Germany's Capital: Berlin

This weekend we went to Berlin with some of Matt's classmates. When we arrived we took a tour right away. Berlin is Germany's biggest tourist destination but it is so massive that you hardly feel crowded at all. But since it is so massive it is hard to get your bearings on your own. The tour guide didn't tell us much more than what I had read out of our Rick Steves book but it was so helpful to have someone navigate for us for a couple hours. Our Hotel was right on Alexander Platz where there was a cool fountain and a very informational exhibit on the post-hitler alternative youth culture. We walked down the main drag, Unter Den Linden, to Brandenburg Gate. Along the way this is some of what we saw:

Martin Luther Statue with a dash of protest.

Small Cold War memorial in the middle of a park.

Here we have the Berlin Cathedral.

Humboldt University. 27 noble prize winners have taught here, including Albert Einstein.

This is the courtyard where infamous Nazi book burning took place. Among the 20,000 books banned and burned there was one with the passage, "when you start by burning books, you end with burning people." The memorial above is a glass window that shows into a room with enough empty book shelves to hold the all the books that were burned. Matt is tap dancing on the memorial.

This is the Russian embassy. I loved it because of the USSR symbols still above the window!

Does this balcony look familiar??

This is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews WWII. It was completely entrancing. We could wander and rome all through the different concrete tombstone like blocks.

Beautiful Brandenburg Gate. The statue on top was originally named Goddess of Peace. When Napoleon took over Prussia, however, he stole it and took it the Louvre in Paris. When Napoleon was overthrow they stole it back and renamed her the Goddess of Victory.

Reichstag Building: This is Germany's Parliment building. It burned down in 1933 (many believe this was Hitlers doing) and it wasn't rebuilt until 1999.

This is at the top of the Reichstag in the glass dome on the top.

After the Parliment Building we roamed around the streets South of Unter den Linden where the Nazi and Wall history is rich. But we made a happy stop first:

This is Gendarmenmarkt Square. There are twin churches on either side (one French, one German) and the Berlin Symphony's concert hall is in the middle. This was the most charming block of Berlin.

Just on the corner of Gendarmenmarkt Square is Europes biggest Chocolate shop, Fassbender & Rausch. We tried a handful of truffles and a few different levels on chocolate and it all was so delicious! All over the store they have these enormous chocolate masterpieces.

This is just the bottom of the wall to an old bank. The holes in the concrete are bullet holes from WWII. So crazy!

Right under this parking lot is Hitler's Bunker. This is where he plotted, hid, and commited suicide.

The Berlin Wall! Even though the wall is gone, they have traced the entire thing with this double cobblestone line.

Some remnants of the Berlin Wall.

This is Check Point Charlie. Many people died trying to cross the wall into Western Berlin. The big picture on the right is of a soviet soldier looking over eastern Berlin. The other side of the picture has an American Soldier looking over the West.

We followed the cobblestone trace of the Berlin Wall for 3 miles until we came to this, The East Side Gallery. This is the biggest remaining stretch of the Wall. It is about a mile long and is covered with murals by artists from around the world.

It Started raining so we booked it to the nearest train station to find dinner.

Vapianos was the coolest restaurant! The table we are sitting at had a real huge tree growing out of the middle of it. They hand made all of their pasta and made killer pizza! My pizza has 3 types of cheese including shredded parmesan and gorgonzola, procuito, and figs! it was so tasty.

And then on the way home we passed a car show room and matt couldn't help himself!

Berlin was Awesome! So much scary recent history and incredible innovation all rolled into a huge, busy, ever-changing city. We loved it.

Prague, CZ

Prague. My goodness PRAGUE! I sometimes have a hard time believing our life right now. Matt works hard at school but these long weekends have been incredible! Europe is so special. It blows my mind that every weekend we can end up in a new country with its own unique history. Prague's history and cultural landscape have been the most interesting by far. I learned so much!

This is what we saw every morning walking from our hotel to Charles Bridge.

