Berlin, Feb 27-March 1

Our next adventure was to head to Berlin. This was the second trip to Germany (recall the video of Amy dancing at Oktoberfest). This was going to be a trip comprised of much less drinking and much more history and the sights. We arrived on Friday night to the Kempinski Adlon Hotel which was located in the heart of Berlin right next to the Brandenburg Gate. The hotel was also famous as the location where Michael Jackson hung his baby (who was drapped in a sheet) over a railing from a few stories up. Leanne - that reference was for you! But, back to the Brandenburg Gate - this was the previous western entrance to the city. It as removed and brought to Paris by Napoleon when he conquered the city, but returned afterwards.




We walked under the Branderburg Gate and headed to the main government headquarters building in Berlin, the impressively large Reichstag. The scale of the building was huge.



Continuing on our walking tour, we headed to the outdoor Holocaust Memorial. It was a very different memorial with slabs on rectangular concrete in varying heights up and down this rolling hill. You could walk in between the concrete.



We then walked to the last remaining piece of the Berlin Wall which had an outdoor museum that discussed the history of the wall. Very interesting.



Anthony couldnt resist bringing back his favorite republican president: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"



We then walked to Checkpoint Charlie which separated West Berlin and East Berlin before the Wall was taken down.



After hopping on a bus (Anthony was getting tired), we got off at the first stop, the Gendarmenmarkt which was a nice square with a theater in the center and two grand cathedrals on either side. In fact, one of the cathedrals was a huge Lutheran church. That church had been transformed into a museum unfortunately, as Amy really wanted to see what an old, grand Lutheran church looked like inside.



Back on foot, we headed to the next site, Bebelplatz, which was a square that had St. Hedwig's Cathedral (a huge dome church) and a library and was across from the most famous German university, Humboldt University. This square was particularly famous, though, for the book burning incident during the Nazi regime. In 1933, 20,000 books were burned in the square. Today, a glass walkway is situated where this happens and looks down on an empty book shelf.



After grabbing a quick lunch, we headed to the largest church in Berlin (because Anthony cant get enough of seeing churches), the Berlinger Dom. It was huge and impressive, although the black sut from the car pollution was all over the exterior of the church.



Next on the agenda was museums. We first visited the Bauhaus museum, which told the story of the cult-like artistic movement of the Bauhaus. Then we walked to the modern museum which Amy was very excited about. As we strolled up, we found out that it was closed. Amy was very disappointed. We then decided to walk to the next step of museums in a cultural center because they were having a special exhibition that Amy was interested in. We walked up, and the exhibition was closed. Amy was, again, disappointed, but we did go into another one of the museums which Amy enjoyed. Better luck next time. Anthony was asking himself, "Just how many museums are in this city?".

We covered a lot of ground on Day 1 and it was time to head back to the hotel, relax with a drink in the hotel lobby (Anthony especially liked the Mango Margarita, while Amy made fun of him for ordering a girlie drink). No rest of the weary, though, as Anthony had to plan out what we were going to do on Sunday....lists, lists and more lists (this is for you Nora).



The next day was a little cloudy, but Anthony had devised another packed day before our flight back to London. First stop was to a 240 story TV Tower that supposedly had great views of Berlin....well, that is, without the fog.




Next door to the TV Tower was ironically the oldest church in Berlin, Marienkirche, built in 1270. We walked into the church and Amy proclaimed, "This is exactly the type of church I want to get married in." Oh, well, said Anthony. Too late now.



There was a cool fountain in the square next to the church.



We then walked around an old, cobble stone area of Berlin known as Nikolaiviertel which was charming and we could envision tons of people walking around the streets and shops during the summer (a little too cold for that now). We then headed towards Museum Island which had tons of interesting museums - the Pergamom Museum which had old Roman ruins which Anthony loved, then the German history museum which was fasicnating.

After the whirlwind adventure came to an end we headed to the airport to come back to London. Looking back on the Berlin trip, it was a jam packed weekend, we felt as though we saw everything in the city. We really enjoyed it as Berlin has a little bit of something for everyone - tons of history, interesting architecture, churchs and museum after museum.