Dancing Through Life Together: Berlin, Germany

We arrived in Berlin in the afternoon and hit the ground running. We got a map and went I to the city center. I had a rough time because the map was really confusing. Berlin was a bigger city than the others we had been to and their transportation system was more tricky. I got really irritated (might have thrown a mini tantrum) and Steve had to take over navigating. He did such a great job figuring it all out. :). My hero!

The first place we visited was the German Parliament. Then we went to the Brandenburg gate. While looking around the gate we found the American Embassy. Steve wanted to go in since we don't usually have the opportunity. We didn't have time that day but. Did go back another day but they wouldn't let us in. Lol After visiting the gate we headed to the Murdered Jews (Holocaust) Memorial. This is a harsh name but the first time the Germans publicly labeled this act as murder. We were not sure what it looked like and we past it a couple of times. Finally we realized what it was by reading a near by sign. We just thought it was cool artistic design in the middle of a plaza but then we realized it was much more than that. They had a lot more underground but we arrived at the entrance just a little too late so we decided we would go back the next day. At this point we decided to eat dinner and head back to our apartment. When we got there our host, Hauke, was home and we spent the evening getting to know him a little.

Hauke was very nice. He is an engineer for a washer and drier company. We were so excited it find put he had a dryer! (I think it was the first one we have encountered on our trip. Most people hang dry their clothes.) As we sat on his kitchen talking we were very entertained by his pet turtle. He was so cute. We put our finger up to the glass and he would try to bite it but couldn't because of the glass. It was really funny. Before we all went to bed, he gave us a lot of tips on where to go the next day and kindly and patiently explained the map to me. Lol. Most if the sights to see in Berlin are memorials or tributes to a war won or lost to someone. It was kinda a dark place to visit because of that, but is what it is and we decided to go to a few that suck out to us the most.
The next day was my birthday! It had been raining so much but God was so good and woke me up to the sun shinning in our room. What a great way to start my day :). By the time we went out to get breakfast it was overcast and sprinkling, but nevertheless I was happy with the little sunshine I got. W plucked up some bread at a local bakery. When we got there I was so excited to see a Black and White cookie! I was looking for one when we were in the NY airport and was disappointed when we couldn't find any. Since it was my birthday we also got one of those :) After breakfast we got ready for our day and headed out on the town. By the time we reached the city center the sun was shining again and it remained this way until we got back to the apartment at the end of our day. Then the sky opened up and the thunder storm started. Lol. God was so so good to me! Steve says He spoiled me with sunshine :).

We started our city tour at the Gedenkstatte Berliner Mauer. This was a part of the Berlin Wall that was left in its original form for the preservation of history. There was a tower across the street for people to look down and see what it looked like between the walls. There was a lot of pictures and stories posted in the area to give you a better idea of what it was like for the civilians living in the area. After spending some time here and reading/listening to many of the stories we left and went to see the Berliner Dom (cathedral) and the DDR museum. Both of these places cost money so we didn't go in but enjoyed our time walking around the grounds and looking at the beautiful architecture. Steve and I like looking at all the sculptures and pictures carved into or painted the walls and doors of the churches we come across to see if we can figure out what Bible story they are depicting. It is really fun and some are more challenging than others. Obviously they all have the Story of Jesus' death (most if the churches are catholic) but many have other stories posted as well.

By this time Steve really had to use the restroom so we walked around trying to find a public bathroom or a hotel (Kim gave us a tip. She said to walk into a local hotel like we belong there, no one will assume any different, use the bathroom, they are cleaner than public bathrooms, and walk out). Unfortunately we had no luck, so we started walking towards our next location and would hopefully find one along the way. Well, we found one alright. :) Technically we found one in a Ridder Sport chocolate outlet!!!! Yay for both of us!!! :) It was a win, win situation. While Steve used the facilities I got to design my own chocolate bar :). This day kept getting better and better! While we waited for the chocolate to set, we walked around and marveled at all the different favors of chocolate they had. Okay, okay. . . you caught us red handed, we bought MORE chocolate. How could you not?!? It was really cheap and very good! The Ridder Sport chocolate in SJ costs about $3.50-$4.00 a bar and here it was only $1! Plus we still had half our trip left so we needed to get some to last us the rest of our trip. :) Right? Come on, it was my birthday!!! (One thing I forgot to tell you about Aachen is that we went to a huge Costco sized Lyntt chocolate outlet and bought some bars there too. We haven't finished them all either. Lol )

