We left early for Berlin.  It is a four hour drive behind the iron curtain to get to Berlin right.  We were checked by about about 6 different guards and gates and it took us over an hour of red tape to get over the border.  It cost the four of us and the car $16.  They really check you and harass you enough to make it irritating to even to in.  They are deliberately annoying to you at borders.  They thoroughly checked the car, under seats, in truck, etc. and have a device a mirror, on wheels they roll up under the car to check underneath.  We were somewhat aghast though when we realized that, while one was questioning us, another had wheeled his mirror into good position to look up our skirts.  The whole border is plastered with banners, pictures, etc. advertising the “German Democratic Republic”. 

We drove on four hours to Berlin, Western Sector,  We spent the afternoon looking along Kurfurstendam.  Berlin is all new and modern “5th Avenue” shops, movies, sidewalk cafes, etc., along a quite elegant wide boulevard built with  U.S.dollars.   We stopped in a sidewalk café for a Berlin specialty – Berliner Weissmit Himbeer (white beer with a fruit syrup foamed into it).  Tastes sort of like strawberry champagne.

We visited the Kaiser Wilheim Mrmorial Church, an ultramodern simple steel and glass octagonal and bell tower built around the ancient gothic styled, bombed and shattered remains of the old church.  Only the shell of the old tower remains, new church surrounds it.  Also remaining is one statue a huge marble Christ, which now wears the unknown artwork of someone scrounging in the rubble during the bombing.  A red face and a red hammer and sickle across the robe.  The Church is very impressive. 

We drove to see the Brandenbeurger Ror (Gate) from our side (you can drive up to it but can’t get out) and past the huge Russian Monument with tanks and soldiers guarding it.  You can view it from behind a large expanse of rolled and tangled barbed wire fence.  We saw the West Sectors Victory Column, 215 feet high with a gold winged victory on top, ate currywurst for dinner , then went to the hostels.  Two downtown were full so we had to go to one way out in the sticks on the edge of Western Sector – in the forest.  We figured this would happen since in Germany cars are forbidden in hostels.  This means we usually park around the corner.  Lat night we parked about 100 meters down the road and walked back to the hostel.

We drove from Paris to Verdun, Manheim, Frankfurt and finally  Erlangen.   Beautiful countryside with half timbered villages and acres and acres of forests.  When we got to Erlangen we straightened our our luggage stored with Jeannine, got the car checked and bought some tires at the Army base.  We went to a small shop in Erlangen just to look and ended up buying leather coats.  We got them for $45.00.  We are also stocking up on nylons here.  We can buy them for 1DM 25 cents a pair. 

We are now sitting in the hostel in Erlangen and have just finished packing for Berlin.  We leave tomorrow with only one suitcase for all four of us, to make it easier at the border.   

We spent Friday at the American Express where it took an hour and a half to cash a check.  They wouldn’t cash it at all at first.  Then we tried to line up a ship – finally got space on the Greek line Arkadia from Amserdam  to Montreal   at $178 each.  It is the cheapest we’ve heard of.  To ship the car at the last minute they had an auto cancellation and gave us the room for our car right on the Arkadia for $120 ($30 less even than freight rates)  All we have to do is to keep our mouths shut to other passengers.  We have tickets all paid for.  

Today we first went to the café de la Paix and then to the Louvre, where we saw among other things the Venus De Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace (Nike) and the Mona Lisa.  We walked home along the Seine. 

We visited the Isle de la Cite, the old city hall and Notre Dame Cathedral.  Then to the Tower of St. Jacques, over to  Les Halles (many blocks of markets area – rish, fruit stands, meat cutters .  We walked up Montmarte and saw the Sacre Cour, a beautiful church on the top the hill. 

Tonight we went to the Opera Comique and saw the ballet from a  box seat $1.40  This is the first time we’ve sat down to see anything.  

In Orleans we looked up the Army boys at the U.S. Army Hospital that we met in Barcelona.  They got us each a carton of cigarettes for $1.50.  We drove on to Versailles on the outskirts of Paris where we saw the huge Palace of Louis IIV the Gold covered gates, the Hall of Mirrors and Hall of Peace where peace treaties from the wars were signed and the table they were signed on.    We found a little hotel on the Left Bank for about $1.40 a night.  We later discovered  that we were in the heart of the Latin Quarter in the Beatnik section.  Is is an Ideal location, a block from the Seine. 

We met some really nice people in Paris and some not so nice.  People seemed to be one extreme or another.  The desk clerk at the first hotel we tried ticked us off by screaming “ you must remember you are in France now.  We’re poor here, not rich like all you Americans.” 

We left Nice day before yesterday,  picked up the luggage at American Express and headed north to Orleans.  We had met some boys in Barcelona who were stationed at Orleans and they promised us a steak dinner if we’d come visit them.  We planned to stop at Cannes and Lyon on the way.  And we had to spend one afternoon sitting in a garage in Avignon, France getting the clutch adjusted.    

Our trip has gone fast.  There is so much to see, so much left unseen that we hope to come back to.  But traveling as a student in hostels, on bread and cheese is wearing.  We’re dirty (10 days between hot water) and tired.  We are getting ready to wind this trip up.  We feel like we’ve learned a lot about the world and its people but most of all, we see that even in new modern Europe, we, in America, are really lucky with life and what we’ve got.  Comparing American prices to incomes and European prices to incomes, we are well off.  Europe is simply not cheap for the Europeans.  There is a relatively small upper class and a very large lower class.  Being a middle class American is being born under and lucky star. 

 Today is  Easter Sunday and we began the day by sneaking out of the hostel without doing duty (mopping floors, cleaning latrines, etc.) which means double duty tomorrow.  We went to church at St. Charles in Monte Carlo then looked around the Casino, Monte Carlo and Monaco City.  We drove back to Nice and saw part of Le Bataille Des Fleurs – a flower float parade, watched some of the sailboat and hydroplane races in the Bay of Angels and then indulged in three hours of “people watching” till sunset before going out to eat and meeting some French acquaintances from the afternoon.   The main area in Nice is the Promenada Des Anglais – a wide, palm lined  boulevard with hotels on one side and ocean on the other.  On Sundays, half of the world rents chairs for 20 fr and sits all along the Promenade and watches the other half of the world promenade.  We were with some French boys – Alain, Jean-Paul, Gilbert and Marcel.  We sat and watched and you can’t  imagine how fascinating it is.  Literally thousands of people strolling.  There is a huge PA system all along the boulevard and they play good music which adds to the interest.  It was just like one big candid camera.  What a funny farm.

We drove from Florence to the Riviera.  It proved to be a much longer drive than we expected because of the condition of the road and we had brake trouble while coming down the road at about 11:00 pm.  We couldn’t go on so we just slept in the car by the roadside until morning.   We were awakened by two policemen peering in about 6 am.  They were just  who we hoped to see.  We found out from them how to get to a mechanic.  We got the brakes fixed and came on to Nice to pick up our luggage in storage.  It was at the American Express which was closed for Easter so we will have Saturday, Sunday and Monday in Nice.  Nice!

Today we saw the huge white, red and green marble Duomo, Michelangelo’s “David” and the unfinished “Pieta”, the Uffizi Gallery, Gallerie D’Accademie, the Pallizoo Veccchio and Ponte Vecchio.  We shopped in the Straw Market and then departed.  We bought beautiful mohair handknit Italian sweaters for $3.80 apiece.