Berlin...Finally

We made it!

It took us about 4 different trains, a few buses, a taxi, but we got there finally after

2 days of travel.

We stayed in the Kreuzberg area in a great apartment that

the owners usually rent out to film companies, so the apartment had

twin beds stacked all over the place.

We walked everywhere, Checkpoint Charlie being one of our first stops, the most famous

crossing point during the Cold War between East and West Germany.

It was intense, and brought to life what was happening here.

Next, we wandered over to the Eastside Gallery, a 1.3 km.

section of the Berlin wall that has been painted by over 100 international

artists to commemorate freedom. It is the largest open air gallery in the world.

I LOVED this, and could have looked at these paintings all day,

FANTASTIC!

Midway along this stretch, we stumbled into

a fantastic scene, an urban beach on the Spree River.

We came to find out that these are popping up all over the

place in Europe but it was novel to us and an amazing experience.

Evidently, sand was imported from Italy to create these city beaches.

Beaches in Europe, are so civilized, they complete with caffes, bars,

lounge chairs, and often discos, and this Berlin Urban Beach was no

exception. We got espressos and plotzed in the beach chairs

overlooking the river-it was magical.

I am thinking that this would be amazing to create on the

Willamette River in Portland.

Tourist river boats cruised by, adding to

the surreal quality of this experience.