Jet Lagged in Berlin

This is our front door. The building has a
courtyard inside. We are in the back
on the ground floor.
3 Lettestrasse - Berlin

It is 1 AM over here and I am wide awake - lying in bed. We are watching the ABC National 6:30 News from Tallahassee on Lulu's laptop while I am typing this story on my laptop. We got into our apartment at 11 AM Berlin time - and flopped into bed after the overnight flight from home. Thanks to a 150 MPH tail wind - the ocean flight was only 7 hours or so. I flew for free on Air Berlin using American Airlines frequent flyer miles. We had two meals - and I did not get any sleep.

We can watch German cable - watch Apple TV including Netflix - watch Tallahassee TV on Slingbox - our internet is very fast. We did not get German chips for our iphones yet.

I just watch Tom Cruise in Valkrie on Netflix - that movie is illegal over here - along with any other Nazi stuff.

We woke up around 5 PM today and it was already dark here. We took a walk and found an ATM machine and a nice grocery store called Penny's. We got 20 euros worth of groceries - enough for supper - breakfast - and a few more meals.

The apartment is better than expected. Lulu booked it for 3 months on Air BnB. The apartment has 5 rooms - and is fully furnished and equipped. We needed nothing - dished - linens - vacuum - hair dryers - toaster - electric kettle - wifi - phone - cable TV. It includes plenty of products too.

We are close to the last remaining section of the Berlin Wall. This area of Berlin was not bombed during the war. Our apartment has walls that are two feet thick from the 1800s. Outside it looks old - inside it is all modern - with Ikea furniture. We have two king beds and a sleeper sofa. There is a park across the street.

We are jet-lagged - day is night - night is day. Ironically - at some times during the day - it was warmer here than back home in Tallahassee. We had 40s and 50s - it was sunny - but the sun is very low in the sky. There is no snow on the ground - plenty of people were on bikes and scooters today. They park all over the place. They also eat outside in this weather.

The lowest gas price I saw was 1 liter for 1 euro. That would be near $5.00 a gallon. Germans like paying in cash - so we got 300 euros out of our Wells Fargo ATM card. We plan to use the buses - planes - trains - cabs - and subways. They even have a rental bike system we may try. There are racks of bikes - you put your card in the machine and take a bike. You only pay for the time.

We are looking forward to our guests coming. We have 4 sets of guests coming - 2 sets at one time! We plan to fly to Venice and London - also Kuwait.