European Adventure 2025: Day (12) BERLIN

 My trip is moving into a warp speed phase and i am only now writing yesterday’s story because I crashed in bed like a rock ! Tomorrow, which is now, is another city to be announced later in my blog episode ! So what happened today? First a long train ride from Warsaw Poland to Berlin Germany… I was lucky to be sharing my train cabin with two students: one from Ukraine and the other Polish !! What a refreshing conversation we had… they were so smart and fluent in English that I was speechless … their level was so high in everything… very smart conversation all the way.. from world events to science and finally AI … artificial intelligence that is! I enjoyed my train ride so much that i invited both to a coffee in Berlin but unfortunately they were heading elsewhere so I had to move on … Berlin is city full of construction projects everywhere so all you see is big tall cranes 🏗️ nonetheless i managed  toget some pictures from my chosen spots so there you have them … more later 

Checkpoint Charlie

President Kennedy visiting Berlin in 1963, 

his speech resonates in my head. He was 

assassinated few months later…😢

The prominent TV tower

The Berlin Cathedral under some repair work

A cool fountain in a square

A massive city hall building of Berlin

Berlin Cathedral 

An impressive Berlin Church (one of many)

Very interesting building

More interesting buildingd

An imposing wall structure

The famous Berlin Wall (what is left of it)

Europen Adventure 2025: Day (11) WARSAW

 After the black forrest experience which was out of the beaten path, I am back to exploring cities on day (11) … I.e. today is none other than the capital of Poland; Warsaw. I arrived in the old city around 12 and immediately started exploring this historically known  city! War war II may have started in Gdansk but Warsaw got the worst of it… it was pretty much reduced to rubble! The Warsaw ghetto uprising and the various massacres all over town … Today’s Warsaw has moved far away from those dark days! It is buoyant city full energy and new elegant structures mixed in with the old surviving structures which  have been refurbished and made to look beautiful .. the few old structures that survived the various wars fit in really well.. here are few selected pictures from today…. Tomorrow a new destination awaits so i need to rest up for another very long day… 

European Adventure 2025: Days (9)-(10) The Black Forrest

 The flight to Warsaw Poland was a short one, only one hour, so before long I was on the ground and looking for the airport exit, which was not easy this time !!! The signs in this airport were very confusing that I ended up at the wrong end of the airport where passengers check in not leave!! It was rather embarrassing but I quickly went back around and found the right exit finally… First time this ever happened, oh well I said there has to be a first somewhere…. Might as well be Poland. The weather was not great so no reason to rush anywhere… especially that the destination is the black forrest so !! My ride eventually showed up and took me out of warsaw to a region called Zabiele Vielke (a dense pine and burch tree forrest northeast of Warsaw). This is where I will spend the next couple days searching for mushrooms and blueberries ! At first I did not know why it was called black forrest but eventually I figure it out!! It is a very dense forrest of pine and burch trees! The tronc of the pines can be dark or red and that of the burch is white !! The colors are quiet interesting and when the wind blows the trees whistle in the wind …. Here are some pictures from the black forrest… no luck with blueberries but mushrooms plenty but small and some  just showing up …

Burch and pine trees together

Burch trees with white trunks 

and pine trees with red trunks

Mushroom hunt .. some are barely showing up

Others are out…

Multi colors too… this one yellow

This one tiny and more colorful 

European Adventure 2025: Day (8) TALLINN

 My stay in Tallinn is coming to end, but I have a feeling I will be back! I really enjoyed my stay here!! The people are nice and the place is awesome so see you soon Tallinn! This could become my summer spot together with Spain or Portugal !! The more choices the better… Astonia is part of the Changan group of countries so I can stay up to 90 days no questions asked!! 90 days is a whole season and summer is what I am thinking about!! Since today is my last full day, I tried going where I have not been yet and in doing that I ended in the boonies, sort off!! After an hour of walking, I realized I was getting farther and farther from civilization so I decided to go back the same way I came … oh well, I said blame it on my maps that showed something !! In any case, I went downtown and walked in all the small alleys and wide boulevards ! I came to realize how beautiful of a mix Tallinn has between the old and the new.. really awesome to see that… may be our American cities should learn from Tallinn!! Refurbish the old and the new to go along with it … another observation is people walk in these European cities.. not so  in our southern cities in the US… every one wants to be very close to the final destination so we drive instead of walking!! These are all adjustments we need to make … in addition to the big gorilla in the closet: the need for an efficient mass transit system! Tramways, subways, buses … all these are needed to push cars out into the suburbs .. I can think of many ideas for the area where I live …

As I prepare to move on to my next stop .. I have to say that Tallinn has been a pleasant surprise … and… I will be back soon!! God willing .. 

….Another beautiful church

…. And One more

A residential building downtown

A snake 🐍 statue with kids watching in owe

A nice little square downtown full of people

More statues in another square

A less busy alley downtown

Smoke stack symbol of the bygone days

A less crowded street downtown 

A nearly empty parking lot

Bikers everywhere

Skyline of the old city from an abandoned Soviet era building

This used to be a very busy site in the communist days

Crumbling old commercial hub in communist days

European Adventure 2025: Day (7) TALLINN

 Today was supposed to be « Riga Latvia Day » but as I mentioned yesterday, and given the change in weather from sunny to rainy, I decided it was not worth it to be on the bus for 8 long hours to see more buildings so today is a rest day, or is it really? Not according to my Apple Watch, i had nearly 14,000 steps for a weakly average of 18,000 steps a day!! Nothing to brag about since my average for the Everest base camp trip was in the 30,000 steps a day range plus altitude gains too… In any case, a vacation in Europe is not for resting the body but rather the mind… 

I woke up so late that I was like what happened to me? It was 12:00 pm when i got up!!! Missed a free very generous  buffet breakfast given by the hotel… so first order of the day, find coffee! So out the hotel I went, after a block or two walking a coffee shop showed up and voila, my coffee was served and I was happy. After that I was just exploring new areas of town… stopping in coffee shops for refueling and resting as well… before long I ended up in the old city again but different streets and squares! It was a coolish weather so my hoodie was very handy today and yesterday!! 

Here is a selection from today’s pics

Interesting seat in front of a store! 

Plazas are where Europeans spend their summer evenings and nights 

Stone structures everywhere

A flower plaza! Big business here

Modern building mixed-in with old 

Old city plaza