Berlin!

MLK Weekend gave Michael a 4 day mini vacation, which gave us time to FINALLY get to Berlin. We rented a car, and were off to the capital city of Germany.
The trip took us through snow, but when we arrived in Berlin, there was no snow, (Thankfully) only cold weather.

We didn't mind the cold, or that we chose to see this city in winter...there were less tourists. Sure, we had to bundle up, but who cares?

We stayed in the Art'otel in Kundamm. (Go ahead, take a virtual tour here: http://artotel.photowebeu.com/kudamm/index.html)

It was a nice hotel, that we got for a steal on booking.com (Check it out fellow travellers) **Another bonus of winter travel! Reduced rates!
We were in the neighborhood of these fine attractions The Beate Uhse Museum, and Dunkin Donuts. (Of course we breakfasted there, sehr klasse.)

We cram packed Berlin Attractions into our weekend. To achieve maxium sites in as little time as possible, we made a must see list and I highly recommend it for ANY travel destination you are planning...
We saw almost EVERYTHING we wanted to see.
With the exception of the Ritter Sport Bunte Schoko World Museum, and the Currywurst Museum. (BUT, there is always next time, right?)
We started our morning off (of course after a donut) walking toward the Tiergarten. While we didn't visit either of the zoos, we did walk along enjoying how scenic the natural huge park looked.

We met a fluffy dog, and enjoyed the sun rising slowly as we crossed Cornelius Brücke.

We saw the Victory Column (which is still seen by some as a Nazi Symbol) and walked down Strasse des 17 Juni toward the Brandenburg Gate.

We came up on the back side of the Gate, passing the huge Reichstag. Which looked proud covered in German Flags.

It was somewhat strange walking over bricks that represented where the Berlin Wall once stood. The huge soviet memorial stands within sight of the Brandenburg Gate. It looks overpowering and very propaganda-ish. There was a bird on top of the huge soviet statue's head.
It made me instantly sing the wonderful Sesame Street song "There's a bird on me" (Remember it? if not take a trip down memory lane by clicking right here )

The sad quiet memorial of Victims of the Berlin Wall was touching and so very heartbreaking. It stands in the shadow of the beautiful huge Reichstag. (We waved to Angela Merkel...ok not really. She was no where to be seen)

We snapped pictures of the memorial to politicians who opposed Hitler, but did not go in to see the Reichstag.

We did check out Rick Steves suggestions about Berlin..but I have to say, while the book did list the sights near/on Pariser Platz, the book did NOT properly convey that you do not have to go in search of these sites. In fact, the travel guide lead me & Michael to believe we had to search for them.
Nay, They are right there in the open. RIGHT by the gate. For example, Hotel Adlon. The hotel famous for Michael Jackson's baby dangling antics is literally RIGHT there beside the Gate. You can't miss it even if you TRY.
Same with the Kennedy Museum. How can you MISS seeing a GIANT display of Jackie's face? You can't. It's right there by starbucks.

While on Pariser Platz, enjoying the view and posing for pictures, we were approached by SEVERAL women. They would cry out "ENGLISH? DEUTSCH? ENGLISH?"
Then they would hold up a little card that said "please give me money for bread."
She would put their best beggar face on and then say "Please. Please? Please? PLEASE? PLEASE? PLEASE?" despite telling her "no." and shaking your head she would continue to beg please as fast as she could.
Clearly these women do not take no for an answer, and they will follow you down Unter den Linden hoping their incessant begging will wear you down and you will give them "only 1 euro, please please please" just to shut them up.
We ducked into a souvenir shop to get away from the one who zoned in on us. (There were A LOT of these women milling about the platz)
Michael said "I would bet they are part of human trafficking."

It made me wonder....are they simple beggars or is it something more sinister? and why do the Polizei allow them to be so annoyingly harassing?

Regardless we continued our walk down Unter den Linden, which is a street under a lot of construction, we stopped to see the Neue Wache, which is a very sad almost creepy memorial. We visited Bebelplatz and saw where students and professors burnt newly forbidden books in 1933, at the 'request' of Joseph Goebbels.
It's hard to imagine how such a lovely platz could be the place of such willingly stupid destruction.

Despite our lunchtime hunger, we found a minute to stop and admire the beauty of the Berliner Dom. It was fantastic in spite of my growling belly.

We found a cute/trendy place for lunch called Wrap Me. You can build your own wrap. I chose white beans, lemon rice, honey chicken and a spice sauce to top it all off.
Trust me when I say, I killed that wrap. We had walked up an appetite in the cold. (Since we were right there by the Spree River, cold isn't a word to aptly describe the temperature!). Warming up in the restaurant was fantastic.

After munching we headed out to the Neues Museum. Since the tickets were timed, and we didn't want to wait around for an entrance time, we skipped seeing Nefertiti :(.
However, we chose the Pergamon Museum instead. We were NOT disappointed. The sights in that museum are AMAZING. The Pergamon Alter stands there proud and waiting for you to dream of what it looked like in it's glory days.

We saw Athena, the gorgeous gorgeous gate of Ishtar, the market gate of Miletus.

It was truly well worth our time.
We were totally in awe of the Pergamon-Panorama of the Ancient metropolis. The painting by Yadegar Asisi brings to life the ancient city. We could've spent forever just admiring this gorgeous panorama.

After exploring the museum, we walked back along the frigid Spree River. There were artists selling their goods. I wanted nearly everything I saw.

We then crossed back over the city to take in the Murdered Jews of Europe Memorial. Even though the sun was glowing, the Memorial looked dank and highly depressing. As it should. It is a massive memorial.

We left there, and walked down Friedrich Strasse towards Checkpoint Charlie. (not without first stopping at Starbucks for a treat)

At the checkpoint,There were friendly Germans posing as American Soldiers. Michael made friends with one joking and laughing with him as we paid the 2 euro to get get our passports stamped from checkpoint charlie.  

Friedrich Strasse is the street of honking horns. As we walked down the street, several cars were good naturedly honking their car horns in various different tunes. We found it highly amusing. I started laughing at the expression of one  honker (He reminded of Night at the Roxbury)

It prompted me to say "Wow. Berlin in the town of Honking"
Michael responded "And the capital city of all honkies."
I had to laugh, because it is so true.

We finally made it back to our warm hotel room, completely walked out. We fell onto our beds and talked about how fantastic Berlin is, and when we come back we are NOT missing that Currywurst museum no way.

I admit, I loved Berlin. I had an exciting time exploring the city that has had a colorful and haunting past, but in our hearts, we are partial to southern germany and the easy charm that you can only find in Franconia. :)

Will we go back to Berlin? You can bet your jelly donut on it, JFK!