Berlin Part I

(Lindsey and I - our reflection in the inner dome of the Reichstag)

So we got back to Madrid around 1 am on Tuesday night and then Lindsey and I turned around and left for Berlin at 8 am on Wednesday! We were pretty much exhausted but very excited. After a stop in Milan, we got to Berlin in the evening and checked into our hostel, which was better than we thought. We walked around our neighborhood a bit and then ate dinner at this place called Andy’s Diner. It’s run by this American guy and I had the most amazing cheeseburger there! With pickles! Oh, it’s been too long. Don’t worry, we eventually got to the German food, we were just so excited to have burgers.

So I won’t detail every little thing that we did because we were there 7 days, and we did a lot! I had the greatest time and I really enjoyed the city. I loved being in an entirely new culture, seeing new architecture, hearing a new language, new foods, everything. Germany is very different from Spain. I love Spain, don’t get me wrong, but it was just a fun change of pace.

We took a bike tour our first day and that was a lot of fun. I had to convince Lindsey to do it but we had a great time seeing the city that way. We saw a ton and it was so much better to have the guide tell us about the places we were seeing then for us just to walk by somewhere, take a picture, and then keep walking. So if you’re in Berlin, take their free tours – NewBerlin Tours. We saw some really exciting things: the Reichstag (where the fire took place that Hitler blamed on the Communists), Museum Island, the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie (the old border crossing between east and west Berlin), the synagogue that was the only synagogue to survive Kristallnicht/ The night of broken glass, a part of the Berlin Wall still standing, the spot where Hitler’s bunker once was, the Holocaust Memorial, and we even took some lovely rides along the River Spree and through the Tiergarten which were once the royal hunting grounds and now just a pretty park.

(Part of the Berlin Wall)

So much history has happened in Berlin and it was really exciting to see the actual places where these events took place. For example, the Brandenburg Gate. This gate has seen so many important historical moments. Napoleon marched through it and took the statue that was on top of it. Hitler had parades through it at the height of his success. And when the Berlin Wall was put up, it stood in between east and west Berlin in no man’s land. And when the wall fell in 1989, the largest party in the world took place in it’s plaza to celebrate. Amazing!

(The Brandenburg Gate)