So here is my confession: I was not that excited to go to Berlin. I was excited to hang out with the group of girls that we booked to go to Berlin over 4th of July, but I thought our time would be better somewhere tropical or beachy or at least somewhere more relaxing...
I WAS WRONG!!!
I absolutely loved Berlin. I think that everyone should go there... Have I mentioned that it really is the coolest city ever... and here is why!!!
First of all, the history is so amazing. You really get a feel for so many eras of important history. To give you an idea of how captivating the history of Berlin is... let me tell you about my sister Gretchen.
Now I have always told people that my sister is incrediby intelligent and is probably my favorite person to travel with in the whole world. But she usually has no interest in cultural sights or learning about history. This is the girl that passed on going to the louvre because she could just look in a book to see the Mona Lisa. So I thought for sure that the both of us wouldn't have much to do or see. I wanted to see Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, and the Brandenburg Gate but I thought I could do that in about thirty minutes and then be quite bored in Berlin. Once again, I was wrong.
Visiting Berlin is an instant history lesson of really old and modern day history. You really are left thinking how could Hitler and the Nazis take over power and do such dark dark things to so many people. You also wonder how the Cold War could divide a city during our lifetime. And most of all, you wonder how could a beautiful city like this bounce back so quickly and be such a tourist site today. One of the girls on our trip declared, "Aren't you glad we live today so that we can visit Berlin and be safe." To which I said, "Do you think someday our children will visit Iraq or Afghanistan because it is a major tourist site?"
It is really strange to see all the old structures with bullet holes, destroyed churches, place of Hitlers death, numerous beautiful memorials, Prussian structures, and WWII and cold war reminants. And see them all on a bike ride :)
So that brings me to what we did... We decided to do the Fat City Bike Tour. These tours are in a few major cities and you bike around and stop at major sites. The first day it was a basic one with stops at Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Wall, The Memorial for Murdered Jews, the hotel where Michael Jackson hung his baby Blanket out of, and Brandenburg Gate. We got a lot of inside information and it was so fun to ride bikes in the sun and really learn about the city.
We liked it so much that we went back the next day to do the WWII bike tour. This revealed more of the darkside of Germany's history and really divulged how Hitler could come into power. It went over a lot of prewar events that you didn't really know happened and ended at a bunker where Hitler poisoned and shot himself and was then burned. I know this doesn't sound uplifting but it was definitely enlightening.
The final day we went to the Berlin Zoo... It was a great zoo and I haven't been to a zoo for such a long time so this was a great zoo to break my dry spell of zoo fun. It had a great baboon exhibit and I watched those little guys upset their parents over and over again and was majorly amused.
One of my favorite facts that is not important to know but is great conversation is about the Berlin Zoo... so I will share it here. I read awhile ago about sole survivors of plane crashes. And one of the true stories is about a young teenager whose plane crashed over the Amazon in the 70s. She fell tens of thousands of feet and was the only one to survive the crash. She actually survived after that by navigating through the Amazon. The story is pretty miraculous and you can read more about it by goggling her name.. which is Juliane Köpcke. Anyways, she is a biologist at the Berlin Zoo. So I thought that was pretty cool, eh?
In between all that we did manage to watch Germany play Argentina (at least I think it was Argentina..I might have forgotten already) but they won that game. We found a great outdoor venue and Germany definitely takes their soccer seriously so it was a lot of fun.
Berlin was full of beauty, history, and great food. Gretchen and I also discovered a new favorite.. Eiskaffee.. It is coffee with vanilla ice cream. The ice cream melts right away but the treat is just delicious... so we enjoyed those two mornings in a row.
I do hope to go back to Berlin soon and can't say enough great things about it... it is definitely a must see!!!
