Good morning, from the City Nite Line "Kopernikus", on the way to Amsterdam

Had a fun day wandering the streets of Berlin yesterday.   The goal was to see the Jewish Museum, designed by the architect Daniel Liebeskind.   The building he did next after this, and his first in the States, is the Denver Art Museum, with which, of course, I'm well acquainted.    I made it there, thoroughly enjoyed the visit, took lots of pix, and also went to the visitor center of the Holocaust Memorial, which was at once horrifying and very moving.     By then it was pitch dark and all of 4 pm.   I headed to the museum district which is an island in the Spree River.   In an act of cultural kindness the American and British bombers spared these buildings, so the area has an altogether different feel to the rest of central Berlin, which is by turn, for the most part, either rather bland 50s, 60s, 70s or really great post wall 90s.   It was too late in the day to go into any of  the five museums there,so I made do checking out exteriors.   I don't like to cram too much into a day anyway-- I think it's fine to leave something for a future visit.

So back to Potsdammerplatz which is all post wall exuberance,  a rail hub, skyscrapers, a few sections of the old wall, and the coolest collection of  brightly lit kiosks, selling bier and brats, of course, all the German kitsch you'd want, a carrousel, and a giant snow covered slide for tubing.     Hello Denver!!!, this is up every day all winter long.     God forbid in the States that you should ever be able to drink bier in a public plaza--in a real glass even--2 Euro refundable deposit.  Hung there for a while

By then it was 7 pm, I had to be to the hauptbahnhof (main train station) by 10 to retrieve my bag, though the train wasn't till just after midnight.    I had heard the Sony Center is cool so I wandered in-- major wow, it's like the roof of DIA on steroids. lit by changing color LEDs.  I found a place to have dinner, Wienerschnitzel and haus brewed weissebier.  Yummy!      Turns out the waiter is a Broncos fan and had been in London last weekend when they played there.    He said he was sorry they lost, I said I'm sure there are people sorrier!      By the way, anyone leaping off of bridges in Denver yet?     How'd the elections turn out?  I don't want to know.     The waiter also liked the bunny on my Frontier Airlines credit card.   A really nice dinner!

By then it was just after nine, and a fifteen minute walk to the station.     I got there in plenty of time,  retrieved my bag, then settled in for a 2 hour wait.   By the way, Berlin Hauptbahnhof is awesome.    (typing fast now, almost to Amsterdam, just saw a windmill!)     It's the busiest hub in Europe, 300,000 pax a day, and the only one in the world to have tracks on two crisscrossing levels.      I was sitting there and I heard someone saying  "English?, English?"    I looked up and it was a young guy,  turned out he was Polish, trying to figure out how to buy a ticket to Copenhagen.     He was going there to meet a buddy and go to football (soccer) games.      He was a bit inebriated, it appeared, and a self-professed football hooligan.   He was  in quite a dither as the train left soon,  and there was no option but to use a ticket machine,  as the manned windows were shut.       He kept saying,  "I hate those machines, then,  I hate the Germans"  (remember WW II).       I said I hate those machines too, but let's go find them.       We did, and step by step got to the fare of 147 Euro.    He started stuffing bills in, got to a 100 Euro note, but it kept being rejected.   It was funny, he kept saying "come on baby,  take it baby".      I said well you'd better go change it.      I later found out there's a big problem in Europe with fake 100 Euro notes.       So while he ran around looking to do that I watched the hated machine.    I said to myself what if this thing times out or something-- I'd better hit cancel,  so I did,  and all his money came out (thank God).         There I was with his pile of bills,  a bit amused by now.      Back he came and all went well.    He said  "Here, I give you old Polish coin".  (1pre Euro Zloty)   I thought that awfully nice for a football hooligan!   On the way down to track 7 he said  "Here, I buy you bier".  So he bought two and we drank them on the platform before his train left.  The poor guy, he was going to have to change trains five times during the night!

So back upstairs I went to check on my train.  To my dismay it was now listed as an hour late.  What are you going to do, I sat back down.  A few minutes passed and another young guy wandered by, sat down and started speaking French to me.   He was also a bit drunk, and pulled une biere out of his bag, opened it with his teeth(!) and said here, have a biere!      I thought yay, more entertainment to help pass now still two more hours.   By the way, German bottled biers are large--half liter.   He was a little nutty ,but fun to talk to, and ended up opening up another biere each for us (with his teeth of course).       By the time the train arrived (2 am ultimately) I was ready to fall into that bed.  I slept great!