Berlin weekend with Deanna doing geeky things

We did the Reichstag tour Friday - Deanna talked our way past security even though they had not given us a reservation time. Good job, Dee! The people are supposed to be able to watch their representatives from above. The dome is spectacular, and has a mirror-covered column in the middle.

I'm in the orange with the camera, Deanna's to my right.

The representatives are under that glass, governing.

Then we did a 2 hour hop on hop off bus, and hopped off at a Science storefront exhibit that was very cool. It had displays that were holograms, or were like the iPad 2 only on the wall, or that you stood in circles on the floor and waved your arms to control what was on the screen. Max Planck Science Gallery

We hung out at Alexanderplatz for a while - it's like Torgallmenningen. Lots of action there. Saturday we went to KaDeWe, the 2nd largest department store in Europe, and ate on the 6th floor. It's like a gigantic world grocery store, with occasional counters to eat specific things. We ate pasta. Here's Deanna with mustard, mustard, and more mustard.

We didn't buy much. Mainly we wandered through floor after floor of "ooh" and "aah" stuff. Saturday night Deanna performed "Fame" by David Bowie at a cabaret show. She was really funny.

They were in election season in Berlin. Every light pole is plastered with smiling faces. We passed an SPD rally where they were playing that 90's Bangles song, Manic Monday. Interesting choice. The Pirate Party fascinated me and Deanna, and it turns out that they won power in the election! Young, inexperienced people running for free information and privacy, both.

Sunday, it rained. We went to the technical museum, and after looking at all sorts of machines, from knitting to airplanes, our feet were tired. They announced that they had an antique train leaving for Public Transport. "Great!" We hopped on, and ended up at a warehouse full of displays of Public Transport. It was completely enclosed by fences. There was no public transport out of there. Then some antique buses showed up and we paid to ride back to the museum. Just another case of not knowing what the heck is going on.

This is the Z1, a computer from 1938! It had, like modern computers, an arithmetic unit, a memory unit, and input and output units. It used binary numbers and punch-tape programming.

Monday morning, I had to leave. We walked some of the green area around Noldnerplatz, the out-of-the-way residential area where we stayed at the Hotel-Pension Victoria. Berlin is really, really green.