Tuesday. Walk around Berlin for several hrs. Take a 90 min tour bus ride. It is hot and humid, but not a cloud in the sky. Lots of old buildings and new ones going up. It was neat seeing where the Berlin Wall used to be. That night the Germans lost to Italy in Soccer. I watched the game at a local bar with 200 plus very upset people. There is a blvd in Berlin that attracted over 400,000 to watch in the street in Giant Screens TV. Wednesday. Went to Potsdam for the day. Spent time at the site where Truman, Stalin and Churchill drew up the plans to end WW 2. Also went to Sans Souci Palace which is about 3000 acres of pristine gardens and a Palace that sleeps several. Thursday. Return to Holland today by train. Arrive late afternoon. 6 hr with AC Friday. Rode bike to Gouda and spent the day visiting various shops and stores. The ride in the country by bike is great. Windmills, farms, and many others on bikes. Spent some time at a horse ranch watching jumping horses. Saturday. Went to Den Haug. This is the seat of Parliment for Holland. From there went to the coast on the North Sea. Just like Miami Beach. Sunday. Took the high speed train to Frankfurt. The speed reached 304 km/hr which is about 180 mph. There was only a 100 mile stretch between Cologne and Frankfurt where they could go this fast. That night, we watched the final game of  Soccer with at least 10,000 Germans in the streets on Giant TV's. Great game. Monday, July 10. Got the first flt out of Frankfurt at 825am to Chicago. Was the last standby to board, this time getting the last seat in the back. 9 hrs later, got a flt to Jax, again last one boarded. Lucky day.  Met a lot of nice folks on this journey. But was very glad to get back to Fla. Total nights 19, total airmiles 12,000, total train miles  2,700. total bike miles  135 total walking miles, unknown.                             Return to Home Page