Trip: Part 1: Germany

Guten tag! We had a great time in Germany! We ate currywurst, rode the u-bahn and pretty much butchered the German language with every attempt. We spent most of our time in Berlin but were able to escape to the countryside via train one day. With Germany's dark past, this post may read more like a history lesson, than a vacation. Almost every landmark landed us in the middle of WWII or the Cold War. Sometimes both. There were plenty of "Wow. I can't believe I'm standing right here" moments. Sometimes cool. Sometimes creepy.

This is the Brandenburg Gate. Over 200 year's old, the gate was badly damaged during Napoleon's conquest & WWII. Hitler gave speeches here as well as Ronald Reagan. "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Tear down this wall!". The wall stood right in front of it at the time. Obama tried to give a speech here a couple of years ago. The Germans wouldn't let him. Ha!

I'm so proud. My husband dressed as a Soviet soldier. His leather gloves, peacoat and "man's-bag" (think Joey from Friends?) seems to complete the outfit.

Holding his Starbucks (an every-morning must), Ben is standing in Bebelplatz. This is where the Nazis' book burning took place in 1933. Kind of eerie. Behind him is Humbolt Universitat, home of Albert Einstein.

I'm walking through the Holocaust Memorial, a life-sized puzzle of concrete slabs, representing both Jewish & non-Jewish victims.

This is Reichstag, Germany's parliament. Bombed in 1945 and rebuilt with a supposedly-impressive dome. Worthy of a picture. Not of a 2 hour wait.

We made a pit stop at Curry 36, very popular among the locals. Don't let the smile fool you.

The longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall (about 1/2 a mile) is now an art gallery. Artists painted whatever they wanted to on their assigned section, most of which I didn't understand. We gravitated towards the one with an American flag.

This part of the wall hadn't been altered. About 10 feet passed the wall, they're excavating buildings that the Nazis used as their central headquarters. Talk about 2 worlds colliding.

Checkpoint Charlie. This is where American forces, after registering, could cross the wall. This guy spoke broken English and charged 2 euros for a picture. Sure, why not?.

We took a day trip to Wittenburg, about an hour South of Berlin. It was a nice break from the doom & gloom of Berlin's attractions. Wittenburg is where Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door, officially starting the Protestant Revolution against the Catholic church. In addition to the All-Saints church (in the background), we also toured Luther's house and University.

A close-up of "the door" which of course is not the real door, but an expensive, bronze replica with Luther's Theses engraved in it. Still very cool.

Back in Berlin, we toured a few more churches and museums. This church has no significant historical background that I know of, but was instead the church that I wondered into (and was escorted out of) by a sweet little German man explaining (in all German) that I had interrupted a Bar Mitzvah. At least that's the conclusion we came to. Oops. In English, he said "thank you. bye bye".

We were also able to see the Pergamon Alter (referred to as "Satan's Throne" by John in the book of Rev.), which was dedicated to the Greek gods in 2nd Century BC. Hitler liked the alter so much, that he had his architect use it as the model for the stage on which Hitler gave his Nazi rallies. And some would argue that Obama's acceptance speech was given from a stage that looked VERY similar. I'm just saying... Check the links if you're interested.

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?noframes;read=151262

or

http://www.floridabruce.com/pergamon_altar.htm

Germany has plenty of beer gardens. It was odd to see entire families gathering at these watering holes. While parents & grandparents relaxed and caught up, toddlers ran amok. We seemed right at home! I even had a beer. Well, it was half beer, half Sprite, but I say it counts.

On our last night, while having a glass of wine in our hotel's lounge, we noticed an all-too familiar German board game, Settlers of Catan, that we just happen to LOVE! . We're nerds, I know. It just happened to be sitting there among some other games. How random! Or maybe not? Seemed fitting to play a game. As they say "when in Rome". I mean Berlin.