(Part of the brick line that replaces what was the Berlin Wall all around east Berlin)

You may or may not remember from our tour of France and Spain earlier this year that the thing I most regretted was not knowing the languages. Because without a working knowledge of the local language it’s very difficult to have a conversation with the local people. Without conversation there’s no way get their view of the world, or even to hear the local stories.

(The last remaining guard tower. Young east German guards sat (or maybe stood?) watching the wall from this tower on twelve hour shifts)

This problem was not a problem in Berlin! No, I didn’t learn German overnight, everyone speaks English! Probably not everyone, but most people and the others were so friendly that you almost thought they were!

(Beautiful church on beautiful square in beautiful Berlin)

For example in the hotel one of the waiters was the spitting image of (looked very like…) Ryan Tubridy (for those not living on our little island he’s a talk show host). Of course I told him. And was very entertained as he googled some pictures. Unfortunately I like the original Ryan and had never noticed that he’s not really that handsome…. So there was a tense moment when our new friend Rodger (the waiter) found a picture and noticed the big ears he had in common with Ryan (the famous one). But we all laughed….. well I did.

You see that’s the deep kind of conversation we’d have missed without a common language.

Conversation is good, Mairead.