Some tourist.
Oh my gosh, we're in Berlin! It's the home stretch. I can believe this time next week I will be back in London (panicking over my essay). We arrived in Berlin last night by train after hanging around Dresden. Our search for our hostel was a record for us because we didn't have to search at all. Only Vienna was even comparable in time spent searching. Sometimes it can be as long as an hour! Anyways... Brendan and I took a walking tour this morning and really enjoyed it. Maybe I wasn't paying attention in history class or maybe our teachers just ran out of time by the end of the year but I don't recall ever learning about the Berlin Wall in detail. I had no idea that it only came down in 1989 (don't judge) and I didn't know that it stood for 26 years! I learned a lot about Nazi history in Munich (as well as in Berlin) but I've really enjoyed learning about the Cold War too. Anyways, our tour was really good. We then took an elevator to the top of the Berlin TV Tower for a nice view of the city before walking around the Tiergarten. Our last stop of the day was a restaurant for a nice sit down meal. Needless to say, we're exhausted. I didn't take pictures of everything we saw on the tour but a lot of the info I learned is in the photo captions below. Enjoy!
A sign in our hostel by the computers.
This is the hotel with the window that Michael Jackson held his baby out of. A night in their nicest room (which I think is the one he was staying in?) costs 15,000 euro per night--you get a butler and limo service but breakfast is not included! It's right by the Brandenburger Gate.
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe by the Brandenburger Gate.
A lovely example of Nazi architecture that survived WWII. It used to be the HQ for their air force, then it was employed by the East German something or other, now it is their IRS equivalent I think.
The tour took a break at a place that served hot chocolate in this form. Hot milk and actual chocolate! It was delicious.
A Humboldt University building--a very good school in Berlin. Also the sight of the book burning.
Museum Island has a few museums including the New Museum, the Old Museum, and the Pergamon Museum to name a few.
Our tour guide, Seb, telling us the story about the fall of the Berlin Wall (probably imitating Schabowski). Behind him is the space where the old palace will be recreated.
The height, in meters, of the viewing gallery we went to in the tower.
Berlin needed to build a lot of housing really fast. A lot of Berlin right now seems to be under construction as you might imagine.
You can mostly see Museum Island and Tiergarten. If you squint, you should be able to see the Brandenburger Gate too.
The viewing gallery. This photo reminded me a bit of the Statue of Liberty (not that I have been there myself).
Berlin Cathedral (not as old as it looks!) and the Berlin TV Tower.
The Brandenburger Gate in Pariser Platz (Paris Place). Our tour guide said, "Oh please don't lean on the gate, it's against the rules and the guards will yell at you in German which quite frankly is really scary. The thing survived bombs and gun shots but apparently it can't handle the shoulders of tourists." Hah. Poor gate.
Tiergarten pathway--it's a really nice park.
Berlin Victory Column
Parliament. They built a dome so that people could visit and look down and see Parliament at work. I think it's supposed to represent transparency if I remember correctly. Our guide said, "and so the idea was whenever the members of parliament forget who they're working for, they can just look up and see... a hundred american tourists."
For dinner I accidentally ordered the pork knuckle. That's a hoof in case you can't tell.
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