By Paddy
It's going to be an exciting day. I'm looking now for live streaming links that I'll post a little later.
Barack Obama will call on Europe to do more in hotspots like Afghanistan when he speaks in Berlin this evening in his only formal address of a week-long foreign tour.
The presidential candidate held talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel on issues ranging from the global economy, to Iran and Middle East peace after arriving in the German capital from Israel on a trip he hopes will burnish his foreign policy credentials and boost his election chances against Republican challenger John McCain.
In the evening he will speak at the "Victory Column" in Berlin's Tiergarten park, an address German media are comparing to former President John F. Kennedy's 1963 "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. A crowd in the tens of thousands is expected.
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Seven hours before the address, tourists and locals were already queuing up and preparing for a party. On the road to the Victory Column, workmen unloaded beer barrels and built stands decorated in the "Stars and Stripes".
"I'm excited, Obama has charm and charisma and can give us the confidence to like America again," said 18-year old Berlin student Stella Semmelrath. Not everyone, however, was impressed.
"It seems to me like a big show. Americans just want to be loved again but I'm sceptical about it all and have to get to work," said resident Juergen Schumann, 51.
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