture, walking miles and miles (seven miles one of the days), eating good German food, taking a boat cruise on the Spree, photographing various landmarks, visiting the museums (the Museum of Technology being Ken's favorite), and adjusting to the six-hour time difference.

This beautiful wisteria caught my eye while on our boat cruise.

This wurst vendor near the River Spree is the ultimate in efficiency: The grill is attached to his waist, the propane tank is attached to his back, and the umbrella is attached to the propane tank! German engineering at its best.

The Bierbike caught our attention more than once as we roamed the city. And no, we didn't take a city tour on it!

For this particular Bierbike what caught my eye was not simply the fact that every passenger on three sides of the bike pedals, yet the vehicle moves forward,...it was the guy in the pink spandex outfit! Can't say I'd ever seen the likes of that before.

Our visit to the Berlin Wall Memorial was sobering. It's hard to believe, when you see Berlin today, that West Berlin was made an island in East Germany from 1961 to 1989.

A local tour guide whom we met a couple of days after our arrival told us of the night the Berlin Wall fell. She had heard rumors that the wall might be taken down, but she didn't dare grow too hopeful.

She'd driven over to Checkpoint Charlie on an errand around 11:30 that night. While there, she learned the wall was coming down. She, her friends, and fellow West Berliners partied the rest of the night, she said. Then she dashed home, took a shower, and went to work. No sleep for her that night, but she was running on adrenalin, as were her fellow Berliners.

Our Globus Tour officially got underway on Friday night, May 17. Next installment: Poland.