Finally arriving in Berlin after an exhausting day of train delays, Trudy and Sophie were thankful to be spending time with some friends from home. It was wonderful to be able to sit in their apartment and catch up with life. They soon had a rough plan for the next day and then crashed for the night.
Berlin is an amazing city! So much history mixed with so much modern advancement. The history of the city is incredible intriguing. They have preserved it so well, it is hard not to imagine what it might have been like there in earlier times, yet there is still so much modern innovation and construction occurring.
Trudy had been to Berlin a number of times before. Between her knowledge of the tourist section of the city and the knowledge their friends had picked up from a year of living there, they all learned something from each other.
Many of the sites center around World War II and the atrocities of that time contrasted with the recovery since. Starting from the Brandenburg Gate, the group then walked over to the memorial for the murdered Jews. They then walked down Under den Linden (a great smelling street in the spring time, not so amazing in winter!) and took in many of the sites along the way–the cathedral and Alexanderplatz being highlights. Lunch was a Turkish meal that has become popular in Germany–the döner kebab (shaved meat put in a pita with vegetables and sauce). They also walked around the museum at the Topography of Terror, which is right next to a small still standing portion of the Berlin Wall. They then walked about a block or two to Checkpoint Charlie.
They also got to see the Nikolai church, which is one of the first buildings ever built in Berlin. They also enjoyed the number of bears, the mascot of the city, seen all around town (including some stuffed bears enjoying the street view). Another site was the bombed out structure of the Kaiser Wilhelm church–a reminder of the horrors of war time as well as the more recent memorial of the Christmas market attack (where a man drove a truck through a crowd of shoppers, murdering several).
Getting on the subway again, they went to dinner at a pay by weight buffet, went to an amazing chocolate shop (where they saw the sites of Berlin carved in chocolate!), and then up to the top of the Reichstag. The weather was not favorable for viewing the city (it was cold and rainy), but the audio guide was still informative.
They then headed back to the apartment for the evening where Trudy and Sophie got ready for their final German adventure.
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