Wednesday/ arrival in Berlin

I made it into Berlin’s Tegel airport in the afternoon.  I dawdled a little getting out of the airport, taking my time to take the scenery in.  Berlin’s new Brandenburg airport is under construction (years late and billions of euros over budget.   So little Tegel airport with its hexagonal main building around an open square that Berliners have become very fond of, will be closed, but probably not before 2018.   Walking distances are extremely short at the airport.  Our baggage claim was RIGHT THERE at the entrance into the terminal as we stepped off the plane.   And another 30 meters puts you outside the terminal where the taxis and buses are (no S-bahn or U-bahn train to take directly from the airport).

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Here’s the Tegel airport’s control tower and part of the main building. The airport started operating in November 1974 and now handles more than 20 million passengers per year.
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Here’s a look at the inside of the airport.
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And the chalkboard at the Starbucks gives a nod to the Berlin bear (the city’s coat of arms and flag has a bear on). Buy some coffee from Kenia and you will get your favorite Starbucks drink for free, says the bear.
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Here’s Potsdamer Platz as one comes out of the underground. The Marriott hotel where I stay is in the distance. The Berlin Wall ran right through this area. The Marriott is literally 100 ft on the west side of where the Wall used to be.
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And another friendly bear to welcome me at the hotel.

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