About to Head Off Into the Unknown

Today we toured Berlin on foot, walking several miles. We visited the Reichstag (the home of the German legislature from 1894 to 1933 and again since 1999), the Brandenburg Gate (one of the main symbols of Berlin; the only remaining gate of a series through which Berlin was once entered), the Fernsehturm (the TV tower, a major Berlin landmark that, at 368 meters high, is among the tallest structures in the world), and many sites in between.

Tomorrow (Thursday) morning, we leave Berlin on a 57 mile ride that ends in Poland. We'll be spending the following 8 days in the Polish countryside, well north of the major cities such as Warsaw and Cracow, followed by 3 days in Lithuania, 3 in Latvia, 4 in Estonia, and 3 in Russia. In many ways, this will be heading off into the unknown for us. We have no clear idea what the roads will be like for cycling – whether there will be bike paths or road shoulders, what the quality of the road surface will be, and how bike-friendly drivers will be. We don't know how well we'll be able to communicate in order to get our basic needs met, since we don't speak the languages and have no idea whether we'll find people who know any English. We have little idea about personal safety and risk of theft of our bikes or other belongings. Another uncertainty is whether we'll encounter mean dogs free to run onto the roads. The last of these is especially concerning to Peter, a long-time dog-fearer (and dog-hater), and is the reason that both of our bikes have holsters containing pepper spray. It all makes for quite an adventure!

The outdoor part of the Holocaust Memorial

Brandenburg Gate

Reichstag

The "New Synagogue" in Berlin: actually built in ~1860, then damaged by the Nazis and WWII bombing and reconstructed in the 1990's. The posts to protect the synagogue from car bombers (seen at the bottom of the photo), as well as police guards on the sidewalk and metal detector in the entrance, sadly show that defeat of the Nazis did not rid the world of people bent on murderous hate crimes.

The Berlin TV Tower, with an observation deck and restaurant more than halfway up

Our bird's-eye view of Berlin from the observation deck