Germany Continued

Remains of the Wall at Potsdamer Platz

Checkpoint Charlie

Berlin Wall

Jeremy and Mattias

Holocaust Memorial

Me in front of the Brandenburg Gate

Day 3: Saturday, June 7, 2008


Today we went to the closest train station to learn that it was closed! So, we took a bus over to Charlottenburg, where we ended up close to the Berlin Zoo. We walked around the area for a bit, got some food, and took the train, which was open there, to Kurfurstendamm, which is a major shopping street. Right in the middle of this busy section of town stands the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche, or the Emperor-William-Memorial-Church. It's tower was bombed and the church serves as an antiwar memorial. We walked down to the Ka De We, the 2nd largest department store in Europe. Just outside we got a currywurst from a little food stand and sat by a fountain to eat and watch people as they walked by. Jeremy was great at maneuvering us around the city using the buses and trains. We hoped on a train and took it over to Potsdamer Platz where the huge Sony Center is. We walked around there for a bit and then headed back towards the River Spree to see if we could take a boat ride. After we found out it was too late, we ended up walking into the Scheunenviertel part of town, which was very busy with tons of restaurants, some kind of pyrotechnic show going on, and lots of people milling around. This is Berlin's oldest surviving historic quarter, and you could feel it, it was just cool to walk around, see all of the people and just take it all in. We got some ice cream and sat down to enjoy the evening, the music playing and the environment of the awesome city of Berlin. Jeremy and I were talking about what cities we had been to and which ones we liked most, and I think that is where it finally sunk in that I was in Berlin, Germany, and that I really liked this city.

Day 4: Sunday, June 8, 2008--Our 1 year anniversary!

What a cool way to spend our 1st anniversary, in Berlin! Today was a busy day, we woke up earlier than usual and headed back to the area of the Zoo, and caught a city tour bus. We were able to see alot of the city today. We were able to see Museum Island, the Berlin Cathedral, Checkpoint Charlie, the remains of the Wall, and many more sites. We got off the bus near Checkpoint Charlie and walked down the see the remains of the Berlin Wall. They also had an open air exhibit called the Topography of Terror. It is on land once occupied by the Gestapo and other Nazi institutions and talked about the impact these horrible organizations had on the people of Germany and surrounding nations. There was alot of information and after a while we left, it was too much and too depressing to look at it all. It is still mind-boggling to me that all of this has happened within the last 70 years! We got back on the bus and rode over to the Brandenburg Gate where we got off and met up with Mattias. We decided to do a river tour, so we went on a boat on the River Spree and got to see some more sights. It was a good thing Mattias was with us because they only gave the tour in German! He did a great job translating, and it was a lot of fun. We took him to the new, big train station, the DB, and he caught his train back to Hamburg. Hopefully he will make it to the US sometime soon!! We decided to head back to Potsdamer Platz and take a closer look at the remains of the Wall there; they have it marked on the pavement the exact location it ran through the middle of the Platz. We decided to have dinner back at a restaurant by our hotel and took a train and bus back to our hotel and walked to the restaurant. I'm so glad that we were able to be together in Berlin to celebrate our first year of marriage! What a great year, and we look forward to many more to come!!