European Adventures Phase 2

Well, phase 1 of our holiday is now over. That would be the meeting and visiting with family and exploring our family roots in Holland and Sweden. Now, we begin Phase 2, which is just us visiting various cities around Europe. We are currently in Berlin. Everyone is sleeping (it's almost 1am). We've been up and on the road since 7:30 am this morning. We left Sweden and arrived in Berlin at about 5:30pm. It's smoking hot outside...still 26 degrees at 1am! It's supposed to go to 36 degrees tomorrow, so I'm unsure just how much sightseeing we'll be able to do in that kind of heat! I am sitting outside on our little veranda off our room. We're in a very old hotel on a quiet square right downtown. It's very beautiful and quaint. The long long drives are now behind us (unless we get stuck in a traffic jam!) We are getting much better at being on the road and using our GPS. We are now very well organized with food for the road, so it's making the long drives much more tolerable.

Tonight when we got to Berlin, we had Thai food at a great restaurant that several people recommended. Ralph and I then got bus tickets and went and explored the city to get our bearings for our "tourist" day tomorrow. We went to Alexander platz in what was East Germany. The architecture there is very stark and bleak looking. However, they had an excellent open air picture display of the history of the square and of the former East German government. It told the story of the various democracy movements that tried to take hold over the years before the Berlin wall came down in 1989. I remember that so clearly because I was working at CBC Newsworld and that was a huge story. It was very cool to be standing in the square where so many people demonstrated against their government for more freedom. The pictures and photo essays were hard to place in what is a vibrant, active and modern square nowadays. It's so hard to imagine that people had to live in such repression, just because of an arbitrary line drawn in the streets so many years ago (1961 I believe.) The story wall showed how the writers, artists and actors really lead the various movements (peace, democracy, environment, freedom). There were several groups that were very active and worked in private homes and churches to form an underground "news" channel. They would publish essays and writings urging people to think beyond where they were today, but because they weren't allowed to publish anything that wasn't sanctioned by the government, they would painstakingly have to make several copies and then these would circulate amongst the various networks around East Germany. They had copies of various manuscripts and essays displayed. It's hard to imagine in today's day and age of instant information how hard they had to work at sharing their thoughts and ideas and how they risked their freedom by doing so. When today, here I am writing my thoughts and experiences from a balcony in Berlin and it can reach whomever decides to read it...anywhere in the world with the click of a button. Wow. That was only 20 years ago and it seems like it's from another world.

Well, I'm looking forward to the next phase of our adventure. We will be losing Kira on Sunday as she's going back to Victoria on Monday and we're off to Prague. Unfortunately, I think I've picked up her cough...I'm just hoping and praying it doesn't turn into strep. I don't think so, but am trying to stay medicated and just ahead of it so it doesn't get worse. With that I should probably try to get some sleep. I am loving Europe tho. It's so exciting and dynamic and alive over here. Love love love it. Can't believe I'm really here.