Poor Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn wrote some great music, so when I saw "Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Park" on the map, I was expecting something rather grand in his honor. THIS is what they gave him? A little patch of overgrown messy vegetation? To be fair, the rest of his eponymous park (on the other side of the Mendelssohn-Bartholdy U-Bahn station) is a little nicer, but you'd think they would have put the statue in the part of the park where you can actually walk!

Today was a long day- I assumed a triple identity- 80% tourist, 10% athlete (ran a few miles this morning), and 10% violinist (praticed a bit tonight). A lot of walking- starting out at Mendelssohn's park, then to Potsdamer Platz to take a look at the Sony Center and its stunning canopy/roof, then to the Philharmie and musical instrument museum. Some good violins there- I hope they let people play them every now and then! Then, I walked over towards the Reighstag and the Brandenburger Tor at Pariser Platz, on to the Statsoper, and finally to Alexanderplatz (a.k.a. "Alex"), where I opted to wait in line for about an hour just to get a view of the city from up at the top of the Fersehturm, one of the tallest structures in Europe. It was a little expensive, but I REALLY like good views (from anywhere-- car windows, airplane windows, mountains, towers like this one, hotel rooms, etc.), and it was a clear enough day that the visibility was about as good as it could have been, given the considerable layer of window dirt. But that's a minor complaint- I really enjoyed it.