The Berlin portion of this trip concluded Friday evening at der Monarch in Kreuzberg.  The second-floor bar and occasional live music venue on Skalitzerstr is a little tricky to locate.

In one of a few doofus moves I’ve made on this trip so far, I mistakenly walked into a venue down the block, handed the guy my ticket and hung out in the wrong place for a half hour.

When I noticed what appeared to be bongos on stage and a steady stream of dance hall and ska sounds coming from the DJ booth, I grew suspicious and a little panicky.  I came all the way out here in large part to see The Babies and I didn’t want to miss ’em.

I went back to the doorman and sought confirmation I was at der Monarch.

Negative.  I had mistakenly entered Festsaal where the night’s bands included Dreadnut Inc. and Ganjaman.

Since the doorman had already ripped the stub off my ticket, he sought the club’s manager’s advice to help get me out of this pickle.  .

I didn’t get the guy’s name, but he was nice enough to walk me down the street to der Monarch and explain to the people there that I had already had my ticket ripped at Festsaal.

Now in the right place, I ordered a Staropramen (3.7 euros) and breathed a sigh of relief.

The Babies were the only band on the card.  The cut-to-the-chase aspect of no opening act made the evening feel special.  The band ate a heavy meal in the neighborhood prior to hitting the stage.  The room was hot and smoky.  That didn’t seem to slow any of them down.  The performance was exceptional and energetic.  The crowd filled the venue and was totally into it.  Kevin Morby (above right) worked in a few danke schoens at the ends of tunes.  The stage barely had room for a quartet which limited Morby’s prowling and darting.  Both Cassie Ramone and Brian Schleyer (from the left- above) were positioned such that they could look out the window to see busy and freaky Skalitzerstr down below.  Both could be seen stealing glances as the U-Bahn trains racing in and out of Kottbusser Tor station across the street.  Drummer Justin Sullivan (holding the sticks) laid on extra oomph as Moonlight Mile climaxed.  The band added drama to Cassie’s “See the Country” with a thunderstorm of sound to conclude the tune.

What can you say?  It was a great show.

The band will put its rented tour van on a ferry boat Saturday to cross the Baltic Sea en route to Malmo.

One bit of band news:  Look for a Kevin Morby solo record (with production help from Babies friend Rob Barbato) out on Woodsist later this year.

Earlier Friday, I tried to get around a bit to see some sights.  The Holocaust Memorial (pictured above) blew me away.  I don’t understand the controversy over its vagueness.  Its power is in its symbolism (coffins) and the prominent real estate it sits on.  I skipped Checkpoint Charlie but saw the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag.  The latter is fronted by a huge parcel of open parkland with full public access.

How bout’ that?  One of the world’s most powerful countries has the seat of its government next to a giant lawn used by people to picnic and play frisbee on.  As it should be.

I only scratched the surface of this city but I’d have to say I was most taken by the energy and spirit of Kruezberg neighborhood in the immediate vicinity of Kottbusser Tor.

My hotel in Berlin was four stars.  I stayed at the Scandic property near Potsdamer Platz.  I chose the place largely because I previously made the Stockholm arrangements off glowing touts of Scandic’s progressive approach to business.  I figured if Scandic was so popular in Sweden, they’d be good in Berlin.  Scandic has chain-like presence in Scandinavia and they have two hotels in Germany.  The one I stayed at has 561 rooms.  The rate was 116 Euros a night tax included.  They let me check in early.  The room was wonderful.  The hotel lobby is just steps from the Mendelssohn U-Bahn stop on the U2 line.

When I woke up Friday, I went down to the restaurant to check out the buffet line.  It was the most beautiful breakfast spread I’ve ever seen at a hotel restaurant.  Several varieties of pickled herring caught my eye immediately.  There was fruit, eggs, a cheese table and about 30 different types of breads and pastries.  The coffee was excellent.  I ate like a kaiser.  The flat 20 euro charge for the buffet was totally worth it given the quality and range of the offerings.

Berliners aren’t discreet about launching happy hour on their commutes home or on the way out to meet friends.  It’s not uncommon to see people carrying large bottles of beer in plain view.  Even at the airport early Saturday morning, I saw two older couples sip from bottles of Beck’s before joining the security line.  It’s hard to imagine this taking place in the United States given our reliance on the automobile.  But in Berlin, it seems like most everybody rides bikes or uses perhaps the finest public transit system in the world.

Those who root for bike share’s success in New York can look to Berlin as a model for a city’s successful harmony between bikes, trains, buses and cars.  Dedicated bike lanes respected as such are a nice starting point.  But to mesh heavily-used bike ways with automobile traffic, the bicyclist must be savvy in adhering to sometimes complex requirements at traffic lights and pedestrian walkways.  Berlin bike riders seem to have it down to a science.  I was in awe.  Bikes everywhere.