3 Days in Berlin

 I know Paris is the city of lights, but is Berlin the city that never sleeps?

Everything seemed chaotic and buzzing from the moment I arrived until now, leaving. I write this on the train, one I desperately did not want to miss. 

When my friend met me Thursday night at the station I explained to her that I had front and rear lights plus a headlamp for her. Then I saw she had no helmet. No one did that I saw in Berlin. Bikes were everywhere on the streets, bus lanes, on designated strips on the sidewalk. It was fairly clear, except for the distractions of being new here. The surfaces range from pea gravel, to brick, cobblestone, to tarmac. There are short curbs that need to be approached straight on or might catch the front wheel. All this with gobs of pedestrians.

Thursday night was mild I came to see compared to the crowds gathered for the weekend Festival of Lights going on near Brandenburg Gate. 

My first full day after going to bed well after midnight was about sleeping in and eating breakfast on Mia's balcony. We chatted and she explained that sometime in the evening we would leave town for the countryside. I had no idea where or any of the particulars. She mentioned her son, whom I also know, was at a rustic camp cottage building a Tiny House. 

It began to drizzle of and on and I took a walk to explore the immediate area. Mia's house is from the turn of the century, the last one not this one, with a small bathroom carved out. It had the look and feel of 1900s middle-class elegance.  I walked to the park near where JFK spoke the words in German: I am a Berliner. 

We left late and arrived in a place in far East Germany translated Old Peace Land, near a band of lakes and nature parks for water fowl. Again, after midnight we had a meal and went to bed. I slept in the sauna.

The next day was more all-day muzzle. My feet were constantly wet and I drank hot tea to stay warm. Zoran asked me to help him put in the ceiling insulation at the Tiny House. Together we worked for a couple of hours. He will finish the interior work after it is transported. We had a brunch outside under an awning until the weather drove us back inside. I took a longer walk exploring the shore of one of the lakes and a medieval cloister now ruins. All along I could hear the clatter of birds. 

Once again we arrived back in Berlin very late and had a meal of hot soup before bed.

The next day the weather was much improved. I took an early morning practice ride to the train station, hoping I'd not get lost the day I leave. Mia then took me riding to the nicest sections of West Berlin neighborhoods, Victoria Fountain, and for curry wurst from a street. vender in the park. after I peeled away to see the ruins of church bombed from war, Memorial to those murdered Jews of WW2, Checkpoint Charlie, remains of The Wall, and some more of what we saw Thursday night in daylight. 

Going to bed last night, I was firm that we would not stay up late. I had a train to catch at 7 a.m.