Greetings from Berlin

Wednesday, July 28, 2010. Berlin.

Do you like my new friends? Gargoyles on the sides of a bridge and stately building over and along Berlin's Spree River.



After an amazing 17 days in Istanbul and Turkey, Beth and I flew to Budapest on July 15, then a few days later took the train to Vienna, stayed a couple of days, then on to Prague for 3 days ...

... then arrived at Berlin's main railroad station, Europe's largest, on Friday, July 23.
The enormous glass-walled station is familiar, since we did a show about its construction for Nat Geo.









Our apartment is on a quiet street in Mitte, a district that was in East Berlin until 21 years ago. Our neighborhood is Scheunenviertel -- Warehouse District -- which used to be the center of the oldest Jewish community in the city. The oldest Jewish grave stone found here is from 1244 AD.

We have a large set of rooms on the second floor on the right side of the inner courtyard of an old brewery building. Our room is just outside the right hand side of the photo.








We eat at the table outside on our own terrace garden. After the heatwave of the past several weeks, it's great to have cool sunny weather. We'll be here for another week. Finally able to rest and catch up.


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We're visiting a cousin of mine, Gilad Ben-Nun, an Israeli who moved here two years ago with his wife, Keren, and two young kids. Keren has dual German/Israeli citizenship because her grandfather was a Berlin Jew

We're being joined by our Swiss friends, Pierre and Emmanuelle and their two young kids. Pierre and keren are cousins.



The city has offered wonderful activities and sights. So far, we visited the amazing Jewish Museum -- built by Daniel Liebeskind, who's doing the World Trade Center site. Walked along Friedrichtstrasse, the old main drag from the roaring twenties. Full of cafés and shops, very livable. We took a boat cruise on the river Spree, which runs through the city







Earlier, we also toured the so-called New Synagogue, which was first built in the 1860's in Moorish style. It's striking exterior was rebuilt in the last decade. It was once the world's largest.







So far, the most surprising museum was the DDR Museum, which sets out daily life in the old German Democratic Republic (East Germany.) We got to go through a set decorated as a typical working-class apartment in East Berlin, also classroom, TV, films in small typical movie theater and consumer goods. Turns out that nude sunbathing and swimming were mainstream parts of the culture. As was eavesdropping and neighbor spying on your neighbors. We got to listen to old video/audio domestic spy footage on old headphones in a listening room with authentic equipment.

Beth and I are both reading a lot; I must recommend the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. I got totally hooked and read more than a thousand pages in two weeks.

And food here: beer is great, lots of sausages -- surprisingly good -- bread and potatoes. Oh, and coffee and cake. And the most common street foods are Curry Würst (sausages with curry sauce) and Dönner Kebab (Turkish kebobs on pita.)

More soon.