Day 2 -Berlin

Day 2 – Berlin

We began our day with a fabulous breakfast at the hotel. It was included in the price of our rooms and we all took full advantage of the all-you-can-eat buffet before we left in the morning to see the sights again.

We began by heading to Checkpoint Charlie. This was one of the 3 places where one could cross the wall between East and West Germany. They were called Checkpoints A, B, and C. The US controlled Checkpoint C (for Charlie). We went through the museum there. It was a real eye-opener for most of us. Most of the students were about 6 months old when the wall came down so, of course, they do not remember any of it. I remember hearing about it but I don’t remember enough details to keep it all straight in my mind. From what I understand and have learned, the Russians were our allies in WWII. However the Germans did atrocious things to the Russians and killed many, many Russians. Therefore, when the war was finished and Germany was divided between the allied powers, the Russians had no sympathy for the Germans and made their life very difficult. It was heart-breaking to see and read of all the families that were separated during this time.

After going through this museum we went to the Bibelplaatz where they burned all of the books. This is not a readily marked spot and we would’ve walked right past it if Professor Nielsen hadn’t known where to look. Now it is a glass panel in a patio and when you look in it there are empty bookshelves underneath it. We also saw a memorial to victims of war. It was a mother holding her dead son. By this time we were all very hot and thirsty and were getting hungry. There was a market right there with a brat stand so we all got some food and looked through the vendors. Leonard bought a T-shirt because he didn’t bring enough casual clothes along. After this we visited Berliner Dom. It is a large reformed church. We got to see a wedding while we were there. In it there are statues of Martin Luther and John Calvin. There were also caskets and graves of the Kaisers and their families. We climbed up the dome and went more than 270 stairs! When we were at the top we could see Professor Neilsen waiting for us at our pre-arranged meeting spot and we realized we were late. There was a fountain in front of this church and several of us took off our shoes and walked right in in order to cool off. It felt so good! I also took several pictures of some young children that I though Ali might like to paint some day when she has time to do that sort of thing again.

After this, the group split up and had free time for the rest of the day. Our family walked with Professor Neilsen back through the Brandenberg gate and towards the hotel. On they was we passed a street of Linden trees and took a picture for Lindsay (whose name means “from the linden tree island”). Once at our hotel we freshened up and checked email and then headed back out into the main part of town. We stopped at the Ka De Fe.

At one time this was the world’s largest store. While the wall was up, the Americans kept it well-stocked with everything imaginable so when the East German officials came to the West, they could see how good things were there compared to things back in the East. Most of the store is 7 floors but some is only 6 because it used to be in different buildings and is now merged all into one. Each floor is as large or larger than some of our malls! It was huge! We bought some chocolate and looked for a newspaper with Obama on it but we were a day too late for that.

Next we tried to find a place to eat. We thought of eating on the 7th floor of the Ka De Fe but it was overwhelming and could easily get expensive as it was all a-la-carte. We returned to the street and began talking about where to go. We were just about ready to head to the mall where the restaurant was the night before to look for something else when professor Nielsen remembered that we weren’t far from the Hard Rock Café. We decided to go there and had so much fun. The music was a little (that’s an understatement) loud for we 3 “old” folks but it was definitely an experience. The highlight of the night was that there were FREE refills on pop! The boys and I took full advantage of that! Leonard bought me a t-shirt that I liked for a birthday present. Jacob bought a cap. Michael wanted one as well but they were too small for him and they were “one-size’fits-all”. Instead he bought the plain white t-shirt with the Hard Rock Cafe logo. When the students realized what they had missed, they were very disappointed that they didn’t get there.

After dinner we moseyed back to our hotel and we all conked out soon after. We wonder how many miles we walked today (and many of it in the hot sun!) I refuse to complain because I like it better than what we had last week but most of the students really liked last week’s weather!