"The Storm Clouds Gather" ... with apologies to W. Churchill

We awoke this morning to clouds and chilly temperatures. I had brought short sleeve shirts and short pants and a couple of pair of dress pants. If the turn in the weather persists, I'll be wearing my dress clothes the rest of my time here since Fall seems to have descended on Berlin overnight. Of course, it's as true here as everywhere else, the weather seems to change by the hour. By noon, the skies were sunny again, though it remains somewhat chilly.

My great adventure of today was trying to get these damn American Express traveller's checks cashed. Paul and I spent about an hour and a half this morning trying to locate a place that would exchange them for Euros without charging an outrageous surcharge for doing so. One bank wanted 8 Euros (the equivalent of about $10.00) per check for each exchange. I passed, so the search continued. Then someone told us that there was an American Express office somewhere near the Wittenbergplatz where they would exchange them for free. Paul dropped me off on the corner and said the Amex office was around the corner and up one flight of stairs, yet when I got to the area he had specified, no American Express sign was anywhere to be seen. So I asked a shop keeper if she knew where the American Express office was and she pointed me off in the "right" direction and told me it was about a 5 minute walk. I walked ... and walked ... and walked, etc. and still no signs of the Amex office.

Finally I asked someone else if they could direct me and they indicated it was on Bayreuther Strasse, which, if you could hear the German pronunciation, sounds more like boy-roy-ta strasse, so I went looking for a street that I thought might be Boyroyta Strasse. After a long and anxiety filled walk I saw the sign for Bayreuther Strasse and thought I was home free. Not so fast, fat man. On that street I saw no familiar blue and white American Express sign, so I pondered what to do. Would Paul give up on me and leave, figuring I'd somehow find my way back to his house? Would I be lost in Berlin forever? I felt a bit like a small child who has gotten separated from his parent in a department store and can think of no solution but to cry at the top of his lungs in the hope that some kind soul will take pity and help him find his mother ... but I resisted the urge.

Instead I asked one more shop owner where the American Express Office was and he said, "about 100 meters down the street on the left." With renewed hope, I made my way over those hundred meters triumphantly and hurriedly and there I finally found the office. I exchanged my $200.00 for �168.44 and felt damn lucky to get away with that much. There was no surcharge, thank goodness, but the exchange rate was 1.187400 Dollars to the Euro.

The greenback ain't what she used to be folks! And neither is the American Express traveller's check. Feel free to leave home without them.

I was lucky, however, in procurring a CompactFlash card reader for a mere � 8,99, which for those of you back home is about $10.00, and that included the required USB cable. Now I should be able to get the pictures from my camera to the computer and ultimately to my photo gallery website. Once I've had a chance to get something posted, I'll provide a link from this website. If I can ever get past the "getting ready to start to commence to begin" phase, I may just be able to enjoy my visit to Berlin. Life, as they say, is what happens while you are making up your mind!

But for now, that's enough of this coverage.

- posted by Perry @ 9:54 AM