Erste Grüßen

[from the train to Hamburg; on 21/6]

well, we've come a long way since our less-than-ideal beginning of our trip, bumming around FRA. i think we aced frankfurt, catching the best sites of the city and walking through the major neighborhoods. i think we picked up the feel of the city pretty well. if nothing else, i feel like we beat our guidebooks combined on what to experience there. sachsenhausen especially was a pleasant neighborhood. but apfelwein: a disappointment.

berlin is a rockin town. even if only for the layout of the city. it feels so wide open and is so magnificent. especially at night. the gemäldegalerie was absolutely amazing. handfuls of works from dozens of renaissance masters. Dürer, Holbein, a bunch of other guys whose names i tried to remember but clearly couldn't... the italian and late renaissance works are just boring compared to the 15th/16th century german/dutch works. and to our good fortune, they had a special exhibit with a whole room full of dürer works and some of his peers.

overall, for my first trip to europe, it's not nearly as exotic as i always figured it would be. we do have the quadruple tag team going on to help each other out, so every problem is much easier to solve. however, i think we've manage to compound our individual powers to get lost, so we certainly do that often. we haven't yet experienced much german cuisine, but i'm sure we'll get plenty of opportunity. everyone speaks plenty of english which is a mixed blessing. we can fully communicate with everyone, but we aren't forced to practice our german as much. overall, having a great time. and two of my most aniticipated cities are comingup next - hamburg and leipzig!