Life of Spud

I’m at the doctor’s office right now. I awoke this morning with a very sore throat and lots of… well, let’s just say that I have my suspicions that I might have strep/bronchitis. So, after trudging through this morning’s activities, I returned to the hotel and immediately headed to the local clinic. It’s just down the block, but Renee walked me over to keep me company (and, I suspect, to satisfy some of her motherly needs). So as I sit in the waiting room with nothing to read (because everything is in German), it gives me a good opportunity to write my blog summery of today’s events: We started the day at a park on the east side of Berlin whose main attraction is the war memorial built by the communists after WWII. Of course, it says nothing of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust and instead focuses on the victory of the Soviets over the Nazis (the message is that the Soviets were forced into a war they would have preferred to avoid, and ultimately their victory was one of freedom...

I’m a little behind on this whole blog thing, but here’s the latest from my trip: Monday, June 30, 2008 We arrived at the hotel at about 9 am. Neil and Dvora wanted to take a rest, but since I had slept of the plane, I was raring to go. After freshening up, I headed down to have a bite to eat and then tried to track people down. I started with Eileen (because she had come into the city a few days earlier) and caught her as she was leaving for some sight-seeing. While we had a quick coffee we bumped into Leslie and the three of us set out for an adventure. Our intention was to head over to the Museum of “Checkpoint Charlie”, which was the border crossing between East and West during the Cold War-era. Eileen got us there successfully by guiding us to the bus stop, helping us buy tickets and letting us know when to get off the bus. When we got there we decided to scout the area around the museum before heading inside. It was a real tourist-y bit, with a fee for everything (have your...