Saturday, September 22, 1928
Today I started out with a walk east on Unter den Linden. From the University of Berlin on for quite a distance it would take but little imagination to think you were in ancient Rome or Greece. The University is composed of a number of large, attractive buildings. Just east the street widens out into a very large place. Crossing a canal you have a very large government building on the right, the roof ornamented with many statues. In front of it and across the street from this, the Schloss, formerly the royal palace, is a large group of statues and monuments in sort of an amphitheater.
To the left, almost hidden by trees, is the large Museum of Liberal Arts. It is built in old Greek style with large pillars all across the front. Inside was a fine collection of busts, statues, etchings, sketches, etc. To the right and toward the back of the museum is another Greek-style building. Here is also the Dom (Kaiser’s church). It is a huge affair and very beautiful, with a large dome and smaller domes on each corner. It too, as all the other large buildings, has many statues on it. Every direction you look you see large domes, tall towers and spires and great buildings with large pillars and many statues. Berlin is full of such buildings and monuments and statues.
Going to the Am.Exp.Co. I got my suitcase, a little more banged up. Cost 32 marks to ship it from Paris—$8.00. Gosh, but that was a blow. It is things like that that keep me eating a ¾ meal and a loaf of bread a day. Got all dressed up and rode west on the Unter den Linden on the bike. The ride was certainly a pretty one; through a big woods broken now and then by a pathway, and all in the heart of the city. I fear Berlin has Paris whipped. Saw many large imposing churches. Even many cafes are very large and luxurious, some looking more like a big public building.
At two I was at Madame Corelli’s. She received me in the kitchen and I felt very much at home. We had a dandy lunch and afterward she told me something of her life and showed me letters, etc. from Houdini, who was a relative of hers. Her father was a multimillionaire, but her stepmother got it in some way or another. She has many wreathes given her and pictures from artists—one from Caruso. Before I left, I accepted her invitation to breakfast tomorrow at the Zoological Gardens. Rode a roundabout way back to hotel. Then went window-shopping. There are lots of pretty displays.
This big cost of shipping my suitcase is too much. It would cost near $30 to get it to Rome. Therefore I am giving it and my blanket to Madame Corelli and am taking practically everything with me on my bike except my suit, knickers, a pair of shoes, and three white shirts.
Had the best time this evening throwing things away. Monday I shall buy a small suitcase. Spent $1.33 today, hotel included. This will be a hard month for the financial end. Such a start! $11 sunk on visas and suitcase already and $10 more to go for Italian visa. That leaves me about $33 for 40 days and a suitcase to buy and ship to Rome. I’ll do it some way or other. Gosh, but it’s cold here. Guess I’ll hoist anchor Tuesday.