We started our morning off with an AMAZING breakfast at a place called Einsteins - not like the ones in America. We had a pretty American breakfast which was a great start to our day. We took off on our adventure to see as much as possible in the city. First stop was to find the Fuhrer Bunker. Now, this isn't actually a thing any more so we were looking for a parking lot with a sign to show you that you found it. This is the location of Hitler's bunker where he and Ava Brown committed suicide at the end of WW2. The city of Berlin decided long ago to demolish the bunker and to NOT make it a site to be seen. We read about the location and what happened there and then moved along to our next stop. As horrible as the history is it really is amazing to be standing in the places where so much history was made.
Off we went to Checkpoint Charlie! This was the US run checkpoint that marked the border between East and West Berlin. The checkpoint itself is a small building with a few American flags and lots of tourists. Around the area there is an outdoor museum that walks through the events of the Cold War and through the years of the Berlin Wall. I really enjoyed reading about the history especially since it really is such recent history that our parents even experienced.
After we took in Checkpoint Charlie we were wondering around a bit seeing some of the city when I realized I had lost our Berlin Welcome Card tickets.....Yep....those expensive tickets that Bryce didn't think we should buy in the first place? Those. #sigh. I quietly told Anne then went to meet my maker and told Bryce. She quietly told JD and we continued on our walk, quietly. JD talked quietly to Bryce and I talked quietly to Anne. I'm telling you the four of us are the BEST travel partners ever - we can pull each other through even the hardest of times - effortlessly :)
Anyway....of we went to the Berlin Wall Memorial - a must see for our group. Here we were able to see one of the deadliest areas where so many people tried to pass across and failed. Big parts of the wall were still up for the memorial and they had the memorial situated so that you could get a perspective for how that area looked when the wall was functional and in place. There was a memorial for those who tried to cross and failed - it was heartbreaking to see old, young and even children that died trying to cross to the other side. It really gives you perspective about a lot of the wall conversations happening today in our own country! After taking in the memorial we had lunch at a small café right outside of the memorial.
From there we would make our way to Museum Island. Fun fact....2 of the 4 museums on the island (called an island because it is between two rivers) are closed on Monday...the day we were there. Now...we found this out AFTER buying those damn Berlin Welcome Cards so we were scared to tell the guys because that was part of our justification for them being worth it. We hadn't told the guys this just yet :). When we got there we were super thankful there were still some museums open....we made our way to the line for the Pergamon Museum - lots of amazing artifacts from the middle east especially the reconstructed Pergamon Altar and the Ishtar Gate of Babylon.
After the Museum we walked down by the Berlin Cathedral and did pass backs on Anne and JD's Welcome Cards (yep....we learned something in college) to go in and look around. During our wait we enjoyed some sunshine out in the park while a street band played, ate ice cream and relaxed. It was pretty much perfect!
After all of these destinations there was only one thing to do....grab a table by the river, have some beers and take in all the people watching reminiscing on our day! It was an absolutely beautiful evening and the perfect cap to our tourist destinations. After a couple beers we headed back towards the hotel - on the way we passed a place that had a used book sale. I had heard about this place so I was glad we stumbled upon it! Bryce found a book on St. Louis written in English but by a German author! Cool find!
Moving towards our hotel we freshened up quickly and headed to the concierge for help with dinner reservations. We were in the mood for sushi! He recommended a great local favorite so we hopped in a taxi and made our way there. The sushi was VERY good and we were really enjoying ourselves.....until I was almost robbed. Well....that sounds a little dramatic. We were sitting at a bench style table with someone sitting with their back to mine. I kept feeling him rustling around and did feel like my purse kept getting bumped. I went all Midwest nice and gave him the benefit of the doubt - we must just be sitting too close! Well...a VERY nice waitress saw what he was doing (trying to rummage through my purse) and came to stand in between us - she asked me to quickly make sure I wasn't missing anything while they chased the guy off. Unfortunately this kind of thing happens a lot in the city - just because we weren't in a touristy destination doesn't mean we shouldn't have been on guard! Lesson learned! Luckily he didn't get anything, we had more sushi and another drink and saved the night! On the way back home we stopped in an honest to god Salsa Bar where they were all dancing the Salsa - it looked straight out of Dirty Dancing! We didn't stay....but it was a cool find!
Like most nights we closed our night with a few bourbons at the hotel bar. This particular night JD thought he ordered Johnny Blue....but it wasn't. We all got a good laugh out of that. Tomorrow we would be heading south for Munich! Car. Day!!
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