Second Day in Berlin

So,

I see that I'm mostly talking to myself thus far. No worries. I know that all of my friends who love me so much and can barely handle my absence will soon be flocking to this so very exciting blog. I just know you will. Right?

Anyway, my initial thoughts on Berlin. Although it's so popular in our very jingoistic U.S. to protest the notion that we have much to learn from old Europe, that could not be further from the truth. When listening to the radical insurgents on the wrong side of the healthcare debate (and the right in general), one would think that America has nothing to learn from Old Europe. They're socialists, they pay excessive taxes, and they're lazy to boot. Without debating the merits of those ideas at this moment (other than to say I find each of them ludicrous (ok, there is some socialism)), one thing Berlin demonstrates, for sure, is how transportation in a city works best. Put simply, there are bikes everywhere.

I find it disconcerting to reconcile the ubiquitous bikers and walkers with the fact that this is one of the greatest automobile manufacturing nations in the world. Is there any doubt that Germany remains largely unrivaled in its production of highly sophisticated, performance automobiles? Ok, they wish that last little piece were correct. However, everwhere one looks, one sees endless thousands of persons on bikes and on foot. It's amazing!!! While the threat of tire tread on one's back seems imminent in so many other world capitals (Rome, Paris, New York), the worst one's likely to experience in Berlin is an irate german slamming into you after you've inadvertently walked into one of the numerous bike lanes (that seem to be part of the sidewalk). Moreover, unlike in the U.S. one sees very few (I've seen perhaps two) runners in Berlin. Given the fact that people walk and bike everywhere, running, as such, seems far less popular than in the U.S. But, I'll have to move around the city far more before I can really stand by that observation.

Unfortunately, I doubt many American cities can duplicate this feat (of having bikes replace cars for transportation), because too few of them have the necessary sidewalk real estate to effectively add bike lanes. More unfortunate still, remains the pesky little fact that Americans are far too unfit for such bike lanes either to make sense, or more likely, to even be used. That said, do not believe dear reader that one sees only fit looking Berliners racing everywhere on super high tech, extraordinarily expensive, german-engineered (though the Germans do not make the most expensive or most famous bicycles; that would be the Italians) bikes of death. In fact, the bikes are mostly large tired beaters possessing nothing in common with the sleak performance machines Germans famously put on the world's roads. Moreover, the riders vary from the fit and petite, to the elderly and slightly overweight. Slightly overweight because there are very few significantly obese people in Berlin. By way of example only, I have yet to see one person as large as my brother Wendell (sorry bro). By contrast, in Cincinnati, there are thousands of persons so big. Well, that's it for now. I have much more exploring to do. I'll write more tomorrow.