Of all the cities we inclare visiting in out trip, we allotted more time to Berlin than any other. We knew Berlin is a larger city and require more time to cover, and we expected more important recent and older historical sites that we would want to see and learn about first hand. We simply had no idea, however. First, Berlin is large geographically and it is large by population standards too, with 5.5 million people. Germany took in 1.5 million refugees in 2016, many I'm sure settled in the larger cities like Berlin. I simply do not know if the new immigrants are included in total population count or not. I am sure the huge influx of refugees made a mark on the city, its systems and its people somehow, but today we saw no evidence of it. . . No tent cities, no refugee camps, no angry people.

While not a seaport like many other major European cities, Berlin has plenty of water which gives access to the both the Baltic Sea and the North Sea by way of the Elbe River and a network of large the Elbe's tributary rivers, lakes and canals.

Today was our investment day. We did things today that will lhopefully prepare us for the rest of the visit. We made our reservations for our 4-hour Fat Tire Bike Tour through Berlin for tomorrow at 10:45 am. Check! We took the 2-hour City Sightseeing bus that took us through all the important sections of the city, i.e., Brandenburg Gate, the Tier Park area, Embassy Row, the Berlin Wall (wow!), Check-point Charlie, major museums, concert halls and theaters, Humboldt University (boasting 26 Nobel Prize winners), and the Berlin Cathedral as well as other historic churches and past Berlin's Aquarium and Zoo. Check! We took a lot of photos but we are still trying to get our arms around all that we saw.

The bus tour concluded just in time for us to make our appointment to go to the top of very famous Fernsehturm (the TV Tower). It looks like the Seattle Space needle, but is far taller; in fact it is the tallest structure in Germany. I stood in line for an hour to purchase the tickets while Stan went aroung the corner to make the Bike Tour arrangements. The tower tickets were in such high demand, that after purchasing them they advise the wait time before you can enter. Ours was a three-hour wait—that's how we got to squeeze-in the bus tour. A bit more about the tower; it was built in the late 60's, and yes, it does have the proverbial revolving restaurant and a 360-degree observation deck but it gets its nickname from having 70 TV stations broadcast from its top floors. Today's skies were covered with clouds and the forecast called for rain at 4 pm - our scheduled time to visit. But, once again, God was with us. As we went through security to enter the building we saw that the clouds dissipated a bit and the sun was showing its beautiful self for the first time today. We thought, oh, please let it last. It did. We had good long distance views of the city. And we had fun matching exhibit photos of buildings and related info about them with the actual sights we could see below.

We know we definitely want to go back to spend time at the Berlin Wall and at Brandenburg Gate, at Checkpoint Charlie and more. Near the remnants of the Wall, there is a museum called Topography of Terror. Although the origianl buildings were destroyed in the bombings of WW II, the museum sits on the former site of the Gestapo and the SS Headquarters. We want to visit this important but chilling spot as well. Finally, if we still have time in this Berlin visit, we hope for a sunny day to enjoy one of their parks, all dressed-up in its brilliant spring green to simply relax, watch people for a bit and relish our time here.