Ich bin ein Berliner - 3

I thought I'd better finish our Berlin trip while I can still remember most of it. The day following our marathon walk, we took the train / subway to about the furthest point we had reached the previous day. We saw the oldest church in Berlin - it was closed for repairs. A couple of other churches and we found our way to the Berlin Dom - the Berlin Cathedral. It's spectacular - has two, count 'em two - pipe organs. It's open for tourists like us, plus it is a functioning cathedral. We sat in the back during a prayer service that started just after we arrived. Couldn't understand much, but the music on the main pipe organ was worth the admission by itself. You can climb to the top, and the view there is pretty spectacular. It's a lotta steps, but as long as we were there . . .

After you finish your tour and wandering around the Dom, you exit down into the basement, through the crypts and into the, yep, you guessed it, the gift shop. Got a bunch of stuff there. We had one of the audio tour things, so while my bride headed to the gift shop, I went back upstairs to the entry to turn in the audio. It's just outside the doors to the sanctuary where there's a guy who checks tickets. So I go out the door, past the guy (within about 2 feet), take the 3 steps to the audio desk, turn it in and get my passport or driver's license or whatever they kept there back, turn around and start back through sanctuary. I heard someone say something, but who'd be talking to me, right? As I turned the corner to go to the stairs, there's this ominous tap on my shoulder. It was "the guy." "Excuse me, sir, do you have a ticket?" "Well, yes I do, but I just came out to turn in the audio tour, and I'm leaving through the gift shop now." "To come in here you have to have a ticket, sir." "Yes, you see, I just came out of here and then came back in so I could leave through the gift shop, where my wife is." "Sir, if you come in here, you must show your ticket. May I see it, please?" "Certainly, here it is." "Thank you. Enjoy your visit." Anyone who thinks the Germans are not sticklers for the rules, think again. They even obey all the "Walk" and "Don't Walk" signs at the intersections.

Later, we walked through the Brandenburg Gate again. I understand it was one of the old city gates where taxes were collected on goods being brought into Berlin.

Near the hotel was the Kaiser Wilhelm church. It had been heavily damaged during the bombing of Berlin and was kept in that state as a memorial. A new, modern church was constructed adjacent to it.

At the end of our week in Berlin, we had a free afternoon after all the technical meetings had ended, so we took off again. I had scouted out the route to the Stasi Museum - the former East German secret police. Pretty much the East German equivalent to the USSR's KGB. Checked with the concierge on the directions. Once again, I got kind of a "Why do you want to go there?" response, but he helped me out. As an aside, we stayed at the Hotel Concorde Berlin. If you find yourself going to Berlin sometime, and can afford it, it's a top-notch hotel.

We had to change trains about three times and then walk a bit. While we were in the Checkpoint Charlie - Friederichstrasse - Brandenburg Gate area, there were not really any significant differences that set the former East Berlin and West Berlin apart. That wasn't the case as we ventured farther into East Berlin. Things just seemed more run down in general - the streets, the stations - everything. Also, we found fewer people who spoke any English at all, although they were still pretty friendly. Here are a couple of the stations we went through - Ostkreuz and Warschauer.

Then it's about a half-mile walk down Frankfurter Allee and then two blocks down a nondescript side street and you are at the former Stasi headquarters. It was interesting, but a bit disappointing because there were no English captions on anything. There was an English guidebook, which we got, but it didn't help with a detailed understanding of what we were looking at.

It was pretty easy to understand this ground-floor exhibit. This was the van you didn't really want to see pull up in front of your home. If it did, that meant it was there to take you to the appointment you didn't know you had with a Stasi interrogator or other official. I think there were a lot more people that left home in this van than arrived back home sometime after the ride. Kinda like a roach motel - they checked in but never checked out.

On the way back, we spent a couple of hours at the Jewish Museum. It's very impressive, and is not exclusively about the Holocaust, although that's a significant part.

