First day in Berlin - Friday 3 June 2011

We've never been to Berlin before (obviously the reason we are here is to tick it off the list!), so what do you do the first time you are here? Attend a service at the Dom, walk the length of Unter den Linden, check out the Bugati car showroom in Friedrichstrasse (sorry Cath and Kev, too big to fit a couple in the baggage), observe the tourists (including us) gawking at Brandenburg Gate and look at the Bundestag, of course. In between, we had lunch at a restaurant where you enter your menu choices directly on a computer screen and got lost at the Hauptbahnhoff (there are at least 3 levels of trains, and a few additional concourses for passengers). Other achievements included Sue finding almonds (don't the Italians eat almonds? We could never find any).

A word about the Dom. It's a most impressive building, both outside and inside. We, along with many others, paid the fee to enter and were admiring it all, including the statue of Martin Luther and the immense organ, when an announcement was made. Everyone sat down, no-one else was admitted, and a short service occurred. It included an organ prelude, hymn (no-one sang, but they made up for it by joining in the Lord's Prayer) and organ postlude – all clearly designed to show the versatility and abilities of the organ. It was almost as good as Armadale UC's. The service included what the order of service described as a homily. Unfortunately this was in German, and we ony found out later that a simultaneous translation was available if you sat in an appropriate area. Since yesterday was Ascension Day (taken very seriously in Germany and we understand from Sabine and Sam, also in Austria, in that it's a public holiday), perhaps we missed something important.

And after we'd done all that, we headed out again, and visited the DDR museum – a compact but interesting museum about life in the former East Germany. Although it made some good points about the repressive nature of the regime, I thought it was a little critical about aspects of the standard of living. Perhaps I'm just showing my age, but I identified with many of the points made in relation to the way of daily life as being similar to Australia in the 1950s! I admit, however, that Australia had moved on, or at least changed, by the 1980s. Following this museum, we went on a 1 hour river cruise, which was quite informative (earlier in the day, these had been very crowded).

A word about our “apartment”. It's actually just a large hotel room, but with microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, cooktop and other kitchen type facilities. It's very satisfactory for our needs, even though it doesn't have laundry facilities.