Berlin Day 1

Today was a lovely day in Berlin.  The weather was sunny and just right.  We went on a supposed two hour walk today and it took us almost 4 hours.  But we learned a lot and saw a lot. I am quite surprised. I like Berlin and I was not expecting to be impressed. Everything I had read or heard said it was a pretty blah city.  Well, to me, it is very pretty-very green with parks and trees and flowers everywhere.  The people have been very friendly and the public transportatin system seems excellent.  We had a day pass so we rode several forms of transportation to see the things we were going to see.  We saw the Brandenburg gate and several other famous places. Our main Berlin city tour will come the first day of the main trip so we are doing things that are not covered on that city tour. We ended up at the island where all the museums are located.  Our program director left us at this point , with instructions on how to return to our hotel.  The main thing that Jim and I had wanted to see in Berlin was the Pergamon museum since we went to Pergamon last year and enjoyed it.  That museum is worth the trip to Berlin.  That is saying a lot from two people who are not really museum people. Awesome is all I can say.  We ate lunch at a great pizza place near the museums where they had no trouble fixing me a great pizza without the garlic and onions,etc.  We then started our journey back to the hotel which we did without a hitch, but being rush hour, it took quite a lot longer and was spent standing up for quite awhile. 
Right now, our feet are thanking us for the rest and we are getting ready to have our nice gourmet meal down in Marylou's suite-peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit and cheese. lovely for us. Meanwhile, we are watching the world cup games and enjoying those as well in the evenings.