First day in Berlin!

17 hours and 2 stops later, I got to Berlin. (I got a great price on the ticket, but had to stop in New York and Brussels before getting there. All part of the adventure.) I had slept on the overnight flight from NY to Brussels (I’m blessed with the ability to sleep on planes) and read my tour guide book on the Brussels to Berlin flight, so by the time I arrived at Tagel airport, I felt like I had a pretty good handle on the city, the sights I wanted to see, and how to get around. I’d checked the website for the hotel and it said the Potsdamer Platz U-bahn was right next to the hotel. (that’s Germany for subway!) I would take a bus to the zoo U stop, then pop over to Potsdamer and viola, I would be there.
I was very pleased with myself that I had managed to pack everything in a carry-on bag. With 2 connections, I wanted to be sure I carried my running shoes and gear with me in case they got lost, so I took my expandable roll-a-board (did you know it’s called a roll-a-board, not a roller board??) and jammed it full enough that it would fit in the overhead, but still leave expandable room for souvenirs!
So I got to the airport, through passport control and customs and found the bus and the subway. It was so easy! I was very excited, but a little nervous about this trip. It was my first overseas trip by myself. I had traveled a ton with friends, co-workers and family overseas, but this one was by myself mostly. I had friends who were also going to be there for the race, but they had other plans for most of the time there, and “meeting up” always turns out to be less easy than it sounds when you’re planning. I was excited though. I could totally work on my schedule, do the things that I wanted to do, eat, sleep, tour, play, whatever totally on my own whim. This was good, and Berlin turned out to be the PERFECT city to do it in.
I arrived in Potsdamer Platz like a recent college grad arriving in the big city. It’s a huge square with big buildings and lots of cars and lots of streets going off of it. I turned around and around taking it all in, and wondering what the heck street I was supposed to go down. That’s ok, I’d looked it all up online on the hotel website, and I was good to go. Luckenwalder Strasse. I’m good. I went around the platz once, and didn’t see it, but I did get a glimpse of several chunks of “the wall”. I had read that there are pieces of it all over, as a reminder of what the city used to be like. There was some really cool graffiti on the pieces in the platz there. I looked on the little map in my tour book, and didn’t see it. Finally I went into the Ritz Carlton on the square and asked the Concierge. He was very helpful, and showed me where it was….about a mile away. Now I was REALLY glad I’d packed in a small rolling bag! That’s ok. It was a gorgeous day, a beautiful city, and I had nowhere to be in any sort of hurry.

I meandered down the street by a lovely grassy area outside some office and residential buildings. Down the street past some construction (Berlin is ever growing and improving!) and to the very pretty river. Across and down and I’m getting tired, AND I’ve passed 2 of the U-bahn stations that I actually went by while on the train headed to Potsdamer Platz. Ok, just a little annoyed at this point (tired after 17 hours of traveling, and dragging a bag down charming yet not particularly smooth sidewalks!) and it wasn’t looking right, but I kept going. I finally found Luckenwalder Strasse, and low and behold, with bright and wild murel on the wall was my hotel. It turned out to be a lovely hotel right across the street from a different U-bahn station, which turned out to be very convenient (once I knew which one to go to. Grrrrr.)

Checked in without incident, and my first thought upon entering my room was, “it’s someone’s job to design carpet patterns…..I think this designer had a bad day!”
Other than the wild carpet, the room was lovely. I was all sweaty, but I wanted to get to the expo to get my stuff in case for some reason I had to go the next day, and/or so it freed up the whole next day for touring. I changed and headed right out the door for the expo. I was doing the jet lag reduction strategy I learned from Sandy the astronaut that I went to Iraq with. You stay up through the night until it’s time to go to bed in the new place, then you’re so exhausted that you fall right to sleep and sha-ZAM, you’re acclimated!
The expo was being held in the old airport. I thought this was a fascinating and wonderful idea, and couldn’t wait to see how they did it. Unburdened by my luggage, I decided to continue my walk. It looked like another mile or so to the airport, and ended up being a very nice walk. Tons of people on bikes, and great little shops and cafes. Really a nice town.

I got to the expo and sure enough, it was in an airport. Conveyors, and ticket counters all transformed into spots for signage and information booths, etc. On to the terminals and out into the hangar where the expo was actually being held.
The Berlin Marathon expo shares with a rollerblade marathon expo/demonstration area, so it was HUGE! There was the covered outdoor area with a huge beergarten and eating area, demonstration area for skates and bmx type bikes, then the typical marathon expo crap. The difference was all the international marathon booths that there were. Oh the ideas. My list of “must-do” marathons just doubled!
I got my packet, then moved on to my first beer! I was a happy camper! Then before long, my first beer was gone and I was sad. It was time to head back to the hotel, drop my stuff and go see what this city was all about, so I hopped on the U-bahn from the airport (a lovely walk, but I wanted to get on with it) and dropped my stuff at the hotel.

Then off to Alexander Platz and the TV tower. My tour book had recommended this as a great place to get a top notch view of Berlin from the highest point in Europe actually. It was very cool! The platz was huge, with lots of cafes and shops, and a mall with a big fountain and courtyard with a few groups of street performers. I bought my ticket to go up in the tower, but had to wait about 45 minutes until it was my turn. No problem, I’ll go have another beer! I found a charming little place that boasted lots of wursts and biers on the chalkboard on the sidewalk. PERFECT! I went in, sat down and ordered a Berlin specialty, Currywurst and a big Berliner beer. (I know, curry wurst sounds disgusting, but when in Rome….) It was actually delicious, and accompanied by some traditional sauerkraut and kartoffelsalat. (potato salad) Yum! The bier was also alarmingly large, and when I finished and headed back to the tower to head up, I was definitely feeling good. (though one more and I probably would have made Alexander Platz my sleeping area for the night, which would have been fine because there’s plenty of green space all over. I could have found my own little patch of grass, curled up and taken a nap, but no, there was a city to see.)

I got in line and headed up. Very organized, very technological and modern and very German! The tower in 208.95 meters high or something. The elevator goes up very quickly, earpoppinly fast in fact. It was pretty cool. Then it dumped you out into the top silver bubble thing where you could walk around and get a 360 degree view of the city. I walked all around 2-3 times (passing up the temptation of settling on the side with the cocktail lounge for a drink) and checked everything out. There were some really neat rooftops (weird? I know!) where they had grass and neat hang out areas. You could also see the wind farms off in the distance, and the river was beautiful with the late afternoon sun glinting off it. You could also get a real sense of the old vs. new architecture in Berlin. There are some ancient elaborate buildings right next to totally modern and funky ones. Really fun to look around.
Once I had finished there, I went down and went in the shops for a bit. I had tried to get in touch with my friends, but wasn’t hearing back from them, so I figured they were doing their own thing, and besides, I was pretty tired, and wasn’t sure I was up for chasing anyone around anyway, so I headed back to the hotel, took a shower and got organized in the room and ready for bed. Matt and Adriana did finally call around 8:30 from the hotel. They were headed to Prague at 5:30 on the train the next morning and weren’t going to get home until 9:30 or so, so I said I would see them the next evening and went to bed. Needless to say, I slept like a rock, very pleased at how quickly I’d gotten comfortable running all around the city, eating and drinking and touring. I’m a regular grown up!