Oktober 13 - Berlin

We knew that today would be tough. So we slept in. Had another fantastic Frühstuck at the castle and then repacked everything...because we had to drop the car (nicknamed Lars for now) off to be shipped and then had a 4.5 hour ride on the train to Berlin.

Boy, we had no idea.

We checked out and said Tchuß to the castle and drove back over the tiniest wooden bridge you have ever seen (yes we have pictures) and drove around the Rhine river a bit and then made a drive to Frankfurt to drop the car off. We found the place and said goodbye then (stuipid us) walked the 10 minutes to the train station. Little did we know that the repacking had increased the weight on the duffelbag so much that the wheels started to go sideways and the heat from all the walking started to make the bag just drag on the ground. I'm sure the cobblestones donÄt help in reducing the amount of impact...

Took a quick 20 minute ride to the heart of Frankfurt and boarded a train to Berlin.

Oh...I don't know if I promised Ryan that I wouldn't mention this but we had Burger King. We only had a few moments and since the Germans love their 3 hour meals we had to eat fast. It was good. Wow it was good. So we boarded the train with probably 500 other people and squooze onto that thing. No seats were left. We had to take all of our bags (with souveniers) down about 8 cars....these are long cars...and they have luggage everywhere. We ended up sweaty and standing outside of a bathroom that was seeping sewage. Gross. We finally made our way about 5 feet from the seepage and were able to sit on the floor for the 4.5 hour train ride. It is a Friday so we should have known...but I didn't know that you can actually reserve a sweat for a couple Euros more. Duh! Duh! Duh!

The train got up to 249 kilometers per hour...which is like 125 miles per hour. Sehr schnell! (very fast) Made it to Berlin and took the S-Bahn to our hotel. Also found out that the subway map in my Fodors book is old and they have changed the name of some stations...so a couple of times jumping on and going back on the same line put us at our station. The elevator (we were not carrying that damn duffelbag up stairs) put us in the middle of a street. Strange! We finally found our cute cute cute hotel and are sitting in the bar, using their free internet, drinking a fabulous cocktail, and ready to go clean up and eat. Berlin seems very cool, cosmopolitain mixed with this old world dirtiness...if that makes sesnse.

We are actually staying in former East Berlin in the old Jewish Quarter...well until the Nazi reginme removed everyone from it. Our hotel is fantastic and we are glad to be in it for 3 nights...although we really do miss showing up in a town and having to figure out where we want to stay that night....Dad VH mentioned that they loved doing that in Italy and I agree....the way to go! Museums are in our future tomorrow, trying to soak up this great-looking city. Love you all!

We hear that our babies are doing fantastic (yay for the isaacbird molt and watch out for Saracat trying to dump over your waters....hehehehehe thank you thank you thank you!)