Berlin, Germany Day 1

Heather and I recently took a vacation to Germany. We went for a couple of reasons. The first reason was that our friends Derek and Nicole were getting married in Waldenburg, Germany. Nicole is from a town near there. Second, my roommate from college Dan Gianola and his wife, Annie are in Germany while Dan does a post doc in engineering mechanics. Third, I have always wanted to go to Germany. We started our trip in Berlin. Our friends Mike and Alicia joined us for our travels in Berlin.

An old style brick bridge over the Spree river that runs through Berlin.
The Spree river.

The east side gallery is the last piece of the Berlin wall still standing. It was left standing as a reminder to Germans. Shortly after the fall of the wall, they commissioned artist to paint the reminder of the wall. Here is link to information about the Berlin Wall. All of us who went to Germany has the wrong idea about the wall. I will explain later. Berlin Wall

Some of the artwork was amazing. I like that the Nazi is all in grey, where the rest of the picture is in color.

This artwork represents "Checkpoint Charlie" which was the allies entrance into West Germany.

Here is the layout of the wall. I didn't realize that the Berlin Wall enclosed West Berlin(Liberal, controlled by USA, France, and Britain). East Berlin (Communist controlled by Russia) did this to prevent its citizens from entering West Berlin. I always thought people were trying to get across the wall to freedom outside of Berlin, but in fact, they were attempting to cross to an island of freedom in Berlin.

Just a normal street in Berlin. One difference from the US is that they can park cars in the middle of a street. Doesn't really seem that safe?

Hiding from the rain, enjoying some good German beer. One interesting side note, every time you order a beer in Germany, you always get the beer served in a glass with the name of the beer in it on the side of the glass.

Mike and Alicia

Umm, a German Native spearing a buffalo? I didn't know there were buffalo in Germany, I thought they roamed the Great Plains?

Brandenburg Gate a landmark with a long history in Germany.

Victory Column - historical landmark

Reichstag Building- is the traditional seat of the German Parliament, renovated in the 1950s after severe World War II damage. The building was again remodeled by British architect Norman Foster in the 1990s and features a glass dome over the session area, which allows free public access to the parliamentary proceedings and magnificent views of the city. There was a long line so we didn't go up into the glass dome.