{"id":1500,"date":"2011-05-10T14:17:10","date_gmt":"2011-05-10T21:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayivey.com\/wordpress\/?p=1500"},"modified":"2011-05-10T14:17:11","modified_gmt":"2011-05-10T21:17:11","slug":"spring-forward-day-52","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com\/wordpress\/spring-forward-day-52\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>

Berlin
\nMay 3, 2011\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Private Segway Tour of Berlin!<\/h3>\n
\"Yes.<\/a>
Yes. I am beautiful on a Segway. Particularly when I'm not falling over.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I began the day with a four hour private Segway tour of Berlin.\u00a0 I say private because I was the only one signed up for the tour.\u00a0 This was fantastic, as it meant I had the tourguide \u2013 an adorable gay ex-pat video artist named Kevin \u2013 to my self.\u00a0 He was a great tourguide and gave me a great introduction to Berlin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"For<\/a>
For decades, the Brandenburg Gate was in the Dead Zone between layers of The Wall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Berlin\u2019s history, when you look back on the last 100 years, is simply insane.\u00a0 It\u2019s mind-boggling how much has happened in this city.\u00a0 Two world wars, the poisonous paranoia of post-War East Germany, the fall of Communism, the Reunification, etc.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a titanic amount of events in a relatively short period.<\/p>\n

I learned from Kevin that Berlin has a very popular openly gay mayor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"You<\/a>
You have to give the graffiti artist credit for effort on this one. It's in the middle of the river.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I also learned that Berlin is sinking into the swamp.\u00a0 There are blue pipes all over the city which are literally pumping water into the water table to keep the city afloat.\u00a0 The main cathedral of Berlin is sinking at an alarming rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We, of course, went to Checkpoint Charlie.\u00a0 It\u2019s such a clich\u00e9, I didn\u2019t expect it to be particularly interesting.\u00a0 But it was surprisingly moving to see the old sign \u2013 \u201cYou are entering the American sector\u201d and its chilly reverse.\u00a0 The former location of the Wall is marked by a double line of cobblestones that winds its way through Berlin.\u00a0 Of course they left a little bit of it actually standing, just for history\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n

\"During<\/a>
During the War, specially trained Nazi dachshunds were members of an elite squad known as the "judenschniffen."<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In many places the Wall had a very wide \u201cDead Zone\u201d between the two layers of wall, and so when it came down in 1989 the city suddenly had a huge amount of undeveloped real estate right in the middle of town.\u00a0 They\u2019ve built many interesting new things on it, including the Jewish Holocaust Memorial.<\/p>\n

\""The<\/a>
"The Pope's Revenge"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kevin also told me a fun story about the godawful ugly tower which juts up out of the Alexanderplatz (a huge transit hub).\u00a0 It\u2019s a phallic concrete monstrosity built by the East Germans as a way to show the superiority of Communist know-how and engineering.\u00a0 The only trouble is, the brain drain from East Germany had been so severe that the building couldn\u2019t actually be designed or built by East Germans.\u00a0 So they secretly snuck in an entire work force from Sweden to build the thing.\u00a0 Of course, the truth was found out eventually.\u00a0 It generally is.<\/p>\n

Another amusing thing about the tower.\u00a0 East Germany was officially atheist, remember, while the rest of Berlin remained Lutheran and Catholic.\u00a0 When the tower was completed an interesting and unexpected natural phenomenon occurred when the sun was in the west:\u00a0 Its reflection on the bumpy globe at the top of the tower creates a perfect cross.\u00a0 Locally it\u2019s known as \u201cThe Pope\u2019s Revenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin also was a wealth of good advice on where to get a hair cut, and what neighborhoods would be fun to explore.\u00a0 This was good info to get because Berlin is one of those cities that doesn\u2019t have a real center, which can make it intimidating for a tourist.<\/p>\n

\""I<\/a>
"I know! We'll name our convenience store after a failed artificial language! That'll really bring the customers in!!"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"leafy_1\"<\/a>I am good on the Segway.\u00a0 This was my second time I\u2019ve done a Segway tour.\u00a0 However, I did have one unfortunate moment when I was dismounting and the beast got itself into a slow but unstoppable spiral.\u00a0 It and me went down.\u00a0 I\u2019m not hurt, but I my right side is pretty bruised and sore.\u00a0 What was worse was, I did it right in the middle of about a thousand people.\u00a0 I think that hurt more than the fall.<\/p>\n

Reasons Tourguide Kevin Will Give Up His Life in Berlin to Move to Los Angeles To Be With Me<\/h4>\n
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  • \u2026 okay, guys, a little help here?\u00a0 There\u2019s got to be some reasons we can come up with . . .<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Average Rating: 4.7<\/span> out of 5<\/span> based on 294<\/span> user reviews.<\/span><\/div><\/p>

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