First...a painful reminder that no matter how much I will it to happen the subway will never take me where I truly want to go.
Now, BERLIN!!!
So when I went backpacking through Europe a few years ago, I never made it up to Berlin and I really wanted to go. Teresa (my sister) wanted to go as well so we decided to set out complete with all four of her little boys, 6, 4, 3, and 4 months. That in and of itself is an adventure. I have traveled a fair amount and it was amazing the difference between traveling with adults and traveling with kids. They were not at all impressed with the historical significance of the Berlin wall!!! I had a lot of fun and I am so glad that Teresa and the boys allowed me to drag them all over Berlin. I love the city, it is a great mix of old and new and has such a charming feel to it despite its rather shady history.
The drive up took about 7 hours, with one stop at a McDonalds to play on the toys. We checked into an apartment that we rented for a couple of nights. I took the boys on a walk to get rid of some of their 7 hours of couped up energy scaring Teresa half to death, (I am not used to telling people where I am going or when I will be back, I answer to no one in my life) sorry Teresa.
My travel companions.
Batman
and the stroller boys.
The paths that lead through the concrete towers go up and down for no particular reason. It does give you an oddly chaotic feeling but then they are all perfectly arranged.
The boys thought of it as a maze and went running through all over the place. I would highly recommend this place.
I then ate a real live Berliner, right there in Berlin. It was fabulous, but I would submit that most German food is fabulous. I like it better than French or Spanish.
We went to see Checkpoint Charlie and had some dinner in a restaurant there. When Steven and I went to the bathroom there was a woman there and we were trying to figure out which bathroom was women's and which was men's, Steven asked in German and the lady responded in Spanish that she didn't know what he was saying. That language is so useful!! I use Spanish all the time.Here is the famous sign that you would read as you passed through the wall to the soviet side.
Here is Nathan posing with a "guard" with Checkpoint Charlie in the background.
The next day we went and saw a piece of the wall that is still in place. History: At the end of WWII the allies (The US and the Soviet Union were allies) split up the occupation of Germany but they both wanted a piece of the capital city, Berlin, even though it was in the middle of the Soviet side. So they split it up but it was still one city and people worked on one side of the line and lived on the other, they shopped on the different sides and could pass easily no questions asked. The tension between the Soviets and the US increased and one night without warning the Soviets put up barbed wire, followed by a wall on the border, closing off the western half of the city to all the surrounding area, separating families, friends etc.This is how it looked. The shabby white wall closest to the camera is the border wall with us on the Western side, behind it there is the death strip, sand and land mines and electric fences and barbed wire, followed by the inner eastern wall.
This is to show how tall it was.
We watched some videos in the museum and it was just so crazy and sad for the people, especially those in Eastern Berlin who were going to be occupied by a starving country. The US and the USSR used their position in Berlin to show each other that they were better and that the other did not have any power over them. I loved Berlin and all the history there.Thank you Teresa and the boys for a great trip.
7 comments:
Beautiful blog. I appreciate the tour of Berlin, very fascinating. What a sad piece of history. Elementary schools around here are about 5 acres; i† is hard to imaging a monument that large. I am happy that you and the Hughes got to go.
I forgot, that is the saddest face I have seen in a long time!! Even your eyes look sad.
Yeah!! Great posts. It is always enjoyable to hear about a vacation I was on from someone else's perspective. I had a great time, and you inspired me to do my own Berlin blog. As far as the crying goes.... it was just late after a long day of driving. It truly did scare me though. That is what I get for being a Mother. haha
That is so fun that you got to go with Teresa and the boys. I am willing to bet that my trip to Berlin was not as exciting as yours.
1. Thanks for being responsible.
2. So where do you "truly want to go." Heaven? Bakersfield? Crazy?
3. Aren't kids fun, imagine nine.
4. Thank heaven for free enterprise and capitalism. It conquers all (on earth, of course).
What a treat- not one, but two posts in a matter of days. Your trip looks so fun. That Memorial in Berlin is incredible. I just put that on my list of things to see.
Jessica, I really like the once a month plan better than the once every two months plan. My excuse is the blog account doesn't recognize that I exist, now I have type it in on the bar at the top,
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