October 20th
I had a bit of shopping to do today and I need to find a euro store to buy some socks. All this walking is wearing them out.
It turns out that the Zion church a couple of blocks away was a hotbed of discontent when the wall was up and the arrest of the clergy and the raid on the church caused part of the riots that brought down the wall. Once the police released the church people it was an end of their power in east Berlin.
I tried to book a tour of the Riechstag but it would have been this evening so I will go tomorrow afternoon. I won't get to walk to the top of the dome as they are cleaning it this week. Should be a little less busy as people will put it off if they can.
I headed downtown. I walk at least 5 kilometres every morning to the first site I am going to see. This time it was towards the tv tower. I stopped along the way for lunch. I had a grill runner hotdog. A grill runner is a man wearing a small grill that hangs over his shoulders and he is grilling bratwurst on the grill and selling them as they are done. You get a foot long sausage and a 4" bun.
My first stop was the Marienkirke. Or church of St Mary. It is very old and is in the shadow of the TV tower. As usual a gypsy sitting on the step. Inside they are rebuilding a mosaic of death dancers that was damaged during the war, one tile at a time. Each tile costs 2 euro 50 and they show the progress right in front of you. They are about a third finished.
There is an interesting park between the church and the TV tower. The children get to play on built in trampolines. I took some pictures. When I got around to the front of the tower there was turmi the tower mascot having his picture taken with the children.
Huge lineup, but only for people who didn't have a chip card. Got the ticket and a three hour wait. I refused to pay double to jump the queue. So off I went to explore while the time ticked away.
I went to look at the Dom or Cathedral. For once being old paid off, I got a discount on the price. They had audio stations so you could hear about the history of the church and the descriptions of the art work. There was even one in the crypt talking about who was buried there and who wasn't.
I returned to the tower and found that they had pictures of all the towers around the world including the CNTower on the walls in the foyer. After a wait I went up in the elevator to the top. There is no view in the elevator except to watch the cables. I spend some time walking around and seeing all the views then I headed down and walked home. On the way I bought a litre of wine for 1 euro 19 or about $1.80. Not bad wine for that price. I ate at the restaurant downstairs and had Spaghetti bolognese and a Desperado Beer.
I went to bed early that is why there was no blog yesterday. I'm off for pizza tonight I will try to do today's blog when I get back.
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