OK, it's officially cold

Considerably chillier today and fixing to snow. Nighttime has arrived again, and it’s just 4 p.m. I mentioned to my landlord a few minutes ago how remarkable I found this and she said, “Well, it’s Berlin in December.” Well, duh, aren’t I stupid. I could have jabbed back by remarking that winter's not for another two and a half weeks, but life is short. Spent the day wandering around, getting lost, in no hurry to see or do anything, no interest in going anywhere. Just checking things out, getting the lay of the land. That’s the beauty of slow travel. Remember the old movie “If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium”? Suzanne Pleshette, seven countries in 18 days? That’s for suckers.

Three observations, before I forget them: I had read there is a lot of dog shit on the sidewalks here. Not so. I had heard about a plague of graffiti on the city. Nope, far less than Brussels or Amsterdam; about the same as Paris or Tucson. Berlin has no alleyways to speak of. I don’t know if this is an urban-planning decision or what. Trash is picked up in the courtyards of all these Jugendstil-style walkups -- maybe that has something to do with it.

Went down to the Brandenburg Gate. Security is uber-intense there because of all the embassies. A woman with a gun stands on the sidewalk "guarding" the Russian consulate. Hey, mix in a salad, Olga! There are stanchions in the street that retract electronically into the ground to allow approved vehicles to pass. And of course, you can’t so much as spit on the sidewalk without being detected by closed-circuit TV.


It’s by this thicket of trees, just several yards away from the gate, where Reagan delivered his “Tear down this wall” speech, not far from where Obama addressed Berliners during his run for president of Europe the United States.



From there I walked to Potsdamer Platz, which is a maze of upscale shopping. The deeper I walked into it, the more I lost my bearings.


It's also home to the slightly surreal Sony Center, -- the company’s European headquarters -- where I found the Filmhaus, which contains a movie museum and cinema.



They’re showing Antonioni’s “L’Avventura” tonight, which seems like a good idea. And it’s where I spotted this very cool Bunuel poster, below. Or maybe I’ll just go see “Inglorious Basterds” instead. It’s tough making all these decisions.