The Berlin Tanz der Vampire Steinmeet - Day 1

Last time I visited Berlin was in 1990, shortly after the wall came down. I dutifully bought a piece of wall from one of the many traders near the Brandenburg Tor. Well, it said it was a real piece of the actual wall, but maybe someone figured that their house was worth more as small pieces sold to gullible tourists, than it was as an actual house ...

Anyway, Berlin has changed a lot since then. What used to be part of East Germany now looks like any other Western city, with streets that are no longer pot-holed race-tracks for youngsters in Trabants.

This time we started near the "Hollow Tooth", a famous Berlin church that was damaged in WWII.



Near to which is this less historic artifact ...



Who says the Germans don't have a sense of humour? ;-)

After a quick lunch (but not here) -



we went to Berlin Zoo. Sadly we never did see "Knut" the famous Polar Bear Cub, despite waiting for 30 minutes or so after his alloted time. Guess he was still in make-up. Bearly 17 weeks and rarely seen, I suppose. But here's the attention-seeking young bear-next-door, out of his tree with jealousy towards Knut...



In the evening we met up with the other SteinManiacs for a meal. I managed to find a picture with food and drink but without Will (a difficult job of course):



Afterwards we retreated to a bar where they had a special offer on their cocktails. I plumped for this vaguely on-topic concoction...



... which turned out to be the gay-est cocktail on the table :-(



The bar did have a piano, but some of the keys were out of key, so Brian found an alternative instrument to accompany Markus's vocals ...