Getting to Berlin

Most of Northern Europe was covered by cloud but there were a few breaks. This is the outskirts of Frankfurt. We said, ooh, wind generators, but turns out, they're everywhere.

Germany is (a) green in color and (b) big on wind power.

The plane got in early, there was no hassle whatever at passport control, and we had plenty of time to admire the trains.

Inside, the trains are super clean and ride like silk, and we settled down for the ride, first 3 hours to Leipzig, then an hour to Berlin.

Here's a typical view from the train.

And here's what the train driver sees, looking out the aerodynamic snoot.

The leg from Frankfurt to Leipzig, the train made a lot of stops and never really got rolling over 100mph. It gradually fell a few minutes behind schedule. As there was only 6 minutes between our scheduled arrival in Leipzig and the Berlin train departing, we started getting nervous. And in fact, when we got off the train, there was no Berlin train waiting on the next platform.

We spent some time working out from the schedules that the next one wouldn't be for an hour, and would our reserved seat assignments be good on a different train, oh wurra wurra, when a train pulled up to the platform and—it was train #1208, the one that we were scheduled to take! It also was running late, so that all worked out.

The run from Leipzig to Berlin was more of the same scenery, but the train boomed along at a genuine high speed, something significantly over 100mph.

On the way out of the Berlin HauptBahnHof (central train station, hereinafter to be referred to as the Hbf) we stopped at the tourist office and bought "welcome cards" that give us 5 days of free rides on public transport and museum discounts. Then a taxi to our hotel, which we'll describe later, and its neighborhood.

Out for dinner and back and check email and then, here's Marian just 24 hours and 5 minutes after getting into the airport limo in Palo Alto:

She suggested I take this, by the way.