Thursday, December 1, 2011

Germany: Days 8 & 9

I'm finally updating on our vacation again! I really need to stay ontop of this because I am forgetting details of our vacay by the minute! Anyway...
We headed out of Amsterdam, which I was not too saddened by, and made our way towards Germany. By now, with all the plane and train rides we had taken thus far, I was getting quite good at hoping on our means of transporation and falling right to sleep; this ride was no exception. I woke up about 3 hours later, leaving only another 2 hours left until we hit Berlin. The ride was pretty quiet for the most part, but at the last hour, the other man sitting in our compartment decided to become friendly. He was quite the interesting fellow. We learned that he was from Poland, worked in the oil fields, and didn't really like his wife or children...The most memorable thing about this guy though was the fact that he rummaged through mine and Nathan's garbage, took our half eaten desserts, put them his bag, while he casually carried on a conversation with us. I don't think I have ever tried so hard in my entire life not to bust out laughing! HILARIOUS!


Well, we finally made it to Germany, which did I mention that we missed our scheduled train there too! We were awesome at missing our trains! So, in Germany....this station was massive! We did figure out how to get to our hotel though without too much trouble! Once we got to the hotel, we just kind of relaxed and enjoyed the evening. We went out to eat at a little restaurant right down the street from the hotel! I had my very first taste of weinersnitzel, which was fantastic!

The next morning the real fun began! I had accidentally misplaced my mascara so we walked down the road looking for some kind of drug store to purchase a new one! After we finally found some makeup, which was super expensive by the way, we continued walking for like EVER to the bust stop where we would begin our "Berlin Hop-on-and-off" tour. Of course, we missed our bus and had to wait for the next, which thank goodness, was only like 15 minutes, and our adventures through Berlin began!


Walking down the street to find some makeup! The roads were lined with these bears. Each one represents a different country around the world.

I can't remember the exact order anymore of all the places we stopped, but I am pretty one of the first places was the Jewish Museum. This museum was very...interesting. The architecture along with all the elements of the place are set up to basically make you feel as lost and uncomfortable as possible. It's suppose to be a sort of representation of the Holocaust. It worked; I felt really awkward and empty throughout the whole tour!




Somewhere on this bus ride we passed a big portion of the Berlin Wall.

After our trip to the Jewish Museum, we walked over to Checkpoint Charlie. I swear there were like 10 million people here! It was hard to take in because of the craziness of it all!




We stopped for lunch at this fun, and delicious, little restaurant. I swear we were there for two hours! That's just how they role in Europe; eating is a day long affair!
So this is where all the details of Germany kind of become blurred together. After lunch, I think we just kind of wandered around and found some things to look at. We came across this beautiful....church...I think it was. It's so sad I can't remember for sure! Right next to the church was this amazing museum filled with artifacts from Classical Greece and Rome and even pre-Rome, i.e. the Etruscans and such! I was in heaven.


Another view of the possible church! So beautiful!


Inside the museum!


A Roman bath infront of the museum.


A neat building, which of course I can't remember its function, while we were driving, or possible walking, through Berlin!

The Brandenburg Gate, also surrounded by like 5 million people! Ugh...tourists...(;



These crazy tour bikes were all over town! It was really funny to see like 8, or however many people they seat, trying to maneuver these suckers around!

After the Brandenburg Gate, I think we headed back to the hotel. Nathan had to leave to go pick up the rental car, which was an interesting experience in itself. Once he got back to the hotel, we hit the hay early. The next day we would be up bright and early. Next stop Poland to see Auschwitz.

2 comments:

Lee said...

These pictures are amazing!! I love the one with the two old people. To bad you don't know them to give them to you.

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