Berlin and the Baltic coast, 2013

The good news is I'm headed to Berlin and German points north (Baltic Sea) for a few weeks.

The peculiar dislocation of transiting through an international airport hub at 4am subjective.

Meanwhile, it's morning in Germany. Government here run by adults, continues to function. I may go to a park today!

"Whether you are from Berlin or Berlin visitor, here you are exactly right." Greatful for English info, but unidiomatic language is amusing.

Between the Holocaust and the East/West division, Germany has a lot of shitty recent history it has to deal with.

Good morning from Germany, where they have universal healthcare and it's been a long while since an insane right wing controlled government.

Nethack street.

Pleasant lunch at Dannie's Schlossgarten, near Schloß Charlottenburg. Touristy area, honest restaurant.

Schloss Charlottenberg, with handsome man.

Window shopping sausages at KaDeWe

Salade du chèvre chaud, entrecôte avec sauce Bearnaise, tarte tatin (frais!). Ausgezeichnet Berliner abendessen at entrecote.de

Feeling at home in Germany: government is shut down here too. But only today, to celebrate the reunification in 1990. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Unity_Day

Since the beginning of time mankind has yearned to destroy the sun.

Berlin is a pretty great city, the affordable and vital side of Europe. I really want to come stay for a few weeks some time.

I feel they failed to make a space for humans a Potsdammer Platz. Drone home.

Really amazing temporary historical exhibit "1933 Berlin: The Path to Dictatorship". A simple series of political steps to the Third Reich.

I've never been somewhere like Germany that puts so much honest effort into reconciling its problematic history.

Could you imagine an honest, no-excuses US museum about the genocide of Native Americans that all Americans visited?

I wrote a blog post about the forthright, direct portrayal of evil in a country's history. somebits.com/weblog/culture/accounting-for-an-evil-history.html

Beautiful visualization of German election results from 1912. Each box is one seat organized by region. Crazy colors

Arrived at the end of Germany in a Baltic island hotel with a thatched roof. (Putbus, Rügen).

Had my first conversation with a German about the US government shutdown. They were hoping we could explain because it made no sense to them

Segways forbidden.

Fascist beach resort architecture (Prora, Rügen, Germany)

Narrow gauge steam train in Binz, Rügen, Germany vine.co/v/hX621ijvJw2

Brick gothic church with vaguely pagan altar offering. (Stralsund, Germany).

Crazy brick facade on the Stralsund Rathaus. Amazing arcade inside too.

View from our hotel in Rostock looks down on this house whose brick has three colors of glazing.

The view on exiting Thief Street (a tiny back alley) in Rostock.

A computer from 1472 for calculating the date of Easter. (St Marien Kirche, Rostock).

Baltic Sea resort architecture (Helingendamm, site of a G8 summit).

Some faded grandeur in Heilingendamm, abandoned resort villas. It is former East Germany; reinvestment takes time.

The pastry chef's art applied to a goose foie gras appetizer.

Molli-bahn, a narrow gauge steam train from Bad Doberan to Kühhlungsborn. vine.co/v/hHmZrqe0aLF

Kenny in triptych on the Molli-bahn. He loves steam engines, it's a good tourist theme.

Welcomed to our hotel in Schwerin by the stench of people smoking in the lobby bar. Amazing how anyone ever put up with that revolting smell

Finally found working hotel wifi! Password, no portal. So nice we decided to stay here instead of leaving a day early for a fancy meal.

Amazing rims (Schwerin, Germany)

Crazy public sculpture by Peter Lenk: a satirical monument to Henry the Lion, founder of Schwerin.

Some Schwerin street art. The colorful plastic things remind me of Space Invader.

The moment after you've ordered the unfamiliar lunch item when the translation web page finally loads. As blood sausage goes it wasnt so bad

Kent's favorite room from Schloß Schwerin, the 19th c. palace of the archdukes of Mecklenburg.

One more bit of Schwerin street art. This guy's little round figures are all over town.

Forever 18, a clothing store. Because 21 is too old.

One nice thing about traveling in Germany is OpenStreetMap and Wikipedia are very high quality for German topics. Thanks, Freikörperkultur!

Wismar, Germany. Enormous town square, beautiful brick buildings.

We like Germany and German food but man the restaurant menus get monotonous. Always pork with brown sauce and potatoes. Looking now for Thai

Hello from Hansestadt Lübeck!

For @DanaDanger: Der Butt (Fischrestaurant).

The buildings in Lübeck are sinking. One of these 250+ft high brick church steeples is no longer straight.

St Mary's Church in Lübeck: Buxtehude was the resident organist here for many years. Mostly destroyed in WW2.

Just like San Francisco is SF, Hansestadt Hamburg is HH. Trying not to think of American neo-Nazi prison gangs and 88.

Some shots from Hamburg around the Rathaus.

Another design museum, again I wonder why Art Nouveau is forgotten and we fetishize Bauhaus and stark modernity.

Finally braved ordering Labskaus. Basically corned beef hash served with it natural accompaniment, pickled herring.

Last day in Germany, looking forward to coming home. But we finally got some sun in Hamburg!

I had a new food today: purée of Sanddorn, aka sea buckthorn, "the lemon of the north". Delicious, sour and earthy. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippophae_rhamnoides

Today's European hotel breakfast brought to you by peppered mackerel, liverwurst, and an autotuned calypso cover of Like a Virgin.

One last set of photos: train station, steamship, auto customized.

Our ritual post-Europe flight shitty pizza from Roundtable is on its way. Hearty Bacon Supreme = welcome to 'Murica.

Grateful that my favorite Mexican breakfast place opens at 8am.