{"id":1595,"date":"2011-05-14T13:49:13","date_gmt":"2011-05-14T20:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayivey.com\/wordpress\/?p=1595"},"modified":"2011-05-14T13:53:20","modified_gmt":"2011-05-14T20:53:20","slug":"spring-forward-day-56","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com\/wordpress\/spring-forward-day-56\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>

Potsdam
\nMay 7, 2011\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Distance Traveled today:\u00a0 30<\/h3>\n

Distance So Far:\u00a0 9964<\/h3>\n

[NOTE:\u00a0 Since I was on a bicycle all day and my camera is big, heavy, fragile and expensive, I had to\u00a0leave it behind.\u00a0 So no actual photos of Potsam, very sorry about this.\u00a0 It is a beautiful place and I encourage you to look it up.]<\/p>\n

Full day excursion to the palace-strewn town of Potsdam.\u00a0 First time I\u2019ve been on a bicycle in seventeen years, believe it or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Spree River winds its way through Berlin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The very last time I was ever on a bicycle was in May lf 1994, at the closing ceremonies of the very first California AIDS Ride.\u00a0 I had just bicycled my way from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which was the only physically impressive thing that I\u2019ve ever done in my life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I loved the event, loved that I had done every mile on my own, and returned to work as a non-riding volunteer for nine more rides.\u00a0 But the experience also cured me, permanently, of cycling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After my tumble on the Segway on Tuesday I was a tiny bit apprehensive, but I did fine.\u00a0 No falling.<\/p>\n

\"You<\/a>
You see these networks of pipes all over the city. They are an attempt to fortify the water table and thereby slow down the scary process of all of Berlin's old buildings sinking into the swamp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Potsdam is beautiful, and of course wildly historical.\u00a0 We got to stand in the very room and see the very table where Truman, Stalin and Churchill hammered out the disposition of Europe, and particularly of Germany, at the end of the War.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I also had the opportunity to be a tiny bit patriotic early in the day.\u00a0 The way the tour worked is that we all met at the Fat Tire Bike headquarters, got our bikes, and then hauled them on to the commuter train to Potsdam.\u00a0 There was a nice family of Kiwis in the tour group, and after we arrived at the leafy retreat some fifteen miles out of Berlin, he reported that the train carriage they had been on had been populated by a group of unruly skinheads.\u00a0 \u201cThey were singing illegal songs, \u201d Kiwi Dad said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSongs<\/em> can be \u2018illegal\u2019\u201d? I asked, knowing full well exactly where this was going.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in Germany they can.\u201d\u00a0 Clearly he was talking about Nazi songs.<\/p>\n

\"steeple_2\"<\/a>I am an asshole, so I continued.\u00a0 \u201cSo . .\u00a0 Germany doesn\u2019t have freedom of speech, then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, not on this subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

I replied, without a trace of haughtiness, \u201cWell, I come from a country where even unpopular speech is protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yeah, what country?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

He scoffed.\u00a0 \u201cYeah, right, how about that radio DJ who lost his job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean Don Imus?\u00a0 First, he\u2019s rich and immediately got another job so don\u2019t worry about him.\u00a0 Second, he was fired by the private company he worked for.\u00a0 Free Speech means the government<\/em> cannot censor you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh.\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Good point.\u201d<\/p>\n

OWNED!!!\u00a0<\/p>\n

USA: 1, New Zealand:\u00a0 0.<\/p>\n

\"Why<\/a>
Why indeed?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, don\u2019t get me wrong.\u00a0 I\u2019m certainly not interested in supporting the singing of Nazi songs on public trains.\u00a0 But I think it\u2019s a mistake that Germany makes the swastika and other Nazi stuff literally illegal<\/em>.\u00a0 If we only protect the speech we like, then speech isn\u2019t free.<\/p>\n

\/\/\/<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my last day in Berlin.\u00a0 I\u2019ve enjoyed my time in this beautiful but ragged city.\u00a0 I think my favorite aspect of the city is its spectacular public transportation system.\u00a0 I have been without a car in Los Angeles since last summer, and I have to tell you that, except for commuting to and from downtown during rush hour, it SUCKS to not have a car in LA.\u00a0 But it would totally be possible here in Berlin.\u00a0 Between the trams, buses, subways, and commuter trains, you can get where you need to go, and get there quickly and easily.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been jetting around the city like a native.<\/p>\n

\/\/\/<\/p>\n

Also a good day, kid-wise.\u00a0 I\u2019m usually no good with kids.\u00a0 My only play is video games, and that opens the door for me sometimes, but not always.\u00a0 For some reason, however, the kids on today\u2019s tour found me unendingly fascinating.<\/p>\n

At two different points in the tour, a diferent kid latched onto me.\u00a0 While we were tooling around Potsdam on the bikes, 10-year old New Zealander William (or Wilhelm, as I insisted on calling him) reminded me, almost painfully, of myself at his age.\u00a0 A real motormouth know-it-all.\u00a0 Obviously a voracious reader, already well-versed in history (you could tell this by the questions he asked during the tourguide\u2019s various spiels).<\/p>\n

He was one of those \u201cDidja know?!\u201d kids.\u00a0 Every thirty seconds there would be a new \u201cDidja know?!\u201d\u00a0 I tormented my father and other adults with this syndrome for a few years, so it was pretty esy to be tolerant.\u00a0 The only disturbing thing was that he informed me that his parents didn\u2019t let him play video games.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure there is a Family Services type agency in Holland where they are living that I can contact.<\/p>\n

On the train ride back, young Adam, four going on five, wouldn\u2019t budge an inch from me.\u00a0 His family was in Berlin while his Dad worked on a film.\u00a0 They were\u00a0 a nice foursome from The Valley.\u00a0 Adam showed off a birthday gift \u2013 a tiny cheetah.\u00a0 I told him that on a recent birthday of my own, I\u2019d seen a real cheetah at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.\u00a0 Of course as a fellow Californian, he\u2019d been there also.\u00a0 Then he proceeded to ruthlessly quiz me on my feeble German vocabulary.\u00a0 I realized I actually knew more German words than I thought I knew, as I had to keep pulling them out of my head.\u00a0 \u201cWhat othe rwords do you know?!\u201d he\u2019d demand immediately after I\u2019d produce a translated word.\u00a0 The next day was his fifth birthday, and he was to spend it with his sister and parents at the Olympia Stadium, where there was to be a big medieval jousting tournament.\u00a0 Pretty cool birthday, I said.<\/p>\n

People Who Are Better With Kids Than Me<\/span><\/h4>\n