I rented a beat up single gear bike from the hostel and rode into downtown. I had identified a few locations of interest: two libraries and the "gay museum", which purportedly has exhibitions on LGBT life in Germany throughout the ages.
Eight kilometers later, I found myself at Berliner Stadtbibliothek, one of the two locations that the Berlin State library calls itself home to.
It had everything I love about libraries, including plentiful seating, free WiFi, outlets, and, as a bonus, one euro coffee at the builtin cafe. I spent some time there working on my Spanish and finishing up blog posts before heading out to the next closest destination on my list, Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek.
AG is the second building housing the Berlin State Library's collection, and was partially funded by the United States during the beginning of the Cold War. Whereas Stadtbibliothek is where books on medicine, law, mathematics, computers, (among other things) are kept, AG holds books on religion, social sciences, music, etc. There's a fairly wide selection of sheet music available to be checked out. All of these cool state libraries I've been visiting makes me wonder what Washington State's state library is like. (I can already feel my expectations being lowered in anticipation of that Google search).
I spent some time at AG browsing the shelves and taking advantage of the free WiFi before getting back on my bike for the long ride home. I took a wrong turn after passing through Alexanderplatz and ended up pedaling a few more kilometers than necessary. Luckily, Berlin is mostly flat.
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