Around the World in 330 Days: Brian's Fulbright Journey in China and Elsewhere: Day 327: Berlin, Day 2--Bus Tour (City Sightseeing)

The focus of today was a city bus tour; our company was BEX Sightseeing, the "yellow bus." We walked to Brandenburg Gate and there was a sign pointing to the stand selling the tickets. We bought two-day passes because we figured it might be a good way to get around the city. Today we learned that, while Paris is 105 square km, Berlin is 893, and Shanghai (get this) is 6,300 square km!! Holy cow!! Shanghai is about 60 times as large as Paris! That's incredible.

So the bus came along soon enough--a yellow hop-on, hop-off one. We managed to find a couple seats at the top. In the first seat I located, the audio wouldn't work, of course, so we found some other places closer to the back. We ended up going through the complete ride once, and then we went through it again about 2/3 of the way through and got off at the Checkpoint Charlie stop. Over the course of the ride, here are some of the things we saw:

Brandenburg Gate (obviously)
Victory Column
Charlottenburg Palace
Antiques Street
KaDeWe (department store)
Philharmonie
Postdamer Platz
Checkpoint Charlie

We were on the bus about 3.5 hours. Berlin's a big city. One thing that's difficult about a bus tour is that it's REALLY HARD to get good pictures because the bus is constantly moving. But, it definitely did save my feet.

At one point, a woman behind me started saying "Monsieur" in French...I think she was just trying to close a window, but I wasn't sure what was going on. "Is there a problem?" I said to her in English. "Je ne comprends pas, monsieur," she replied. I figured out that she couldn't understand what I was saying. "D'accord. Pas de probleme. Je parle un peu de francais," I answered. (Ok. No problem. I speak a little French.) She seemed to relax and everything was fine.

Once we got off at Checkpoint Charlie, we walked around a bit (Steves is right...there's not a ton to see here, and it's VERY touristy). Then we popped into KFC for dinner. Our cashier, Jonas, asked us where we were from. We said we were from America, and he wanted to know what state. He told us that he's been to Florida--including Disney World. "Enjoy your stay in Germany," he said. Wow! Nice guy! It is worthy to note that the KFC here is not the complete garbage that they serve in USA KFCs, where you get overheated chicken and fries. The chicken was fresh, and even the mashed potatoes tasted real...not processed. The price was right, too: 21 euros (we are trying to save money!). But we also got some soft-serve at McDonald's afterwards.

We decided to take the subway home. Turns out we were about 1 minute from one, and the stop nearest our hotel (Frederichstrasse) was only three stops away. When we got to this station, it went right down to the subway platform, and we had to buy our ticket right there, and then validate it at this machine. 1.70 euro per ticket. We didn't have to put it in a machine, as we did in Shanghai or Paris. The seats on the subway were very comfortable and even cushy, and it was not crowded at all for 7 pm on a Saturday. Amazing!

We popped into the grocery store for some water and cheese--the cheese is great here. Then we went back to the hotel.

An interesting day, but I sort of wish we accomplished more. I think we're going to take a day trip to Potsdam on Monday. Berlin's interesting, but it's definitely--so far--the least beautiful of the four places we've been.