Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!
As most of you know, since we were unable to make it home for Christmas, we went to Berlin. What an experience! Berlin is a MASSIVE city - 4 times the size of Paris. When we arrived, it was actually snowing, which was great (since it has snowed once in Amsterdam this whole season) and it really helped to put us in the Christmas Spirit. Since we arrived during the afternoon of our first day, we settled into our hotel then decided to head out to the Christmas markets that Germany is very well known for. These were absolutely awesome. Anything and everything was available, from food like waffles, pretzels and bratwursts to apparel like scarves, shirts and hats to traditional German holiday decorations. Here is just a sampling of some photos from all the different markets we went to throughout our time in Berlin:
Abby also thought it would be fun to try on some of the apparel that was sold at the markets such as finger puppets and animal hats with attached mittens:
Of course, we saw many other things besides the Christmas markets. We took a sightseeing bus tour on our first full day and got a pretty good idea of where things were in the city. We have now done a sightseeing tour in Amsterdam (canal cruise), Paris (river tour) and Berlin. We definitely recommend this to anyone traveling to a city who has a few days to spend because it will give you an overview of where things are in the city and also give you nice little nuggets of information that you might not have heard otherwise.
A trip to Berlin of course wouldn't be complete without a visit to the Wall (what is left of it anyways). There is a 1.5 (about 1 mile) stretch of the Wall that remains that has been turned in to an open-air art gallery called the East Side Gallery. After the Wall fell, artists from all over the world came to paint huge murals on the Wall. Many of them had message in their art. Here are a few samples of the East Side Gallery:
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| This part reads "I pained over the wall of shame so freedom is ashamed no more. Inferno ruled too many years until the people chose the light. I put my faith in you, Berlin and give to you my colors bright." |
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| This is a painting of a very famous photo captured during the traditional kiss on the lips greeting between the Soviet Party leader and the leader of East Berlin. |
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| This is als a very famous painting (without the graffiti). Posters and cards of the original painting are sold all over the city. |
We also took photos of ourselves at the start of the gallery - with one foot on each side of the Wall. It was a rather surreal feeling, knowing so many people wanted to cross the Wall but could not.
Also, we couldn't have left the Wall without a photo of us together. It's a bit blurry but cool nonetheless:
Staying with the theme of the Berlin Wall, we also went to Checkpoint Charlie and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Checkpoint Charlie (this stands for Checkpoint C) was the best know border crossing point between East and West Germany during the Cold War - IF you had the proper documentation. The museum was actually very interesting, as it gave accounts of escapes, protests, etc. It also gave a lot of information of what people experienced during the Cold War. We were not allowed to take photos inside the museum, but below are a few photos of the Checkpoint outside.
We of course made sure we saw some of the major attractions as well. We saw the Berliner Dom (Berliner Dome) which is the oldest Protestant Church in Berlin. It's an old Prussian church that actually was not destroyed with the 70% of the city that was reduced to rubble in WWII. It was a very impressive architectural structure:
We also saw the Brandenburg Tor (Brandenburg Gate) which was very festive, as there was a huge Christmas Tree in the square.
To give a bit of perspective on the size of the tree and the gate, here are a few shots:
Another impressive building is the Reichstag, which is the German Parliament building. There was a fire here in 1933, which was ruled as an arson, but since then the dome in the below pictures has been constructed which offers a cool view of the city. We did not go up into it, but it was very impressive.
A very haunting experience was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This was an area of 2700 columns of varying heights and just walking through it was very eerie.
After seeing this, we went and saw the spot where the Fuhrer's (Hitler's) Bunker was and this was also the place where Hitler took his life. The actual bunker no longer exists and the sign noting where it is located is quite hidden out of the way and is currently an apartment building parking lot. This is due to the fact that the country does not want this to become a shrine of sorts for Nazi followers. All that stands at that spot is a sign with a bit of information and a timeline.
The day after Christmas was the last day that many of the Christmas markets were open and we also wanted to see the Charlottenburg Palace. Luckily, there is a massive Christmas market in front of the Palace, so we got a 2-for-1 type of deal! At night the palace lights up in different colors so there were plenty of opportunities for great photos.
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| Look closely and you will see a lit Christmas tree in the dome! |
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| One of the favorite photos of the trip...this really captures the Christmas feeling! |
A funny thing happened on Christmas Eve...unknown to us, the Germans tend to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve the way Americans celebrate on Christmas day - meaning that on Christmas Eve, most of the stores, restaurants, shops and yes even the Christmas markets close quite early. Well, right around 3:00 in the afternoon, we began to realize this and had no idea what we were going to do for dinner. We had seen when we left the hotel in the morning that the hotel restaurant was fully booked, so that was out of the question. Already at 3:00 pm we saw that restaurants and supermarkets were closed. Well, we spent about 1 hour walking around trying to figure out what we could do for dinner. We did find an Asian supermarket that was open so we decided to go in there to see what they had. Luckily for us, they had some crackers and nuts that we thought would work for snacks later in the evening. We realized that we would probably have to have an early dinner if we were going to get a dinner at all, so around 4:00 pm we actually found a place that was open: Burger King. Sad, but true. Our "fancy" Christmas Eve dinner consisted of Burger King and snacks from an Asian food market. A far cry from what we are used to back home, that's for sure.
On a final, happy note, Berlin has bear statues ALL over the city. Each day that we went out, we made sure to keep our eye out for them. They were all painted differently, so it was kind of an adventure looking for them, as we never knew what we were going to find painted on them. Here is the collection of Berlin Bears that we were able to find:
We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with your families and friends! We've had an amazing 2012 and are so excited to see what 2013 will bring!
Thank-you all for your love and support!