Charles Bridge is so charming. There is a statue every 100m on either side of you and even closer together than that are people selling hand made jewelry and paintings. In medieval times there were no statues but I learned that the first statue ever put on the bride was a cross- paid for by a fine a Jewish man had to pay. This Statue below is of a Czech Saint named John of Nepomuk. Apparently Catholics come from all over the world to See him. If you touch his statue then you will have one wish granted.

Here is Matt making his wish on the John of Nepmuk statue

We visited The Castle Quarters...

Over the entrance arch are two pairs of wrestling giants.

St Vitus Cathedral

The palace has the most amazing view of Prague!

This was outside of the tourture chambers and prisons.

Pragues rooftops

the building on the right is St. Nicholas cathedral

Matt saw this wall from the top of the palace and we spent an hour roaming around looking for it!

We also roamed around Little Quarter...

John Lenon Wall that I made us search for

Around the corner we ran into this gate with "love locks" all over it. The idea is to write the names of the love birds on a lock and then attach it to this gate to represent your love. I tried to convince matt that if one of us had the other in a head lock by the gate then our love would be represented well- but he just wanted to hug.

This is a monument to the Victims of Communism Who Survived. As the figures get further away, chunks of the statue are taken out. It depicts communism perfectly.

Prague's New Town:

It is the coolest feeling to learn about a Country's past while you are standing where it all happened.

On our way to the mall (guess who makes us go to a mall in every country... the one on the left, thats who) we saw this awesome piece of art! It says "Revolution" and it is made entirely out of wire and old keys. Every where you look there is either remnants of a dictator or remnants of a revolution. The spirit that the Czech's have is unbelievable.

Our Frank Ghery Building! This one is nick named "Fred and Ginger" since it looks like the buildings are dancing. The real name of the building is the Dancing House.

We saw Les Sylphide (a great little ballet) inside the most gorgeous theatre I have ever been in. The National Theatre is nicknamed the "Cradle of Czech Culture." More money is poured into this theatre every year than all Czech film production.

After the ballet we got dinner at Cafe Louvre. It's been in business since 1902 but still draws a young energetic crowd. Albert Einstein ate here :) The idea of this Cafe is to feed thinkers. They keep pads of paper for notes on the table and sell their art off the walls. It had a good feel with some real good food! The top dish is traditional Czech food, and the bottom plate is a sundried tomato and ham stuffed chicken. So delicious.

Prague's Old Town:

Olds Town center square. The statue is of Jan Hus-the founder of the Hussite religion. My favorite thing about this square is how almost every big building looks like it is from a different era. Every couple meters tells a new chapter in history.

Astronomical Clock.

Jewish Quarter: During the Nazi era this was a small area were jews were allowed to collect and archive their treasures.

This is the Old Jewish Cemetery. This was the only place that the czech jews were allowed to bury their dead for a couple hundred years. Since jews believe that once a body has been buried it cannot ever be moved it got pretty packed...

While we walked through, all of the men were asked to wear these.

Our final view on the way home. You can see the Castle Quarters up on the hill. So pretty!

Cologne, the Dom and the Rhine

Another amazing weekend in Germany! This time with a little more company, THE MASONS!

We went to the Hannover main station friday morning and got ready to board the train. Matt had a paper to work and since his adult ticket is valid in 1st class, that was the obvious place to do it. My youth ticket however is only valid in second class so I read the signs and followed the platform down to my area. We lost each before the train even arrived. We didn't realize that we had boarded DIFFERENT TRAINS until I was 10 minutes from the heart Cologne and Matt was stuck in a different city trying to board another train since his shut down! While I was bored waiting for Matt to arrive I wandered outside and as soon as my eyes could adjust to the sunlight my jaw dropped. The Cologne Dom (or Cathedral) was breathtaking! It would stun even the most jaded of travelers with its grand and gothic massive spires:
Once we regrouped and dropped our bags at the hotel we wandered the city. We saw men in costumes, accordion players, skateboarding tricks, rollerblade groups doing insane movements, chalk artists in front of the cathedral, throngs of scary punk people (no offensive Lauren) and their dogs, a pianist with his instrument on wheels and more! The city was so alive and eclectic. After our wanderings we sat down for dinner on the Rhine River. Although it was about 40 something degrees, while in europe i can never resist a quaint table outside on the patio. (Almost freezing weather is nothing a space heater and blanket can't fix right?)

