In Toronto, a good portion, maybe thirty per cent of the populous, spend the day with plastic bottles or metal cylinders of water in their hands. In Berlin, roughly the same number of people carry open bottles of beer. Almost none of the Germans seem drunk, and hardly any of them are overweight. Would we Torontonians gain the same result if we ditched the water and took up the hops and malt?
                        ***
 
Elenka and I were eating lunch on a Thailand beach back in March when TravelZoo sent us an offer we couldn't refuse. Air fares from Toronto to a number of cities in Europe for $600, all in. We immediately booked passage to Munich. For the first three nights we stayed with Renate Schönbach and her eldest daughter, Simone. But more on the Schönbachs later. We'll be back at their beautiful, small-town home in Mühldorf, Bavaria for the final days of our journey. Note: For the first group of photos we are with the Schönbachs. And pay special attention to Renate's daughters. Them young girls shor are purty.
 
In the fall of 2012, Elenka, Renate and I were staring at a guidebook with lost looks on our faces when Andy and Marena, a couple of young Berliners asked if needed help. Andy was confused at first - German and English speakers don't mingle, he'd thought. He would soon learn that Deutschers and Canucks do in fact mix well together. Anyway, never ones to turn down help we wound up hanging out with them for a week or so of help and have been amigos ever since. 
 
When Andy and Marena found we were coming to Germany they immediately invited us to come on up. So Elenka and I jumped on a train and off we went. We didn't arrive until late in the afternoon, and without even a chance for a change of underwear had to make our way to the House where parliament sits. Luckily, Andy has connections for getting into this place on short notice - there's usually at least a 10 day waiting period we found out. Germany's House of Parliament is called the Reichstag, and when we arrived I was just a little disconcerted. Reich isn't a commonly used word in Germany, at least not to describe government, hasn't been since the end of WWII. I wanted to ask Andy the reason, but thought it might be rude. So instead I went to Wikipedia and they gave me a bunch of gibberish on the subject. I must remember to ask Andy.
 
In the days that followed, sometimes with Andy and Marena, sometimes just with Elenka, we visited the Berlin Dom, Berlin's grandest cathedral; the Brandenburg Gate; a park where bad lookin' dudes sell drugs; a fairytale fountain, the Wall and even went to a dingy bar which had a hole-in-the-wall, back room movie theatre.
 
From after the time we fed ourselves each morning until way past our bedtime we walked or bicycled the streets of Berlin, stopping only for Turkish, Lebanese, Italian, Indian or some other chow that wasn't German. I'll have to ask Andy about that too. In any event, insomnia has not been an issue. Elenka has started snoring fifteen minutes before bedtime. 
 
No city in the 20th Century saw change like Berlin. The 1920s were dubbed the 'Golden Twenties'. Financial stability brought forward the sciences, arts and sexual freedom which led to the original cabaret, a precursor to strip tease. From 1933 - 1945 they had Nazism which led Berlin, and a good part of the rest of Germany to getting blown almost to Kingdom Come. Then came the Berlin Wall 1961 - 1989. Now, Berliners give the impression of a free people who love one another's company. They can be found happily hanging about, beer-in-hand, in small gatherings anywhere, anytime. I liked being amongst these people.  



Tomorrow, Elenka and I forge east.