Part Two...Berlin!

So we arrived in Berlin in the evening and got to our great hotel in the Charlottenburg area - it was The Steigenberger and we highly recommend it.  They had a fancy indoor pool and spa/sauna area so T-man wanted to go for a night swim.  We did and it was nice but I had to just comment about T's first experience with European speedos on men...he kept whispering to me that he could not believe those men were swimming in their "underwear!"  :)  In fairness, those poor gentlemen pretty much looked irritated every night when T and I showed up for our swim...guess a 7 yr old splashing around in your spa area is not super relaxing.

 

The next morning, in the 60-degree weather, we set off on a City bus tour is Berlin...this time we sat on the 2nd level with an open top - fabulous!

Tman listening to the audio tour in front of The Reichstag, the seat of the German Parliament. 

Of course we had to stop by the iconic Checkpoint Charlie...Taylor has really been into WW2 and different types of government lately so he was pretty interested in this area.

 

This was the sign posted at Checkpoint Charlie for so many years.  Did you know the wall was not built until 1961?  The reason is that East Germany had lost 2.5 million citizens between 1945 and 1961who had fled to the West so they had to close it up.

We then went to The Topography of Terror...housed on the same lot as the former SS and Gestapo headquarters of the Nazis. It was VERY educational...somber and hardcore...but worth knowing. I appreciated the picture above because it was Taylor listening to Himmler speak of the "Final Solution" back in 1943.  The look on his face was intense and I know it made an impact.  Sometimes hard for me to believe that these things happened only 70 years ago.

Tman, in his new Bayern Munich track outfit, in front of a piece of the former Wall.

This is the German President's house...

 

This was the main stretch near our hotel...the Mercedes building to the right and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church from the 1800s straight ahead.  The history in Berlin was really really cool. 

 

Tman and Mommy in front of one of the few longer stretches of the Berlin Wall still standing.

 

Family pic 1

 

 

Family pic 2

T in front of the Spree River which runs through Berlin 

 

Did you know that the BEAR is the official symbol/mascot of the city of Berlin?  We saw these statues everywhere so had to take a pic, naturally...

 



And a goofy pic too, of course!

So about halfway through our time in Berlin, Taylor came down with a sickness...a fairly high fever and a sore throat that he said felt "like black belt ninjas were cutting his throat with swords."  He was pretty pitiful so we ended up taking him to a walk-in emergency clinic across from the hotel...turned out to just be a virus and with some rest and Motrin, he was back up and out there the next day.  The kiddo is a trooper! 

 

 

Ahhhhhhhh...what would a trip to Germany be without some BEER?  :)

I wish I could say I remember what this building was but I cannot...still pretty though. :)

This is the city hall on the left and the TV Tower on the right....the TV Tower is the tallest structure in Germany.

This is the Jewish Memorial in Berlin...dedicated to all the Jewish people murdered during the Nazi rule.   

 

This was the US Embassy in Germany...it was T's first introduction to embassies/ambassadors so we had a TON of questions....

Bradenburg Gate (The statue on top is called The Quadriga) 

 

My fellas in front of the famous gate

Victory Column, also called Siegessaule, built in 1873.  Those gold cylinders along each ledge are actually small cannons.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church...built in the 1800s but badly damaged in air raids during WW2.  It is currently being renovated.

 

 

The largest department store in Europe - The Ka Da We.

 

T on the way to the Olympic Stadium, just outside of the city center of Berlin - which is why it survived the air raids of the 40s in tact.

And voila, the Olympic Stadium built in 1936

My guys and the Olympic rings

 

This was the stadium where Jesse Owens ran and won in the 1936 Olympics in front of Hitler himself.  Those boxes behind Taylor in the far background are where Hitler sat when his "pure German" athletes were defeated in front of the world by the American runner, Owens!

 

T and D in the stadium. We sat there for a while just contemplating the history that had occurred there...and of course, talked some about the current team that plays there - Hertha Berlin.

Oh goodness, this is Currywurst - the typical Berliner cuisine - sold in food stalls/trucks.  Personally, not my fave - it was basically a fried bratwurst then cut into pieces and doused with a sweet BBQ-like sauce and sprinkled with curry powder.

We got a traditional bratwurst too - which none of us liked too much.  I LOVED Berlin and Germany but I admit that I did not love the german food quite as much. :) 

 

On the walk back to the U-bahn (the subway), we got caught in a storm- these two dudes were DEEP in conversations about WW2, embassies, dictators, etc...even in the rain. Loved this pic.

T on the U-bahn.  definitely the best "subway" system I have ever experienced.

So there was some time in the hotel room when our kiddo had to improvise to get energy out...and one night, he did this with his shirt and jumped from bed to stool to bed...jabbering the whole time.  Finally his dad remembered who he looked like...

 

People younger than 45 know who this is...yep, my kid Beavis!  :) 

 

One night we went to a cool traditional German restaurant near the hotel...I loved the interior and bar area and had to take a pic....

T had Spaetzle...german noodles.

Dan had Schweinshaxe, which is roasted pig knuckle.  It came on top of sauerkraut and was pretty tasty.

I had Weiner Schnitzel...which I liked.  My fave of the german foods I tasted.

We even had some after dinner liquor that was supposedly "typically German" but I cannot remember the name and Dan and I are convinced we dumb americans really were just served tequila. :)

For dessert, we shared a traditional dessert called Rote Grutz which was a mixed berry pudding with whipped cream.

 

This is the Berliner Dome, an old cathedral originally constructed in 1451 but it was damaged in World War and has since been renovated. 

T in front of the steps/beautiful arched entry of the Berliner Dome...can you spot him in his jeans and King Kong shirt??  :)

T in front of the Spree River again...the Berliner Dome is on the left here. This is all located in the former East Germany area of Berlin.

T was kinda intrigued by the idea of public WCs where you had to pay to potty...50 Euros each time. :) 

And of course this part was the funniest to him...the stick figure peeing in the Pissoir sign.  typical boy:)



 

T on front of the Neptune Fountain in Alexanderplatz.  The fountain was built in 1891 and is pretty impressive.

On our last day in berlin, we went to the DDR Museum which shows real life in east Germany before the wall came down...with lots of interactive and hands-on exhibits.  T was really thrown for a loop with this ROTARY phone. LOL!

There was a whole area expressing how important the military was to the East german culture and society and how they started training their young boys in the military "arts" very young...they even encouraged young boys to play with wooden grenades instead of traditional balls.

This wall was interesting to me...did you know that there was a lot of nudity in East Germany?  People at the beach and outdoor sports often went naked bc they saw it as the ultimate expression of "classlessness."  Which makes sense, I guess.  Though truly - see the bottom left pic - I have never been tempted to play tennis in the nude!

T driving one of the old cars - it said that people often had to wait 16 years on a waiting list just to get the chance to buy a car in east Germany.  (ftr - T was NOT a good driver and bumped into many a curb...thank goodness it was just simulation!  :)

 

 

 

And with that, we bid "Auf Wiedersehen" to fair Germany...a great trip....a great time...great lessons...great memories!