(After three days without a 'net connection, our journal is just now catching up while we're in Berlin. Other posts to come -- but we're out the door for now to see the New Berlin. ~ July 6)
This is what culture shock looks like – from the urbane Paris to the quaint German countryside. From the elegantly indifferent to the apparently friendly. No generalizations here, but what a different world we’re now in on a day that started with a 5:45 a.m. Metro ride to the train station (taking only 25 minutes for a two-person cost of 2.10 euros X approximately 1.21 (for the conversion to dollars) = $2.54 – what a bargain!), a five-hour train trip to Basel, Switzerland and a one-hour drive to Hinterzarten, Germany in our rented car. To top off the shock, the TV now has the Live 8 concert on with Green Day rocking the crowd at hyper-speed in Berlin.
And the biggest shock of all: No internet connection in our unit! (This day’s journal, as well as the subsequent dates, is being uploaded in Berlin on July 6.) So in the interests of time management, we’re offering only a few impressions here….
• Basel is almost pin-drop quiet compared to Paris, and the drivers there are nowhere near as maniacal as every driver seems to be in Paris. Basel is also beautiful. • First class on the train is the way to go, giving you a compartment to yourselves. • Avis does try harder and found a C-class Mercedes for us at the airport even though we had been assigned a much smaller car when we checked in at the Hilton Hotel near the train station. We wanted the bigger car because of all the autobahn driving we’ll do to and from Berlin next week. • The Black Forest will be a great place to explore; it’s quite beautiful. • You could fit both the Megeve timeshare and the Paris apartment into our Hinterzarten timeshare – a two-bedroom unit, including one in a loft. • Nice as Hinterzarten is, two nights in Berlin will be a great break from the rural quiet.
But here’s the topper for today: When Lennie went on the little balcony at our Hinterzarten unit, lying in plain sight on a chair was a 5 euro note. It wasn’t there on either of her first two visits to the balcony, so it means the note somehow floated up or down or somehow appeared there after we arrived. We don’t get it, but we’re not complaining – except about the internet.
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