After chocolate paradise, we went to find the curry wurst museum. Do you know what that is? Neither did we but we heard it was a popular food here so I wanted to eat it. :) Well, we ended up passing it and finding Check Point Charlie first. This is the best-known and the last original checkpoint of the Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War. We snapped a couple of photos and then went to the curry wurst museum for lunch. You know how I can get when I am hungry so we didn't waist much time. Lol.

I don't know what exactly I was expecting but this wasn't it. Lol. I guess I was expecting something bigger, by the name "museum". I thought maybe there were different kinds of sausages and sauces involved. I guessed they would have gone into that a little more. Maybe it had evolved a little from when it originated. I don't know what I was expecting exactly but this wasn't it. This was basically one large room that told you how the curry wurst came to be, how it is made, where the curry wurst stands are located in Berlin and that was it. I am so glad we came on the half priced ticket day or I would have felt ripped off. Lol. Well, that is tourism for you. Lol. On our way out they gave us a sample of curry wurst. You had an option of a sliced grilled sausage with or without skin and then they put ketchup and curry powder on top. It sounds strange but it was pretty good. Steve really liked it. Because they gave us a sample, and we were still hungry, we went back to a spot that sold them right next to checkpoint Charlie and ordered a full sized curry wurst. Then we read a little more about the checkpoint and headed off, with full stomachs, back to the memorial we didn't get to see all of the day before.

We made it just in time for the last entrance inside the Holocaust Memorial. We spent quite a while inside, about 2 hours. I was surprised buy how much they had there, after all this wasn't the Holocaust museum. That was located somewhere else and you had an entrance fee. Both Steve's and my hearts were so heavy as we walked through. Thankfully it wasn't as intense as the museum we went to in Israel (I only made it through half of that one) but it was still very heart wrenching.

To finish off our tour of Berlin we went to the East-side Gallery. This is an international memorial for freedom and the longest strip of the Berlin Wall still standing (1.3 km or 0.8 miles). There are over 106 paintings by artists from all over the world depicting slavery and freedom on this strip of the the wall.

Some of these paintings were very disturbing and some better than others, but it was a sobering walk to say the least. We returned to the apartment about 8p. We needed to eat dinner and then the three of us were going to go out for a birthday drink, but we were so tired from all the walking we did, we just ate dinner and went to bed. We hadn't picked up any dinner on our way home so Steve went back out, braved the monsoon, I mean thunderstorm, and brought dinner back. He is so amazing! What that man wouldn't do for me. How did I get so blessed? God really does spoil me. Thank you Jesus :). It was a great birthday!

Random pink flamingo art on the way to our place

Steve trying to navigate the city during my breakdown :)

Parliament Building

Brandenburg Gate

Murdered Jews Memorial

Giants we met on the Metro. lol Steve wanted a picture with then so bad but they wouldn't take one with but they did agree to take one with me. How did I get suckered into that? I love the faces they are making. You know they made those kind of faces on purpose and were thinking "Crazy tourists!"

Resident turtle

Steve trying to tare down the Berlin Wall.

Other tourists trying to see what it was like to climb over the wall and escape.

The view of the two walls from a near by tower. This part of the wall was preserved for us to see what is was like was between the two walls. It looks pretty plan but this was a very dangerous place to be found.

Berliner Dom/cathedral

These were pictures on the doors into the cathedral. Can you name or do you remember these stories?

Listening to music that mentions curry wurst or is about curry wurst out of ketchup bottles.

Serving up curry wurst like a pro.

Steve eating a gianormous french fry while almost drowning in ketchup :)

French Fry war, its like jousting only with fries. It is probably a local pastime.

This is the moment I know you all have been waiting for. . . .drum roll please. . . .Without further adu, here is curry wurst! I know you were all at the edge of your seats. Feel better now? I know I do :)