Thursday, May 5, 2011

Something Berlin...

After Poland we headed back into Germany for the next three days of exploring Berlin. It was incredible!  That first day we went right away to the Ka De We, which is a huge shopping mall. 

It is famous because it was partially destroyed in the second world war, but was rebuilt.  The prices were ridiculous but it was fun to wander through for a bit.  Then Steffi and I went to do a little shopping and then headed off to dinner, which I think was McDonalds...first time I've eaten it since coming here.  Later that night Steffi and I went out to an Irish pub for a while to sit and chat and have a beer, great way to end the evening!  :)

Sunday began with us waking up and eating an amazing breakfast of fresh rolls with nutella and jam! So delicious!!  We then took the bus to a cool cathedral in Berlin (Berlinerdom I think it was called). 

It was very cool!  We couldn't go inside because of the Easter services that were in session, but it was still fun to see it! Then we wandered around, looked at some statues (cause they are allll over Europe!) and then we took a boat tour!!

This was pretty sweet..although it would have been a little better if I had been able to understand the guide, but Steffi translated for me so i was able to catch some of it.  We boated around museum island and then saw the parliament buildings and the place where the German Chancellor lives...it's three times the size of the white house!! After our boat tour we meandered through the little market that was right by the river for a while and then headed off to see some more monuments including a war memorial and the Brandenburg gate which was one of the dividing lines between east and west Germany.

Then I got a very cool candy apple which kinda tasted like hardened cotton candy and we went to one of the famous parliament buildings.  This building had a cool dome on top which we got to climb up in!

It was pretty sweet and had a cool view of the city! 
After we spent some time there we hopped on the metro and went to Checkpoint Charlie, one of the most famous places with pieces of the Berlin wall left over.  It was sweet!  We got there and they still had the checkpoint set up in the middle of the road with some guards (not sure if they were real) wearing US uniforms and the sign saying you were leaving the US area or leaving the Soviet area! 

Then we took a walk of about five minutes to where the wall was.  It was cool to see that part of history.  I liked the parts with graffiti the most, but the wall was cool!  We spent a while there and then headed back for dinner which consisted of a beautiful food that looked like a gyro. yummy :)

  The next day we woke up early, ate our wondrous breakfast and went off to Museum Island.  The reason we went was to see the bust of Nefertiti an Egyptian queen.  It was beautiful, I tried to take an illegal picture, but it failed so you will all just have to look her up on the internet.  :)  Then we left Berlin and went to Sanssouci which is a park outside of Berlin with a building that was designed with Versailles as a model.  It was beautiful and green!  (That is something I noticed on this trip...everything is so green and there are real trees with lots of leaves!)
 Berlin was a great time!!

No comments:

Post a Comment