Sunday in Berlin

Driving is much easier today due to less traffic and free parking, which is SO nice. I got up relatively early and went in search of breakfast. I passed a nice looking cafe and parked right outside (so nice to not have to walk forever to get food). Had a traditional German breakfast which consists of cold cuts and fruit. Mostly different types of cheeses and hams.

After breakfast I went to see Schloss Charlottenburg. Since I´m moving to Charlotte, this seemed like a good thing to check out. It's a big castle built in the style of Versailles in France. It was nice, but not nearly as cool as Schön Brunn in Vienna or Nymphenburg Schloss in Munich. But, what was neat was there was a festival going on, so there were tons of people there and lots of street vendors. I walked through and picked up a Kirschbier. Sweet flavored beer. Pretty tasty on a hot day.

After that I walked back to the car and drove to the Zoo train station. This was the inspiration for the U2 song "Zoo Station". A bit of a seedy area, but not too bad. I picked up some shampoo and toothpaste at the nearby grocery store. It was interesting to walk through and see how that was set up. Way too hot in there. Europeans just don´t seem to see the value in having a cool store. Providing a pleasant shopping experience is apparently a pretty low priority.

I then drove to another Döner kebab place that my travel guide recommended. The one I had last night was so good, I had to try another place. This one wasn´t bad, but not quite as good as the one last night.

I then drove to Checkpoint Charlie to see what that was like. Very cool to see the place where the wall was and look at the differences in the western and eastern sides. The eastern side is much more built up and modern now. I guess developers moved in there pretty quickly after the wall came down and got some good deals on real estate. There's even a Schlotzky's there! Most things were closed, so I didn´t hang around too long.

BTW, if you´re ever in Europe and need the internet, EasyInternet is the way to go.