Our entire trip entails 77 days but so many of these days are spent moving from one location to the next. No matter how we try to work it, a travel day eats up the whole day.

Today the transfer from Stockholm to Berlin was easy. No snags. We did spend a few minutes, now and then, getting our bearings and determining the correct train platform and on which side we should catch our train - on one side of the platform the train goes one way, on the other side of the platform, the train goes in the opposite direction . . . you can easily see how it's possible to get into a real jam.

Before we left Sweden we captured photos of the tall birches and also of the most popular dish ordered for lunch in Stockholm - open-face sandwich of shrimp, lettuce, pickled red onions and their special mayonnaise sauce. It is served everywhere and we have seen it ordered over and over again at every restaurant we visited. We tried their tiny baby shrimps with open minds but we will still take our large, pell-em-and eat-em gulf shrimp with lemon and cocktail sauce we enjoy at home any ole day!

As I have mentioned before, one of very first stops after arriving at a new city, besides visiting the restrooms, is finding the information center (usually a big "i" on airport and train station signs). This is the spot where we receive help in determining the right kind of local transportation tickets to buy. It is where we confirm the very best way to get to our apartment's destination, and it's where we usually hear about the very best sights and venues to take in during our visit.

Man!!!! The hospitality and behavioral difference in locations is shocking. We just left Scandinavian countries where people went over and above to make a good impression with us visitors and gave true effort to give us far more help than we requested. Here, the change is amazing, and I hope, I hope, we simply got off on the wrong foot on our first day. We kept thing, this was merely our first impression--let's give it a while. We must admit, however, the change was significant. When we approached the information desk, there were no smiles and we surely didn't get a friendly greeting. It was like . . "Next! Vyat do you Vyant???" Honestly we could not tell if we were speaking to a man or a woman, and maybe that's why he/she may have been so rude, but he/she could not have been less helpful. He/she answered our questions in one word answers and we had to dig, I mean really dig, asking just the right questions to find out what kind of passes we should buy and even, where to exit the building to get the bus. Yeeeesh!

When we reached our apartment and settled in a bit, we made a visit to the local Lidl grocery. It was set-up much like ALDI in Atlanta. Wow, if the store personnel spoke English they would not give a clue! And the only smiles we saw in that store were from children who pretty much always are attracted to us just as we are to them. They were engaging and darling as all kids are.

Stan got called down by the Lidl store clerk because he mistakenly went out the IN door. Yikes! He apologized when we were going through the check-out lane and the lady clerk only glared at him. But to quote Miss Scarlett, "Tomorrow is another day." Yes, tomorrow will be better, but get this - we just checked the weather here in Berlin for the next 5 days and it's rain, rain, rain!!! Oh dear.

I do have a bright spot to share though. In our last visit to Germany a few years ago, we noticed there were many "city gardens" that were like small parks with rows of lovely little garden houses sitting side by side with plots simply exploding with flowers, herbs and vegetable plants. We had barely left the airport when we saw the first of these beautiful gardens once again. We noticed too that spring is in full bloom here - grass and tender leaves on trees are electric green, and blooming trees and bushes are at their peak. Spring flowers like daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips are everywhere - just in time for Easter. It's so very pretty, and it's heart-warming too since we missed our spring-time event in Atlanta when we departed for this trip.