Saturday June 2 marked our first full day in Berlin and my longest travel day ever -- we left the hostel at 8:15am and did not return until 8:30pm or so. Every other place I have ever visited has been during the winter, and the setting sun around 5pm tends to mark the end of the day...at the very least a pit stop at the hostel before an hour or two with friends later that night. Instead, Saturday was a marathon day on foot, with the good and the bad.

I didn't sleep well at all Friday night, and I woke up around 3am Saturday morning and never got back to sleep. Adding insult to injury, I had pulled something in my left calf muscle and I had a wicked bad stomach ache. Not a great beginning to the day, but if the last evening in Ireland (three and a half years ago) taught me anything, it's that you *really* need a good reason to say no to a rare opportunity.

We began our day with a super short queue for the Reichstag, the parliamentary building. It's a beautiful structure, mixing the old with the new. On top of the older building is a glass dome, and this dome is the only part of the Reichstag that a plain ol' tourist can see...but there are no complaints here! I think one of the two main reasons that my camera battery died Saturday late afternoon is from the sheer number of photos I took from atop the building and from inside the dome. Dave, you would have been in heaven here!

Next stop, Brandenburg Gate. I experienced firsthand in Sydney that large monuments sometimes look more impressive from a higher vantage point. It might be the same with the gate. From the top of the Reichstag, it looked absolutely enormous. From street level, it still impressed but appeared to be much smaller. Nevertheless, the gate didn't leave us without a bit of *drama*!! As we passed under the gate, we noticed a handful of police vans just a stone's throw away from us. We continued walking and next thing you know, we're only feet away from several cops leading two handcuffed men into the van. I was so close (less than 15 feet away!) that it caught me off guard...definitely felt part of the "action" ;-) Gunther and I later learned from his friend Andrea that with the upcoming G8 Summit (this coming weekend!), there are heaps of protests and demonstrations starting here and there.

I could only follow up that bit of drama with my third (and final) Banana Java Chip frap at the Starbucks right in the plaza with the gate. Still amazing.

The frap helped my sugar level and alertness, so I was much more awake and smiley and able to set aside my general early morning feelings of *bleh*. We spent the next several hours seeing many of the "main sites," all on foot of course: a stroll along Unter den Linden, Humboldt Universität, an arts building, the site of the Nazi book burning in 1933 in Bebelplatz, and the nearly matching French and German Domes at the Gendarmenmarkt. All absolutely beautiful. My love of Berlin was firmly established by this point.

Gunther and I needed another refueling break, so we stopped at a quiet Italian restaurant for lunch. Within minutes of ordering, a *huge* motorcyle group rode by, and I really regret not taking a photo or video. Dad, must have been bike week in Berlin ;-) You would have loved it.

Apparently I'm not the only one who gets a little spunky at meal times. When Gunther's pizza arrived, he picked up the first piece, looked at me very seriously, and said, "This looks like a homeslice to me." I burst out laughing and he somewhat attempted to hold a smile in before taking a bite. In the last couple of weeks, Katie and I have mentioned random bits of slang or had people ask us about words. Gunther decided to use it in a new way :-)

Even looking at my notes now, the rest of the day is still a bit fuzzy. I know we visited the relatively new Holocaust Memorial, the Topograhy of Terror, Museum Island, and the Berliner Dom. The Holocaust Memorial is the second reason my camera battery died Saturday afternoon! And it was just minutes before our visit to the Berliner Dom, one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen, both inside and out. When I walked inside and composed my first shot, the battery died. *weeps* Oh well, I will be in Berlin again one day!

To finish off the day and recharge our batteries, Gunther and I found this really neat set of cafes in this funky strip right underneath a bridge by the river. We sat outside, and I sipped my cappuccino (my drink of choice this trip!), listening to music from somewhere close by. In front of us was James-Simon Park, which I really loved for some reason, the river, and Museum Island. I don't know what it was about this whole cafe/park/river/island area, but I think it creates my favorite little corner of Berlin.

Hmm, that's enough for one post. More to come O:-)