Sat June 20:
Part III-
After a good nights sleep, I awoke at 6:45, grabbed a quick breakfast in the RC, and headed out to supposedly the S bahn to the Ostbanhof for a train to Poland. Problem was no one mentioned that the local S bahn station was closed for the summer!! As I was in a rush to catch a train, I opted for a cab. 11 Euros later I was purchasing my ticket for Frankfurt(Oder) which is just a bridge away from the Polish city of Stubice. (Since I'm of partial Polish extraction, and I was sooooo close to the border, I wanted to visit the 'fatherland' in person.) An hour later I was strolling the streets of F/O on my way to the border. No problem in crossing, although I did have to ask for a stamp in my passport. Both are small towns, although I found Stubice to be just slightly more quaint. Apparently the BIG attraction for Germans visiting this town is for the low prices on cigarettes and fruit!! Seems like the biggest industries were Tabac shoppes and fruit stands. I wandered around for awhile, but couldn't find a bank or ATM to change euros into zlotky's, so getting a bit hungary I headed back across the river. The border crossing took a slightly longer this time as so many Germans were bringing back bags & bags of purchases. Once back in F/O I strolled around for a while, then hurried over to the station for my train back to Berlin. Unfortunately, my return trip was delayed due to someone on the tracks mading 'physical contact' with an oncoming train (not mine). So all trains in both directions were delayed for more than an hour.
Back in Berlin:
I was to meet Belle for a tour of the city, so being delayed I went straight to Alexanderplatz and her hotel. The weather was hot & sunny so we opted for a 1 hour boat cruise along the Spree. The fact that the tour was in German (and we couldn't speak a word) did not detract from the beauty of the scenery and the occaisional well needed river breeze. We then walked to the tall TV tower and went up to the top for a drink & overview of the city from the revolving restaurant. After a bit of confusion regarding certain closed off tables supposedly being 'reserved' (another old East German/Communist holdover tradition) we enjoyed a relaxing tour of the city as it turned below us. We then parted to freshen up for the evenings dinner where we would be meeting up with Paulusst & friends.
more to come.....

[This message has been edited by mauld (edited 06-25-2002).]