Dom and Dinner

I walked around the Berliner Dom area today while waiting for my Gainesville friends Tamara and David to arrive. Although the disco-balled T.V. Tower is at least 1,000 yards away, it often appears as part of the Dom. Today was a classic Berlin day: sunshine, five minutes of light rain, a 10-degree drop in the temperature and then back to how it was an hour ago.

After Tamara and David arrived, we walked from the hotel all the way to Amrit, an Indian restaurant across from Tacheles.

Tacheles is a former department store that became a squatter art colony after the fall of the Wall in 1989. It's become more commercialized and permanent during the past few years, but continues to startle visitors with its graffiti-covered hallways, techno music and an ironworks sculpture garden out back. Tacheles is about as Berlin as it gets.