We rented a car in Copenhagen, took a ferry to Germany, and drove to our first stop, in Berlin. We had hoped that by renting a car and doing our own driving we would get to see more of each country, including small towns, countryside and local residents. Unfortunately, we ended up driving primarily on large interstate highways. This made for fast, efficient travel, but it was less picturesque than we had hoped for.

One of the first places we visited in Berlin was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. There are 2,711 gray stone blocks of various sizes. A fellow traveler, visiting from Australia, summed it up in one word: Confronting.

Berlin Wall – only a few remnants have been preserved. However, they have installed a walkway throughout the city, marking where the wall formerly stood. There are a lot of reminders all around the city of damage that was caused during the war.

We found a great café around the block from our AirBnB. The food appeared to be carefully prepared, the atmosphere was relaxed, and the prices were reasonable. We also found a good restaurant for dinner. The menu was available only in German, although the helpful waitress spoke English well. Maricela and I each just selected an item at random from the menu, hoping we would like it. Thankfully it worked out well for both of us. An interesting thing after the meal – we left the helpful waitress a tip of about 15%; she came and talked to us and told us the tip amount was too much. Imagine that happening in the US! (In the end, we convinced her to keep the full amount.)

Traffic and parking were a bit of a challenge, but we survived unscathed.