The highlight of the week was a trip to Berlin. But first a couple of pictures from a mountainbike ride with my wife.
Main
We followed this river bed, appropriately called RÃo Seco:
Alternates:
Alternate 1
We ended up in an outdoor market in a suburb called Santa Faz:
The rest of the pictures are from Berlin.
Alternate 2
In many ways, the eastern part of the city is the more interesting one. One afternoon I went out to Treptow and walked along the river to a place recommended to me by a friend. It is an outdoor beer garden where people dance and enjoy life in ways that have not changed much since the GDR-days:
Alternate 3
Sadly, the summer was over, and there was not much action:
Alternate 4
Slim pickings for the birds:
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Outside my hotel was a Berlin bear with the Marlene Dietrich theme, which allowed me to juxtapose the two sets of legs:
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Ambush marketing by Adidas:
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Traditional Berlin lunch–pea soup with sausage:
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Traditional Berlin dinner–Eisbein with sauerkraut, potatoes and mashed peas:
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One day I found this wonderful, cozy bar on Tucholsky-Strasse (also in the former East):
Alternate 10
Berlin’s transport system is cheap and efficient, allowing for easy excursions to places like Potsdam. I went there Saturday morning to see the town where the fate of post-war Europe was sealed by Truman, Stalin and Churchill in 1945. I found myself in an upscale outdoors food market, complete with a mobile espresso vendor:
Alternate 11
Mother with children enjoying some just-purchased goodies:
Alternate 12
Walking around Potsdam, I came across this house with a funny inscription. It reads “I have built this house according to my taste/and he who does not like it/can build a better one with his own money”:
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The kiosk at the train station sells the basic necessities of life:
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On Saturday afternoon I found myself on a bench on Warschauer-Strasse, enjoying a beer and the human traffic passing by:
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And Saturday evening I stumbled into an Oktoberfest tent on Alexanderplatz:
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Face in the crowd:
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Enjoying:
Alternate 18
Oblivious:
More Berlin pictures are here.