The wall that wasn't torn down

For a city that in my lifetime was so fiercely divided, Berlin has come a long way. These days one can just hop on a train on a Saturday night in Paris and wake the next morning over in Berlin. And that's precisely what I did.

Crazy as it may sound, I went off on a whim and took a day trip to Berlin. On the evening of the very day I arrived, I boarded another overnight train back to Paris. What happened in between was positively lovely.

We breakfasted at Soho House Berlin where we had insider access to a rooftop view across the city as I sipped my strawberry mint smoothie and jasmine tea.

With a couple of MIT alumni traveling through Europe, I spent the day biking through the city. We visited parts of the Berlin Wall that have been covered with murals by artists from around the world.

Parts of the Berlin Wall that weren't torn down but instead have become an outdoor monument

I had a mouth-watering lunch of salmon and sweet potatoes when we ate at an outdoor dining garden area of a local restaurant. Just as we were finishing, we got trapped in the rain, but as luck would have it, the sun came back in not too long.

The time positively flew by in such good company. When we glanced at our watches over our late afternoon coffees we suddenly realized I had to book it to catch my train home. What a perfect day's adventure.