It started to get dark and we knew the Mason Family was in the same city as us so we mustered up our best set of stalking skills and tried to track them down. After much splitting up, asking 2 different hotels if they had Mason guests, circling the town and every nearby major attraction... we found them! It was so dark that it took them about 2 minutes to deduce that it was their cousins ruining the family photo they were trying to take.

Day 2: Woke up and headed to the Köln Dom to meet the gang. I just have to tell everyone that matt ate 2 Berliners (better known as jelly doughnuts in the states) for breakfast! Yuck/yum. We went and explored the MASSIVE cathedral. That pretty stone structure had everything in it- exquisite tapestries, stained glass windows, multiple organs and sets of pipes, an awesome mosaic floor,relics, bones and jewelry of their patron saints and catacombs of many other saints (some definitely over 100 years old and some just 10 years old!) It was amazing. My favorite part of the experience was getting to climb the 533 stairs to the belfry in the tallest spire. The narrow staircase had people squeezing their way both up and down, and the view of the city and river was amazing.

The Cathedral Staircase

The view from the top.

Next we walked down the river and headed over to the Lint Chocolate Factory/Museum. They had multiple exhibits but the only thing that really sticks out was the chocolate fountain. The fountain was a tower of gold coco beans with a vat of swirling chocolate beneath them. If you waited patiently behind the velvet rope (or just cut to the front everytime like we did) you are greeted by a lady in white clothes handing you wafers dripping with chocolate from the fountain. It was amazing! I dont think any of us had less than 5, and Ty probably had about ten but Colin was the obvious favorite of the chocolate lady.

Chocolate fountain

Simulated Rain Forrest where they grow a coco tree.

We tried about 5!

We got some quick lunch at the station, and tried to find the 7411 Eau De Cologne museum. Yes thats right everybody, Cologne has its name because of the frenchman who came here and invented the perfume water. Interesting tidbit: his original creation was first sold as a cure-all ointment. Before we made it there however we stumbled across a random small museum that Heidi had gone to on her last visit here so we took a detour. That small historic museum was so cool! German history is so interesting, especially in this catholic town. The paintings and armor were very cool and the WWII history was sobering. We finally made it to Eau de Cologne and all put on some cologne water from the little fountain. It was fun.

We walked around the big and crowded shopping district, then ate dinner at the highly recommended XII Apostle. Each of their pizza's is named for a different apostle (the Judas pizza was the most spicy). We all had full belly's and decided to take a stroll before the premeditated sin we would commit later that night known as dessert.

We walked down to see if the puppet theatre was open- it wasn't. But the fair across the River was! So we followed the flashing lights and ventured across not knowing what we would find. We found bumper cars that went faster than any we've seen in america, a candy wagon, and the craziest ride Matt, Ty or I have ever been on! It was on the same par as X2 at Magic Mountain! The stats showed it reached a speed of about 60 miles an hour, and had a force of 4G's. At one point I swore I was about to black out! Most of the time we were just laughing and screaming uncontrollably but there was one point where everyone just got silent because the force was so great it just paralyzed you! I couldn't believe a ride like that would be at a mobile fair. This video of it/post ride interview doesn't do it justice I swear. The cage flips like crazy at the climax of the ride.



We went back with so much renewed energy and pride in our accomplishment that we ran almost the entire way across the bridge. For dessert we got amazing apple strudels. By our last bite we were just exhausted from our day. The next morning we woke up still tired and had a nice breakfast before we headed home. Another great weekend :)

For the ADD in my family and for my busy friends - here is the short version:
Trip High: Tie between the 533 stair climb to the top of the tower and the insane ride at the fair.
Trip Low: The freeeeezing wind!
Trip confession: While watching the street performers I secretly really wanted to be one.
Favorite Picture:

Cologne Skyline