Sprechen Sie English, Bitte

spre ken zee English bit-uh. Which translates to "do you speak English, please", a constant refrain of the last few days, though I have tried to order food in German and talk to ticket agents in German, other than the above phrase, I'm pretty limited.

Arrived in Dusseldorf Friday morning. Actually we arrived in Weeze, a very very small town about 50 miles from Dusseldorf and then had to figure out how to get from this small town into a bigger one so we could start our train ride to Berlin. Fortunately the shuttle bus driver new I meant train when I said "bahnhof" and took us to the train station, which had no attendant, just a ticket machine. Since we had our railpasses we decided just to get on the train (even though all our instructions said the passes HAD to be validated before travel) and get off at the first big station to find someone.

PIcked up a quick sandwich at the station and then off to Berlin on a highspeed train (speeds reaching up to 250 KM/h): However, although we had our rail passes we didn't have seat reserevations, so had to stand for the first 90 minutes (of a 4 hour trip) Got to Berlin about 8pm and ate dinner at a local rest. (where mercifully the waiter spoke English) and collapsed into bed.

Most everyone speaks at least some English here,which makes it easier to travel, but makes me feel a little silly, as educated as I am to not really know another language. I was even panhandled bilingually today. We were approached by a panhandler in the rail station and just nodded and said "no deutsch". Not to be out witted, said panhandler promptly switched to panhandling in English!

We had to find a different hotel this AM, so left our bags at the first hotel and wandered the neighborhood. We are staying in the "Prenzleur Berg" session of east Berlin, near Alexander Platz. We grabbed a currywurst and fries from the oldest sausage stand" in Berlin (at least so says Rick Steeves)-- family run for over 60 years (interesting when you consider we are in the heart of East Berlin, but I guess even the Soviets wanted their sausages). A currywurst, btw, appeared to be a fried sausage with a curryied ketchup over it.

After lunch, grabbed our bags, checked into our new hotel then headed out to the Jewish Museum, since it is open late and we had already blown the morning. Germany is apparently in the midst of a continued effort to reach out to its Jewish population and the museum is filled with a reparation rhetoric that seems very outdated by American standards. IOW, I imagine to some German teenagers it matters that their classmates are Jewish in a way I don't think it has mattered in the US for a few decades, if not longer.

Then, dinner in a traditional Bier Garten (beer garden)-- lots and lots and lots of picnic tables (maybe 100) under blinky lights with beer, pretzels, potato salad and , yep you guessed it, sausages!

Haven't yet got a plan for tommorrow, but weäre here (at the park plaza inn) until Tuesday AM and then off to Prague.