Berlin, Germany

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Day 1: On our way to Berlin from Landstuhl. We decided to drive instead of fly, but we've run into construction almost every 50km. It took us a total of 7 hours to get to Berlin. We are very pleased with our hotel. It' called NH Hotel - Alexander Platz. Very modern motif and very friendly. We are staying, as indicated by the name, in the Alexander Platz area of Berlin. Berlin is divided into many Platz's; this one is near the center on the former eastern side. Once we got in, we tried to make the most of our time and went to the Salvadore Dali Museum. We are huge fans of his surrealism and this museum had a huge catalog of his work, however, it was mostly drawings and not many of his more popular paintings. Still very cool, and he's still very weird. Afterwards, we found a Mexican restaurant called The Cancun, located on Potsdam Platz. We hadn't had any mexican food since being in Germany and we had been craving it, so we went for it. It was actually really good! We walked around after eating and were able to see The Memorial to the Murdered Jews and the Brandenburg Gate. We also saw several embassies and located the Kennedy Museum, but it was already closed so we didn't get to go in. Berlin is quite the progressive city. We witnessed a bicyclist peace rally and a hunger strike all in one evening! We then returned home for a good night sleep because the city tour was going to be an all-day event on Saturday.

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Photos

Alexanderplatz
Alexanderplatz. A bustling area of business and retail.

Tallest Structure in Germany
The TV/radio tower in Berlin is the tallest structure in all of Germany.

Brat, anyone?
Strap-on bratwurst grillers. Pretty cool!

Britney!
An advertisement for the Britney Spears concert we are going to on Sunday

Nice ride
A Lamborghini parked in front of the Salvadore Dali museum. Pretty sweet.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews
I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but these are rectangular blocks that vary in size from about 3 feet tall to about ten feet tall. I'm not sure how they are representative of the Jews...we didn't make it to the underground museum that was devoted to this memorial.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews
dramatic pose

Parliament Building
The parliament building has a huge glass dome at the top that people can walk around in. We didn't get to that on this trip.

Platz der 18 Marz
The Square of the 18th of March. It is the day considered by Berliners as the day of freedom, when back in the 1600's some revolutionaries were able to break down the political regime.

Embassy Square
At least that's what we call it. Several Embassies and political activists in this area.