Hot Hot Heat

So we got into Berlin July 9 and we were looking forward to a week (5 days) in a hotel with AC. When we got here and checked in, our room was beautiful, looking onto a canal, but it was hot. Not regular hot, but closer to sauna hot. We started unpacking and fiddling with the AC gauge and found out that the AC didn't work. So we went to the lobby and told them. They offered to bring up a fan instead and we told them that we wanted to switch rooms (we had been looking forward to AC for too long, after sweating ourselves to sleep every night in London). So we switched rooms. When we got to our new room we turned on the AC and waited for it to kick in... it never did. So I went down to the front desk, again to tell them the AC wasn't working. They told us that we just had to wait for the AC to 'warm up' and that if it didn't start to work by morning we could switch rooms again. So it wasn't ideal but it seemed there was nothing else that could be done. So we left to go and get groceries. We figured out earlier in the trip that we shouldn't buy bread in bulk but we didn't see a problem buying beer in bulk, especially when we have a fridge. So we picked up 20 beers (.5L each) for 9 euros, how could we resist? (Right Stac?)

We got back and ate and by about 10:30 the room had not gotten colder at all, in fact the temperature seemed to be rising. So once again I marched down to reception and the receptionist came upstairs to look at the machine. When he got to the room (wearing a suit) he immediately started dripping, thank god it wasn't just us! He told us he would bring up another fan and hopefully that would help until a technician came the next day. By 12:30am they seemed to have figured out what the problem was because the AC finally kicked in! All that complaining worked!

We woke up (July 10) and were really excited to see Berlin so we went out... at one of the worst possible time of day, 11 am (as there is absolutely no shade for a couple of hours). And we thought London was hot! Berlin has been 'suffering' from a ridiculous heat wave ever since we got here (July 9 - 35 degrees, 10 - 35 degrees, 11 - 36 degrees, 12 - 37 degrees). So we left the hotel when there was no shade and walked around the city for 5 or 6 hours, walking at least 10 km. We went to go see Potsdamer Platz, but on our way we walked through Tiergarten (a big park). It is really beautiful but... we looked over in a green area, and it was crawling with naked men. They were all just hanging out (figuratively and literally), as if it wasn't strange at all, and I guess to them it isn't. Anyways, Potsdamer Platz, it is a really cool square. Sony's European headquarters are there and a Sony store... which has AC, we couldn't resist so we went inside and looked at 3D TVs.

Next we went and saw the location of Hitler's hunker, where he spent the last few weeks of his life, committed suicide and was burned. We thought that there would be a partially built bunker, but all that was there was a sign. The bunker had been destroyed. There are now Soviet style apartment complexes surrounding what used to be the bunker.

Then we went to Topographie des Terrors, which is a museum dedicated to educating people about the SS, Gastapo, Nazis and the Holocaust. It was an amazing museum and we learned a lot. Outside the museum was what remained of the SS and Gastapo headquarters and behind it is the longest portion of the Berlin wall.

Next we made it over to Checkpoint Charlie.

The we walked to the Reichstag to take a look.

Right by the Reichstag we spotted shade... and a river. So we made our way over to it and found these steps where a bunch of people were sitting dipping their feet in the canal. We couldn't resist, so we joined in.

East Berlin is still very different. Although there are a bunch of stores that we have seen everywhere else, the buildings and even the style of the roads were strange. Andrew and I found the pedestrian lights really funny.

At night we watched Germany beat Uruguay, which we were really happy about!

We learned a little bit from July 10, so on July 11 we left the hotel around 1:00pm instead. There was way more shade on the sidewalks so it wasn't nearly as bad. We decided that we would check out West Berlin. We walked around the Tiergarten. We found another river and somehow Andrew wasn't really hot, but I couldn't help dip my feet in.

We walked around the West Berlin downtown. All the buildings looked familiar (unlike East Berlin). We saw a church that was recommended to us by a local called the 'Hollow Tooth'. The church had been bombed during the war and for some reason never been repaired.

After our afternoon walk we went back to the hotel, ate and went back out to watch the World Cup finals. We went to the Tiergarten where they had setup huge screens for everyone to watch World Cup games. Although we had a really good time and the setup was great, the Netherlands lost. We were poor losers and left as soon as the game was over (we HATE Spain due to their diving, rolling around on the ground, crying, screaming, etc).

Yesterday (July 12) was supposed to be the hottest day so far (37 degrees) and because our room heats up during the date from the sun shining right in, we left to go to Potsdam and do some swimming.

It was so nice to get in the water and swim even though the water still felt warm.

When we got back we had had enough heat, so we had a 'relaxification' as Andrew called it. We watched a couple movies and had a couple beers.

Today (July 13, we are going to go back to the Reichstag to climb the glass dome, go to a Holocaust Monument, and maybe take some shelter and go to a movie (it might be our last chance for an English, non-subtitled movie for a while).

Tomorrow we are off to Wroclaw, Poland for a couple days before spending a couple of days in Krakow, Poland and then a few days in Prague (CZ).