There were some other highlights of the week. Our entire group went on a dinner cruise on the river. It was a nice evening, the food was very good, the conversations interesting, and the bar open. We also walked down the street from the hotel to a restaurant recommended by the concierge. Odd sense of walking speed, that guy. "It's only a 15 minute walk from the hotel." We walk reasonably fast - maybe 16 or 17 minute miles. Not any slower than that. Took somewhere around 25 minutes going. I checked later - it's between a mile and a half and two miles. We took our time on the walk back to the hotel. My dinner that night was also the concierge-recommended pig leg. Yeah, it's the whole bone-in leg, roasted and served on a bed of sauerkraut. Not used to seeing that on a plate, but it was really good.

All too soon, we were boarding a Continental 757 to fly to Newark and then on to Houston. But it was a great trip - had all of our lunches and dinners outside - good weather pretty much the whole week, uneventful travel, five star hotel, good food, even a productive technical meeting. I'm ready to go back.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game - 2

Well, I still have to finish the Ich Bin Ein Berliner series sometime, but baseball has intervened again. Last week was a big baseball week. I was in Pittsburgh early in the week for a meeting and managed to get several of us invited to a suite at PNC Park for a Pirates - Nationals game. The Pirates ended up losing, but it was a pretty good game, and the suite was sweet.

By the way, if you ever find yourself in Pittsburgh, don't leave until you've found your way to Primanti Bros. They have a few shops around, but try the original. Their No. 1 and No. 2 sellers look pretty much like this. The sandwiches come with fries and slaw. On the sandwich. Yup, everything right on the sandwich. It's great! No. 1 and 2 sellers, you ask. Well, the cheesesteak sandwich (not a Philly cheesesteak - it's the Primanti Bros. version) is the No. 2 seller. I asked our waitress what was No. 1. She said, "You already have it." Look closely and you'll see a bottle of Iron City in the background. It's No. 1.

Got home Thursday morning and took the rest of the week off. Thursday afternoon the Astros had a 1:05 game with the Brewers. They lost. However, as the game was about to start, everyone else on my hallway at the office comes trooping in. Seems someone scheduled a "meeting" at the ballpark. There are all too few afternoon games anymore anyway, so it would be a shame to work through them, right?

Then we're into the weekend, and a three game series with the Yankees. Although it was fun to have the Yankees in town, things didn't go well for our 'Stros. First game - Friday night. My bride and I went. For that game, we didn't have our usual Section 328 seats. We had been able to get bullpen boxes - pretty much down the right field line. They have cup holders out there. No cup holders in 328. We were on the aisle of a row of extremely busy people. I think everyone in the row made at least 3, maybe 4, trips out and back. Bladder issues? I don't know. We got posters, too. Yankees - 2, 'Stros - 1.

Saturday evening, back to 328. No cup holders. But 328 is strategically placed - close to the restrooms, the nacho stand, and the cart that sells the 24 oz. beers. Got rally towels at that game.

So, I'm sitting there watching the game with No. 2 son, and it's about the sixth inning or so. Some younger guy with a microphone and trailing a cameraman taps me on the shoulder and says, "You've been picked to do the Scratch Off Guess the Attendance Contest. Do you want to play?" Well, sure! Why not? So the inning ends, we stand up, and there I am on the Jumbotron. Yup, much larger than life. Wearing my 2005 National League Champions shirt and my official Enron Field cap.

The contest works like a lottery scratch-off ticket. They scratch off the last three numbers, and then give you a clue about the first two. The last three were 409. Nice start if you like vintage Chevys or Beach Boys songs. Then the clue - Mad Magazine introduced a sport called ____-Man Squamish. I've been known to read Mad (What? Me worry?) from time to time, but this didn't ring a bell at all. However, being an engineer with at least reasonable deductive reasoning skills, remembering that the previous night the attendance had been 43,078 or something like that and knowing that the Yankees series was sold out, I took a chance (not a big chance, but still a chance) on 43. It was, of course, correct. Yes!! I win!! The prize? Check it out. A $10 Best Buy gift card. Thanks, Drayton! The Rally Towels didn't seem to help much. Final score: Yankees - 8, 'Stros - 4.

I didn't go to game 3 of the series, but it ended badly for our Astros. 13-0 badly. The 'Stros continue to struggle.

And 43-Man Squamish was introduced by Mad in Issue 95 in 1965. Had to be the '60s, right. Anyway, if you're interested, you can read about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/43-Man_Squamish

"Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come."