How about something about how I got here? I flew! For two days (47 hours, to be exact). Notable moments: 1) Heathrow and Gatwick are not, in fact, the same thing. This revelation required some last minute hotel cancelling, bus reserving, and hotel booking action when I got to London. Note to self: when your plane tickets say that you are arriving in England in one place and leaving from England in other place...they mean it. 2) The British have the best antique shows (including an awesome bargain-hunting/antiqueing game-show!) and, of course, the best murder mysteries. 3) We popped out of the perpetual England cloud-cover on Saturday morning and I counted 7 or 8 planes outside my window. And not flying somewhere off in the stratosphere visible by just a contrail but close enough to count the windows and read "British Airways." 4) The Krakow airport is definitely my favorite of the 6(!) I visited on my way here. It's teeny teeny tiny and still had an enormous Christmas tree, like 30+ feet, complete with lights, tinsel, and red and silver ornaments as big as my head. It was also made out of very warm-looking dark yellow stone. I think my basic point is that it was different from the basic airport scheme of BWI = Heathrow = Gatwick = Frankfurt = Berlin. 5) The best notable moment! While waiting for previous passengers to disembark from the plane that was supposed to carry me from Frankfurt to Berlin, a woman got off with a cat-carrier in each hand! One was a beautiful light gray cat with a squashed Persian-y face...short fur, though, and golden eyes. The other was a big orange tabby. They both looked quite annoyed with the whole idea of air travel.

Pictures! Some of the things I've seen wandering around Berlin.

Statues near the Siegessaule, a famous statue in the middle of the Tiergarten in western Berlin (pics below). Not sure who the people are, but they look cool.

Street signs near the Siegessaule. I took a picture because they look rather fairytale-esque. Julie, thought you might like these. :)

The Siegesaule. None of my pictures turned out well, unfortunately...

The House of World Cultures. Awesome-looking building on the north side of the Tiergarten.

Another fairytale-esque sign on one of the paths inside the Tiergarten.

Everything on this monument is in Russian...Chris looked at the German and says it's a memorial in honor of Soviet war graves. This monument is one the side of Unter den Linden, the street that runs to the Brandenburg Gate.

Fake Soviet tank.

One of the paths in the Tiergarten.

The Reichstag.

Brandenburg Gate!

and again.