Bluejake

8:45am Woke sort of out of it with 7 hours of sleep. Slight stomachache.
10:30am Walked up to Augsburgerstasse U-Bahn station. Took the well appointed subway East to Halleschestor and then up to Kochstrasse. I loved the Berlin subway- how it goes outside as it goes East, and the cars similar to trains in Madrid and Paris.
11am Visited Checkpoint Charlie- surprised me that it was on Friedrichstrasse facing North-South, instead of East-West as I expected. Very interesting museum about the wall and all the escape attempts.
12:30pm Walked up to Potsdamerplatz by way of Niederkirchnerstrasse, where the seat of the 3rd Reich used to be. Saw the Topography of Terror exhibit. Apparently Hitler's last bunker has been destroyed and replaced with a children's playground- very German.
1:30pm Cabbed from Potsdamerplatz to Gendarmenmarkt for a so-so lunch of turkey schnitzel at a German restaurant.
3pm Cabbed to Kurfurstendam and visited Kaiser-wilhelm-meedachtnis-kirche, the ruined cathedral of West Berlin. Windows blown out- but beautiful Byzantine ceiling survived. Modern blue glass chapel and tower very 1960s and strangely beautiful.
3:30pm After short walk on Kurdam struck out on my own to the Berlin Zoologischer garden, the oldest zoo in Europe. Very good hippos, pandas, and monkeys. Visited the petting zoo and also saw giraffes, lions, tigers, and elephants. Also amazing bears (symbol of Berlin). Much better than Paris zoo in the Vinciennes park.
4:45pm Visited KaDeWe, the German Harrod's. Very big and imposing with cool high-end supermarket on top floor, and beautiful roof garden. Bough 5 rolls of film for $18.
5:45pm Back to Alsterhof Hotel for rest and internet check.
8pm-11:30pm Dinner at Don Quixote, a Spanish restaurant off the Kurdam. I embarrassed myself taking the whole group down the wrong block, but made up for it by paying for dinner in cash when the restaurant wouldn't take credit cards.
12am Back at hotel- watching CNN.

Travelogue