Sun 26 Jun I flew from Munich to meet Jeremy who flew in from Paris. We took a taxi to the hotel and our first clue that it was location-challenged is that the driver had a hard time finding it.

I expected the Königin Luise on Parkstr. to be in the east, behind Alexander Platz. Well, yes. But first you have to walk several blocks to catch a tram. Even had the tram been running, it was a heck of a long way to Alexander Platz. But it wasn't. You had to catch an "ersatz" bus that takes you part-way and then take the tram to AP where you can then catch S- and U-bahn into the rest of town. But it was actually easier to get off the bus at another S-Bahn stop and then change to get into town. Or take another tram in a different direction to get an S-bahn with no changes. Either way, it was going to take more than an hour to get into town. The hotel would have been very convenient if we had both had motorcycles. But it was always an interesting experience coming and going.

Ok, enough complaining, but now you know what I mean when I say we went into town.

So I called my friend Afsaneh and we went into town to meet her, having dinner somewhere in the vicinity of Savigny Platz, always comfortable and fun.

The next day, Mon 27 Jun, Jeremy and I went into town and did a walking tour. From Alexander Platz, we took the tram over to Hackersherhöffe to stop by Coffee Mamas, then to the Sparkasse bank, then a short tour of the buildings in the neighborhood. Then we walked back over to Spandauer street, over the Spree bridge, and onto Museum Island.

Jeremy really liked the Dom, the Berlin Cathedral, so we went inside. It turns out that one can now climb to the top, so we did. Then we came down and walked down Unter den Linden to Friedrichstrasse (this is Einstein year and there are pictures and sayings of his posted everywhere ) and then to the Bahnhof where I did a little shopping. Then we took the Ubahn over to Pottsdamer Platz and toured that area, including the location of the former "Führer Bunker" and then the newly-opened Holocaust Memorial, which we toured (there is an underground exhibition.)

Afterwards, we walked back to Potsdamer Platz to meet Afsaneh and her assistant Ariane who had graciously done logistics for us. Jeremy conquered the grassy mound that runs down the center of the site, marking where the new North-South railway runs. Then we met Afsaneh and Birget over at the Literature Cafe on Fasannenstrasse for an early dinner. Then Jeremy and I made our long way home for the day.