Dolphins swim with Chuck Norris if they have problems

     However, Berlin does not strike Mary and I right away as a place we would like to settle. It is a little too big. And Karena agreed with our assessment that we felt more of an edge here. A lot of beeping drivers, surly servers, etc.

     Karen lives in the Steglitz neighborhood, far from the touristy area in which we are staying. Mary and I had just been saying we wanted to see more of the town and in fact had spent part of the day in Bergmankiez in the Kreuzberg neighborhood.

     We had bought Berlin Cards, thinking we could get our money's worth from museums. But the two with the more modern painters we like such as the German expressionists were closed. So we went to the Alte Nationalgalerie. There we saw a Bonnard with a fabric Mary liked

     An unusual Lautrec black-and-white clown study

     And paintings that looked like we felt after days of walking.

   

     We went to the "Holocaust Memorial" (which I find refreshingly honest in its official title: "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe").

    

     Despite the signs warning everyone of the behavior expected, people were breaking every rule. Playing hide and seek, hopping from one stela to another, taking selfies, etc. We left early, unable to have the reflective moment we hoped for.

    

     With sore feet and a free transit pass, we looked for a neighborhood further away from the tourists and found Begrmannkiez. Known for street artists

    

("Dolphins swim with Chuck Norris if they have problems") 

     And pretty buildings 

    

     We found ourselves drawn to one church

    

     It had a graveyard behind it. I have always loved graveyards. Many people find that macabre, but I view them as free outdoor sculpture gardens, with often a history lesson tossed in. For example, this simple stone seems to have been shot during one of the world wars (or both).

    

     That is something I had not seen in my many graveyard walks. 

The cemetery also had this lovely tree.

 

      Afterwards, we went for pizza at a place near our hotel. They had gluten free crust for Mary. And beer for me.

     When I went to use the men's room afterward, a fellow patron followed me in only to find it had only one stall. He made a joke in German, and when I looked perplexed, asked if I spoke English instead and where I was form. When I said the U.S., he said he had been there many times and Chicago once. He was a bodyguard form the German government. He showed me his earpiece as evidence. I never thought of bodyguards as being that friendly.