We're off to Berlin...

We will be heading to Berlin tomorrow (Saturday) since next Tuesday, May 8th, is a holiday throughut Europe as VE (Victory in Europe) Day, celebrating the end of WWII in Europe (VJ Day - for Victory in Japan - is August 14th). I will be taking off work on Monday (and Noah won't be going to school) so we be in Berlin through Tuesday. I am relying on the old Garmin to get me there efficiently and I'm confident it can, since the maps of Germany are more detailed then the maps of the Czech Republic. I've already plugged the hotel address into the Garmin and it shows it as a 3:50 drive. It may take longer depending on how long we have to spend at the border. We are very excited about this trip since we hear from everyone what a beautiful city Berlin is. I'm not sure what the local mood will be in the city where Hitler committed suicide on the day celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany, but we shall see.

We are staying at a medium priced hotel about 1 kilomter from Potsdamer Platz, which is described at the berlin.de (Senate Department for Urban Renewal) web site as "One of the busiest places in the world during the 20's and later the sad motif of a divided city, Potsdamer Platz became the symbol of Berlin's renewal after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Once completed, Potsdamer Platz presented itself as a city within the city, as a location where the most varied urban planning principles of the outgoing 20th and incoming 21st century were jointly realised."

Other than general exploring, we do plan on seeing a Berlin soccer match on Sunday evening. We had gone to see the local pro soccer team in Geneva when we were there and Noah loved it. I am especially interested since the match is at Berlin's Olympic Stadium where Jesse Owens humiliated Adolph Hitler by winning four gold medals in the 1936 Games.

We also plan on some heavy duty shopping because there are many things that either aren't available in Prague or are horrendously expensive. One thing we hope to buy is a gas grill.

I don't think I will be blogging while we are there, so it may be Tuesday before I can provide an update.