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Published: August 4th 2008
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Like, literally. It was stormy almost all day today; fortunately, the rain showers were brief and infrequent, and the air was mostly warm, but we fought against strong winds nearly everywhere we walked!
After Frühstück (breakfast) at our Pension (Hotel/B&B) this morning, we headed out to see Berlin, without exactly a clear plan for the day. The proprietor of the Pension was most helpful last night in suggesting the most efficient modes of travel to the sights in Berlin, all of which involve at least one bus and usually at least two trains.
We did a bit of shopping near the Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten (train station near the zoo; used to be the main station for West Berlin) and, when rain showers came, ducked inside the ruins of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (Kaiser William Memorial Church). The original church was destroyed by firebombing in 1943; its main spire and entrance hall, badly damaged, remain standing and are now a memorial site. Next to the ruin, two new extremely modern structures serve as the new church. Both are beautiful and interesting.
Then, we headed into the center of town to see the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) and had an afternoon snack
In the Stelenfeld
The Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) is a huge field of stones, perfect for adults and kids to explore. on the Unter den Linden (a tree-lined street in the former East). We walked to the Reichstag and found that, rather as expected, the queue to get into the glass dome stretched down the front steps and halfway across the large lawn. Anne & LG vetoed standing in the queue, so we'll try another day.
Anne requested that we stop at the Hauptbahnhof (amazing new main train station) to research her Friday trip back to Hamburg. We found a handy Deutsche Bahn flyer listing all the trains from Berlin to Hamburg, with numbers, days and times, along with which ones are direct. I grabbed a similar one for Dresden. We did a little shopping in the Hbf and then decided to catch a train back to our hotel for an afternoon break and siesta. This was a good idea, one which we may repeat the rest of the week.
I discovered that the WLAN (wireless internet) doesn't work at all in our hotel room, but there's a strong signal if I sit in the little seating area in the narrow hotel hallway. Terrific. Better than nothing. Have to pay T-Mobile for the privilege, too, but of course I
do that.
The internet hassle was well worth it, as I had promised Laura we'd have German Chinese food for dinner tonight. Anne was quite excited about this also. I was able to research and locate a nearby, highly-rated Chinese place and even view its menu online and plan a bus route. Geeks rule! Dinner hat gut geschmeckt (was tasty).
The girls were hungry much earlier in the day than I had expected, so we were done with dinner by 6:00 PM and I just couldn't see spending so many hours in our hotel (me in the hallway?!), so I urged us to go out and see one of the museums that stays open relatively late. They didn't care, so I chose the Mauermuseum (Wall museum) at Checkpoint Charlie, which I thought would be fairly entertaining, as it focuses largely on the clever ways East Germans found to escape over, under, around and through the Wall. It was, indeed, a good museum experience, but also quite painful for Anne to see the exhibits about the divided Germany. I wasn't expecting that. She held up bravely, but both she and LG were exhausted when we finished around 8:30 PM.
Wall, whatevs
Sure, it's a piece of the Wall and stuff, but it's cold, can we go in now? We hopped a subway and a train back to the Bahnhof Zoo, where a reasonably efficient search turned up a café still open (at 9:00 PM) and serving good-looking Eis (ice cream). This may have been pushing our luck, as we all ordered delicious Bechern (sundaes) but were uncomfortably stuffed afterwards. We agreed to go easy on the Eis tomorrow.
Well, maybe.
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Drea
non-member comment
Looks like an interesting and hard day for all of you! Thanks for taking my kid...I#m sure she loves it!