Cold and Homeless around Frankfurt

With temperatures supposedly dropping to an all-time low in the coming days, the homeless are the ones who suffer most. Temps can get as low as – 25°C ( -13 F).

If you are in Frankfurt or the surrounding area… if you see any homeless without a warm place to sleep, please call the Kältebus (an organization to pick up homeless during very cold periods) at 069 – 43 14 14.

While I’m at it, here is the number for the Kältebus in Hamburg: 040 – 40 17 82 15; In Berlin, call 0178 – 52 35 838

 

Winter can be deadly

Thanks for caring and sharing.

Edited on 3 Feb 2012:

Kältebusse 2012

Twenty Hours in Berlin for Justin Bieber

Day Two and the morning of our departure has arrived. I figured we should not leave Berlin without taking in at least one monument. Since our hotel (Ramada Hotel) is fairly close to the Brandenburg Gate, we decided to take this 30-minute walk.

Two Bieber fans in front of the Brandenburg Gate Berlin

There were only few tourists on the former western side of the gate, whereas most tourists were at the Pariser Platz behind it. This is where you also find the Hotel Adlon, where Michael Jackson did his infamous stunt of dangling his baby out of the window. This must be a big tourist attraction, especially since Jackson’s death.

Two guards in front of the Brandenburg Gate

The guard on the right is silver painted and real. It was hard to tell what function either one had except for attracting tourists.

Berlin and boat trips on the Spree River

On our way back, we also passed the Reichstag.

Berliner Reichstag

Last, but not least, I enjoyed the Psst! (Shush!) signs on the Deutsche Bundesbahn train.

Deutsche Bundesbahn reminding passengers to keep quiet

By the time we made it to the train at 11:20, we needed no reminder to keep quiet. We needed to rest in the comfort of our First Class seats (the upgrade was only 8 euro for this round trip). The girls were listening to music while I started the second half of the book The Hunger Games (Hunger Games Trilogy 1) (from Amazon.de). It takes about nine hours to read this book, or a round trip  by train from Frankfurt- to Berlin. The book is written for adolescents, but I enjoyed it too.

Now I have done Berlin in one day, New York in three days, and Japan in nine days. For most Germans, these “short” trips would be considered not worth going. Any trip visiting a city within Germany should be at least three days and traveling overseas should not be less than three weeks. So I have been told many times – by Besserwisser.

Twenty Hours in Berlin for Justin Bieber

On Saturday morning, our daughter, her friend, and I traveled by IC from Frankfurt to Berlin.

Due to signal failures along the way, our planned ride of 4:27 minutes took 64 minutes longer than scheduled. We had no problem with that, but the Deutsche Bundesbahn, nevertheless, offered us a 25% refund because of our late arrival.

Somewhere between Göttingen and Braunschweig

The highlight of this 20-hour visit to Berlin was for the girls to see Justin Bieber in concert. After our arrival in Berlin in the late afternoon, we checked into the Ramada Hotel in Berlin Mitte, then took off for an early dinner (Turkish cuisine), and got to the O2  Arena by 6:00.

Turkish red lentil soup

It had been a while since I had seen so many excited teenage girls, all dressed up, lined up, and made up.

Justin Bieber concert O2 Arena, Berlin

During the time of the concert, I was fortunate to meet up with a new friend in Berlin. We now have gone from meeting online on facebook to our first personal encounter. We had agreed to meet in front of the concert hall and from there on, we walked to the nearest bistro, which happened to be near the Oberbaumbrücke in Kreuzberg.

The weather was just perfect to sit outside and my friend and I got to know each other a bit better. Got to see a few Paradiesvögel (exotic creatures) pass by, lots of young people on bikes, and trains up in the air.

After we said our goodbyes, it was time to head back to the O2 Arena to pick up the two girls. When you stand there for about 20 minutes, searching for familiar faces, all the girls end up looking the same. Most had the same hair color, same hair length, similar ages, and were dressed in similar fashion. Some came out screaming Justin!, or geil!, while others made loud noises to relieve the pressure.

My daughter told me that Justin had a cake prepared on stage for his mom’s birthday (02 April) and he got the audience to sing her the Happy Birthday song.

Around 10 p.m., my feet felt flattened out, my eyes were fatigued from all the new sights, and my brain cells commanded me to hit the pillow. So we headed back to the hotel by S-Bahn and I got a good night’s sleep to prepare me for part two of chaperoning and sight-seeing in Berlin.

The Smallest Berlin Souvenir

… can be had from a shiny 10 cent coin:

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

light, practical, customs-free, easy to find, and low-priced.

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