Greetings from Deutschland.

After collecting decent-sized payoffs on successful Derby and Preakness win wagers, I decided to use the cash on travel rather than give it all back to the track on Belmont Day.

I’m doing 48 hours in Berlin and 72 hours in Stockholm.

I flew in Wednesday night out of Newark on a 757-200.  The seven and a half hour non-stop to Berlin’s Tegel Airport was smooth.  A teenage girl approached me just before the cabin door closed in Newark and asked if I would mind trading my exit row aisle seat in “economy plus” for her regular coach aisle seat several rows back so she could sit next to her pal.  I quickly weighed the variables and declined the offer.

The long trip passed quickly with the help of a stack of daily newspapers and some catch-up on a month’s worth of New Yorker magazines.  I really enjoyed the Kim Gordon piece.  About 50 movies were loaded on the plane’s entertainment system which is controlled individually through touch screens on the backs of seats.

None of the offerings interested me really but I did watch Not Fade Away.  It was kinda bad although I stuck with it and thought the ending was original and out there.

The woman seated in front of me puffed on an electric cigarette at regular intervals throughout the flight.  A wisp of odor-less smoke rose above her as she exhaled but it dissipated much quicker than the real stuff.  I’m not sure if this newfangled nicotine fix is within the rules of commercial aviation but nobody seemed to care.  The same woman (she spoke German and was traveling with her backwards-hat-wearing boyfriend) made several hearty attempts to recline her seat back but couldn’t make it move.  Since the row behind her is an exit row, the chairs are locked upright.  She didn’t realize this and persisted in efforts to muscle the seat back before a flight attendant finally informed her that her attempts were futile.

Arrival at Tegel was easy.  The passport stamper didn’t quiz me and it took a total of ten minutes to clear customs and pick up my one piece of checked luggage.

Tegel dates to 1960.  It’s due to be replaced in the next year or so by a new facility called Brandenburg south of city center.  Tegel’s hexagon layout reminds me of how Chicago-Midway used to look before it was enlarged and renovated.  Among the carriers doing business at Tegel is Iran Air.

I arrived Tegel at about 8 AM Thursday.  To avoid entering the scrum of Berlin’s public transit system during the morning rush hour, I killed a couple hours at the airport taking in the scene.  I had a “milchkaffee” (4.1 euros) at the Wiesn stand across from the Aegean ticket counter and studied the public transit map handed to me at the visitor information desk.

The bus/train combo to my hotel near Potsdamer Platz was easy.  I bought a one-day unlimited use transit ticket for 6.5 euros and made multiple subway trips later in the day.

My sleep is out of whack and I’m gonna cut this short right now to crash in synch with the local time but I’m blown away by the city so far.  I had a few cold ones at this giant outdoor beer garden near the Eberswalder U-Bahn.  I covered a lot of territory in Kreuzberg late this afternoon and I have a full day tomorrow to hit some of the must-see sights.

The Babies do a show here tomorrow night.  The weather is perfect after drenching rains in these parts the last few weeks.  Public transit is incredible.  I don’t have a Belmont pick and I’m not even sure I’ll see it.  But if I had to make a pick, I’d take the longest three Pletcher trainees and play a $10 exacta box.  More in the next day or two.