I am now on the 4 hour train from Frankfurt to Berlin and will type in this letter and then send it when I got connected. I got connected in Frankfurt all right but it was to was to the bank! My two 1/2 hour sessions to Earthlink cost $100! The hotel says it was not their charge but it was a phone charge on the bill. Earthlink charges extra for the connect numbers in Europe but I did not think it was this much. The Internet cafe, Easy, cost $7 for 7 days, open 24 hours a day with 400 stations at one near my Berlin hotel! At 65 it is still live and learn. I bought two different phone cards; the first was $1 per minute and the second, from Reisbank, is $0.1 per minute and works from any phone in Germany.
I am feeling great on my day after arriving. Here is my remedy for 9 hours jet lag:
1) Do not nap when you arrive. Check into a hotel at the airport but just to relax for a hour and stow your stuff.
2) Walk around the rest of the day. The interesting sights in a foreign country will keep you awake.
3) Go to sleep just a little early - say 10 or 11 - to get on schedule. Take two Sonata fast action sleeping pills - one at bedtime and one when you wake up at 3am.
4) Do not eat any meal the first day but have some snacks. I had a bowl of Wonton soup and some rice at 8pm. Drink lots of liquid all day,
5) Eat a good breakfast the next day. They had a wonderful buffet at the Sheraton airport hotel and it came with the room at $160 (+ phone calls ... grrr).The breakfast included smoked salmon, chicken wings, eggs, and a beautiful assortment of fruits and cheeses. I will eat no lunch today!
Frankfurt airport is a marvel of efficiency and puts US airports to shame. It handles 150,000 passengers a day but does it well. The integration with the rail system is seamless and that is how most people get there. Within a 20 minute walk with free luggage carts are trains all over Europe. There are non-stop flights from Frankfurt to about every large city in the World. It handles more cargo than any airport in Europe and is 2nd to London in passenger traffic. (They lost my bag but traced it in a computer to an incorrect transfer to another flight and got it back in an hour.) The 1000 room Sheraton airport hotel has terrific service and is a great place for an international meeting.
This train sure beat the plane for comfort. There are 1 + 2 seating and I have a single seat and about 3 times the space I had on the plane. California should have one Frankfurt style airport in the middle of the state and then have 200 mph trains to link to downtowns within 1 hour!
My Sony 2.7 lb notebook computer is doing well but needs a spare battery. I get 3 hours on one battery and that is not enough for a long trip. Today I put it in my bag when I left the hotel and somehow it did not shut down and there was only 1.3 hours left when I opened the bag. Within a few years there will be wireless connections to high speed internet on planes, trains, and hotels around the world.
Now, Berlin, a most interesting visit. I started with a 4.5 hour guided walking tour with a terriffic young English tour guide who passionately described the 20th century history. There were tears in our eyes when he gave a 15 minute story of the fall of the Berlin wall after we had walked along a remnant. No other city has a more tragic history of the past 100 years but it has a happy outcome. The city is in a very large building boom. Actually it has been rebuilding since 1945 when 90% of the city had been fire bombed and only shells of buildings remained. A few interesting facts:
1) In 1933 the Nazi party had a "book burning" in the square next to where Albert Einstein taught physics. His writings on nuclear physics were included in the burnt books. Big mistake! He saw the writing on the wall and left the next year and later wrote a letter to Roosevelt advising on the development of the atomic bomb. In this square there is a memorial which consists of an empty room with empty bookshelves for 20,000 books. There is any an inscription from a prophetic author written in 1820, "Any nation that burns books will then see the burning of people."
2) The underground Metro survived all (though there was some intentional flooding by die hard defenders). A portion of the Metro went under the wall and then back again. It was allowed to keep running under the communist east Berlin with boarding up of the stations.
3) The methods that East Germans devised to get through the wall were amazing. Balloons, miniature submarines, hollowed out cars, tunnels, etc. These are displayed in a museum.
4) The guide attributed the opening of the wall to Gorbashev's policy but mentioned Reagan's "Mr. Gorbashev, tear down that wall" and Kennedy's "I am a Berliner" speeches.
5) The announcement that led to the wall coming down was by an official who at the end of a press conference, reading from a document, said that "travel restrictions would be lifted". When asked when, he said "I guess now". By 1030 that night, Nov 9, 1989, there were hundreds of thousands of people at the wall and the guards did not try to stop them from pouring through the gates and eventually destroying the wall.
6) One of the ploys the Nazi used to gain power was to burn down the Reichtag, the historic government parliament building, and blame it on the "terrorist" communists. This led to suspension of civil rights to combat terrorism. The US should not forget this.
7) The Reichtag has been rebuilt with a very large dome over the top where the public can look down on their representatives as well as hear what they are saying.
I went to the new very large Jewish museum in Berlin. It had a portion about the holocaust but was mostly about the history of Jews in Germany. A very unusual building with sloped walls and floors - symbolic I guess of the difficult path Jews have had. There is now a growing population of Jews in Berlin; about 10,000 each year coming from Russia. The Germans have, rightfully, a guilty conscience, about Jews and do not want future generations to forget what happened.
On my 2nd day in Berlin I had a little accident which hurt my back, I hope it will be cured after a few days home in my own bed and without lugging a suitcase and travel bag from train to train. I visited the Kaiser's new (1820?) palace which has marble and polished wood floors. I paid my $5 to get in and was collared after a few steps by a 250 lb frau who told me I must wear large awkward slippers over my shoes. I did not fall but did a jerky movement which hurt my back. This was on Sunday at 11am and I spent the next 8 hours trying to find an asprin or better, ibi-prufen. All the Apotheques were closed and kiosks do not sell drugs of any sort. Finally, I went into a fancy Hyatt hotel near the Reichtag and asked if they could give a Hyatt Club member an aspirin. They said "No, but they could arrange it." Ahah! This was the lead I needed. There was a phone number they called to find out which Apotheques was open. I took a taxi there. The place was closed with no lights on. I was about to give up when I saw a button to push. That brought down the pharmacist who sold me 20 ibi-prufens for $5. That was 6 days ago. I usually wake up with a backache and it goes away in the evening especially after a few beers and red wine - a new cure!
My Berlin hotel had a small noisy air conditioner and a not too comfortable bed but this was heaven compared to the Gronigen hotel which had no air conditioner, noise from the drunks in the street (open window - heat or noise). The all day meeting were in a remodeled castle which did not include air conditioning or many open windows. It was hot. European cities are not designed for August when they go on vacation. I was wringing wet much of the time, took a lot of showers, and washed a lot of underwear!
Gronigen is a old town full of students, beautiful small shops, canals with houseboats, bicycles, and sidewalk or center square outdoor cafes, packed with people, mostly students, drinking beer. Very little crime in Holland but you can often smell marijuana. The map looks like a maze and I got lost a few times in spite of the map (a lot of stolen street signs). The conference had a dinner one night which was really goumetish at $40 a head. The main course was a delicious white meat which I though was turkey but turned out to be peacock.
I am on my way home now sitting in a "business class" seat which I was fortunate to get for 20,000 miles on an upgrade. I am getting spoiled. It is great with a seat that goes way back and lots of comforts. For long trips it pays off in terms of work done and condition upon arrival.
