Soldiers Returning Home

The last of the troops are coming in and the kids' dads are returning. It's a very happy time for everyone! Here is a nice picture of the soldiers returning to the hanger

Berlin!

As soon as school was done (and we were free to leave of course). Sunshine and I headed over to Nuremberg with Cherith, who again was so kind and let us crash at her house so that we could take an early morning taxi to the main Nuremberg train station.

The train was direct right to Berlin (5 1/2 hours) which I spent mostly sleeping or organizing my life for my lead teaching week. Unfortunately, the train was delayed for an extra hour on the way there--so we managed to get to Berlin around 12pm. We then found the baggage check in the train station to store our luggage so that we didn't have to carry it around with us until checking in at the hotel and then we bought a all day transportation pass ticket for 6 euros.

We followed the Rick Steves Germany Guidebook and took a bus/walking tour of Berlin on Saturday. We started by taking the Bus #100 to the Reichstag Building--Germany's Parliament Building.

 Me in front of the Reichstag 

 The Glass Cupola at the top. 

 The Memorial of the Politicians who opposed Hitler. Unfortunately, there weren't as many as there should be. 

The Bradenburg Gate. The symbol of Prussian Berlin. At the top is the Goddess of Peace/Victory. The Berlin Wall once blocked passage through here. 

 Off on the side of the gate is the Room of Silence. This is dedicated to the peaceful message of the original gate and not directed to any type of religion, but rather for everyone. 

 I really liked the Prayer of the United Nations 

 A close up of the Goddess of Peace and Victory 

 The United States Embassy is tucked away in the corner as to not draw any unnecessary attention. 

This is the Hotel Aldon- Many famous people have stayed here including Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, Greta Garbo (where she said the famous line "I want to be alone") and this is also the site where Michael Jackson dangled his son out of the balcony. Below is that balcony.  

 Throughout the Eastern Side of Berlin, you will find these type of pedestrian signs. These men are called Ampelmannchen or Ampelmann for short. They are DDR style lights and have become a very popular figure around Berlin. Lots of shops are invested to just selling their products.   

 This building (DZ Bank) was designed by the American Architect Frank Gehry. He is also famous for creating Prague's Dancing House, Chicago's Millennium Park, and LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall. 

 The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. This memorial includes almost 3,000 gravestone-like pillars and cost 27 million euros to make. It is a vast network-maze that has varying sizes and shapes of pillars and you are allowed to walk through the area. 

 This one is for you dad. They had the EXACT nutcracker that you have at home! This one was a bit smaller though. 

 The Ampelmann Store! Items include (But definitely not limited to): dish towels, wine toppers, bags, t-shirts, lights, cookie cutters, banners, posters, etc.  

 The pedestrian lights from around the world 

 We continued our journey down the Unter Den Linden and came across Humboldt University where Einstein taught until 1932. 

 In the same square as the University there is the memorial of the Nazi book burning in 1933. 20,000 books were burned here and inside of this glass square (can't see very well because of the weather) are empty book cases to show all of the books destroyed. 

 Walking along, you can see the Berlin Cathedral and the TV Tower in the distance. 

 The beautiful Berlin Cathedral! 

 Another Holocaust memorial 

 Berlin has many of these bear statues all around town. Berlin --or BEAR-Lin when you add a German accent. 

 The 1,200 foot tall TV Tower

 Another Bear showcasing the Berlin Underground system. 

Arriving from the U-bahn to Checkpoint Charlie 

 The street now accessible to pass through

 The "Charlie" is given to this checkpoint as a security rating system. Charlie is a high level because there were a lot of foreigners trying to escape. 

 Me at Checkpoint Charlie!

 I am now leaving the American Sector 

Better get my passport stamped!! :) 

 The Soviet soldier indicating that I'm entering the Soviet (East) Berlin 

 Two actors are hired to pose as soldiers and take pictures with people. 

 The American soldier telling me I'm entering the American Sector

 You better obey the traffic rules!

 A nice memorial timeline of events of the wall.

 A section of the wall. 

Then we traveled a few u-bahn stops over and entered the East Side Gallery. This "gallery" is a mile long stretch of the Berlin Wall that is complete with various artist work. Every once and awhile, a section is white washed and a new artists paints a picture. Enjoy all of the beautiful and sometimes weird artwork. 

 The west side of the wall. 

 This is a very popular piece of artwork 

 A picture of the beautiful bridge across from the gallery

 I have to get a picture with Batman! 

After that, we decided to head back to the Hauptbahnhof (Main train station), grab some Chinese food for dinner, get our bags, and head over to the hotel. It was starting to snow pretty heavily and we needed to rest since we were up at 4am. We stayed at a Best Western (yes they have those in Germany). The hotel was very nice and provided a wonderful breakfast spread: fresh rolls and breads, jams, bacon and eggs, ham and cheese, a wide selection of yogurt, cereal, juice, fresh fruit, lemon cakes, hard boiled eggs... it really had the works and was a great way to start our Sunday.

So Sunday started with a hour long bus ride (on accident because the bus driver told us the wrong information--for future reference Bus #200 is good only if you are going to Postdam Platz. Then we finally get back on track to see the final things on our list.

Walking through the Tiergarten area on are way to the Victory Column. 

 The Victory Column from a distance--I liked seeing it in between the light post. 

 The Victory Column. This was originally by the Reichstag, but Hitler had it moved and 25 feet added onto it. Obama stood here during his 2008 Presidential Campaign. 

The column still has Nazi Guard Houses circling the roundabout 

Then we made a trip over to the very famous and largest chocolate shop in Europe! Fassbender and Rausch

 Chocolate sculpture of the Reichstag 

 And the Brandenburg Gate 

 So many chocolates!

 And cakes!

 A chocolate sculpture of the Titanic!

And of course a chocolate volcano that erupted chocolate!

The German Cathedral across the street. 

 Berlin also has a VW factory that showcases all of the recent car models. 

 Then we caught another U-bahn over to the Berlin Wall Documentation Center that has the largest remaining whole wall structure that includes both sections of the wall and the no-man's-land "death strip" so named because many people would get killed trying to escape the Soviet rule of East Berlin.

 East Berliners were forced to blockade their homes and windows

 Both sides of the wall and the "death strip" in between

 The Soviet guard station 

 From the viewing area, they have a nice timeline of events that started from the Wall being put up and ended with it being destroyed. I thought this piece was very interesting. 

After that, we went back to the Hauptbahnhof and had a quick late lunch before boarding the 5 1/2 hour train ride back (That turned into 6 hours again because of train delays). The trip was great and I would go back again to see all of the very cool museums that Berlin has to offer. 

And finally, what trip to Berlin isn't complete without trying some of their famous Currywurst. It was very good and you got to choose from 4 different types of spices.