Germany - Part 3, First Day in Berlin

On Saturday we headed to Berlin. It was a 5 hour drive. No problem except gas is quite a bit more expensive in Germany. We were paying 1.33-1.37 Euros/Liter, which equals out to be a little over $8/gallon. EEKKK! Now I know why so many people opt to take the trains! We did look into it, and unfortunately it would have cost $400 or so for us to take the train. After we had shelled out so much money on the rental car, we figured we'd just use that.

So off we went to Berlin for our concert, The Swell Season. This concert was the inspiration for the whole trip! The theater was beautiful. It was called the Admiralplast Theatre. It is what appears to be a very old theatre right in the middle of downtown. We booked our hotel based off the theatre location and only had to walk a block. Turns out Checkpoint Charlie was also on the same road about 1/2 mile or less away, but more on that later. Fredrichstrasse was the name of the road and the touristy book we had said it was comparable to 5th Ave in NYC. Designer everything and prices to match! Fun to window shop for sure!

We had a wonderful dinner before the concert. My favorite meal became a tomato, pesto, mozzerella Sandwich. I had this at more than one restaurant. Did I mention that you have to ask for "stillwasser" or "no gas" in your water? Turns out Germans really like their carbonated water! And the whole drink thing just is crazy. 4.5 euros for a tiny little water bottle or coke. Needless to say I didn't order a drink at all more than once! That is about $6 for a TINY thing of water that is barely 2 glasses!

We had a great time at the concert though and went back to our hotel and went to sleep! One thing that intrigued me was that there was no security to get into the concert at all. No bag checks, no searches. I can't remember the last time I went to a concert when I DIDN'T have all that stuff done.