Berlin, Germany

After our day in Copenhagen, we said goodbye to Cam's parents at the airport but we still had a couple more days off, so we hopped on a plane ourselves and headed to Berlin.

We flew out in the morning so arrived and still had the afternoon to explore. We took a bus and then a train from the airport to our hotel. I must say, this was probably the best I've done booking a hotel. Not only was it right across from a big train station, it was right next to the East Side gallery of the Berlin wall.

So obviously, visiting the East Side gallery was our first stop. The gallery is a long section of the old Berlin wall that has been commissioned by several different artists . The majority of the paintings have to do with tearing down the wall, receiving freedom or fighting back. Even though it was rainy, it was neat seeing all the different murals. The one Cam is standing in front of above is probably the most well-known, and always had a big crowd around it waiting for pictures.

We then continued on to get something to eat and headed towards the DDR museum. The DDR museum is designed to show what life was like during the time of the Berlin Wall. It was a great experience, and although there were a few things that were only in German, the majority of the Museum had english translation.

We learned a lot at the museum, and it was interactive enough to keep us interested. We find there's usually so much to learn that by the time we're done reading it all we're exhausted. This museum had a good balance of reading and other things such as videos, rooms to walk through and audio. We enjoyed learning about so much of Berlin's history and getting a better idea of what it was really like during the time.

After all the reading at the museum, we worked up an appetite again so headed to the nearby Christmas market. This market very quickly became my favourite of all, and not just because of the chocolate covered fruit I'm holding.

Not only was the market huge, it was right in the middle of the city. With the TV tower over looking the market, the outdoor skating rink, and beautiful ferris wheel made this one truly unique.

There were so many different stands to choose from we had to walk around the whole place twice before we decided what we wanted to try. We even went back again the second night to try more. There's something so fun about the atmosphere at these markets, everyone is so happy and standing around socializing. I think the build up to Christmas here is even better than the day itself.

The next morning, we took the bus towards a different part of town where our first stop was the Brandenburg gate. The gate is the site of many major historical events and has become a symbol for not only Berlin, but a lot of Europe.

Just around the corner from the gate is the Holocaust Memorial. The memorial looks like a park, with a huge variety of concrete slabs. There is purposely no order to the slabs and they're designed to make you feel disoriented and confused. Even without a lot of information provided, it was pretty moving walking through.

After the memorial, we had about an hour before our time slot to visit the parliament which we had to book ahead of time. There wasn't much more we wanted to see that was close, but we had an all day transit pass. This is where we came up with out best travel hack yet. We were freezing, and knew there was a bus that went by most of the cities attractions so we got on a bus and rode it for awhile lol. It gave us a break from walking and let us warm up, plus we got to see more of the city!

We rode the same bus back towards parliament and went through the mandatory security check. If you ever visit Berlin, what thing to note is this visit all has to be booked ahead of time. We were actually quite impressed that we were allowed to visit and it was free.

At the top of the building is this big glass dome. At the bottom, you're given a free audioguide that explains all the things you are seeing as you walk around the pathway to the top.

For it being free, it was actually a very good tour and gave a lot of information. It was rainy, so the pictures from the inside wouldn't have been what I wanted, but it was neat to see the city from this perspective.

Our next stop was the Berlin Wall Museum. It had some similar information as the DDR museum, but was more geared towards the wall itself and its history. We learned about the families that were divided, the people that tried to escape, and what lead to it ultimately being torn down.

This is us, each on different sides of the wall. Obviously, this wouldn't have been possible not that long ago.

After having lunch at the hofbrauhaus and drinking oktoberfest-sized beers, we took a train out to the Olympic Stadium.

Its clearly been renovated since it was initially built for the 1936 games, but the history was still present.

In the picture above, you can see the gold medal winners of those Olympics that were inscribed into the building, including probably the best known story of those games, Jesse Owens. All of these things were super cool to see, especially for Cam.

The original bell tower was the only part of the stadium destroyed in the war, but the Olympic bell that was housed there survived, though it fell and cracked which you can see below.

After the stadium, I really wanted to go to the monkey bar which is on the top floor of a hotel. It's called the monkey bar because you're supposed to be able to see the monkeys in the zoo, but it was too dark so we didn't end up staying. It did lead us to this view on the other side though and another Christmas market. The church you can see in the picture was bombed, but they rebuilt a new church next to it.

Just two years ago, in 2016, there was a terrorist attack on this same Christmas market when a truck was driven through the crowd. There was a memorial set up near the church in remembrance of those that were lost, and you could tell there was extra security measures around the gates.

After checking out this market, we went to the holocaust museum. This museum was smaller, and was made up of posters like the one below. After a long day, this was a lot of heavy information to take in. Looking back, it would have been better to do this at the beginning of a day or when you have more time. We read as much as we could, but a tour guide may have been a better idea for this. This isn't the first holocaust museum we have been to, and it seems that we learn so much new information every time.

From there, we walked to checkpoint Charlie, which is mostly just a photo op now.

Checkpoint Charlie was the most well-known crossing point for the Berlin Wall. It has become a symbol of the cold war, and is now just a tourist attraction.

After taking a few photos, we took a bus back towards the Christmas Market in the downtown for another treat before heading back to the hotel. We had an early flight the next morning back to Copenhagen, and then a long bus trip back home so we didn't feel bad for going to bed a little earlier than a normal vacation day.

We jammed a whole lot of Berlin into a day and half, but it sure made the trip worthwhile.

+Kahli