Back from Berlin...

Wow, what a fantastic trip. This last weekend we made our way down to Berlin Germany and it was a fantastic experience. It took us about 6 hours to get from Copenhagen to Berlin. This included two legs by bus and a 90 minute ferry ride. We went 100% all weekend and were able to see and learn so much. We happened to be in town during the anniversary celebration of the reunification of Germany (October 3rd), so the town was full of people and festivities to mark the events.

Upon arriving, we did a little exploring on Friday, but the highlight of our trip was Saturday where we joined a tour that walked us around the entire city of Berlin. The tour was just over four hours and our tour guide was the best I have ever had. He was enthusiastic and very animated throughout the entire four hours. He was incredibly knowledgeable on the history of Berlin and had so many interesting stories to act out for us.

Berlin is an amazing place in Europe. Over the centuries it has been a focal point to so many events and changes in the European landscape. Even though over 90% of the city was destroyed during the bombings of WWII, there was so much to see.

We started in the Parises Platz or Paris Square, where so many events happened over the years. The Parises Platz contains the impressive Brandenburger Tor or Brandenburg Gate. This Romanesc gate was built in 1791 and was once the boundary between east and west Germany. One of the most famous to walk through that gate was Neapolitan during his conquest of Germany and one of the reasons why the square is named Paris square.

From there we saw the Reichstag, home to the German Empire and was the building that political parties fought over during the unstable period leading up to WWII. It is also the building where the reunification of Germany was announced in 1990 and now again hosts the German parliament.

Next we saw where the Berlin wall used to stand just outside of the Brandenburg Gate. There was almost an eerie feeling to know that 30 years ago, you would have been shot standing in that very spot.

From there we saw the "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe." This is right in the middle of Berlin and is a very powerful sight.

We moved from there to see the field that is atop what is left of Hitler's secret bunker or Führerbunker. The bunker where he shot himself as the Russians were only a few blocks away.

Next was the building that used to be the headquarters of the German Air Force and one of the only buildings that survived the bombings of WWII.

From there we saw Checkpoint Charlie, the famous crossing point from east and west Berlin. In the buildings surrounding the checkpoint were secret headquarters of the CIA and KGB as well as the German secret police. It was a center spot during the cold war and many a spy found his way through that checkpoint.

Down the road from Checkpoint Charlie we saw the square where the Nazi book burning took place on May 10th, 1933. There were over 20,000 books burned that day and it marked the start of chaos in Berlin. There is a plaque in the square that marks the spot of the book burning and on the left side of the plaque there is a quote from a popular play that took place in 1820, over 100 years before the events of May 10th occurred. In an eerie foreshadowing, the quote said, "when you start by burning books, you end by burning people." This was very interesting to see.

We ended on Berlin's Museum Island, which has some of the most famous museums in Germany. It also marks the spot where the royal palace used to stand. In front of one of the museums there was an artistic bowl carved out of stone where you could still see the evidence of bomb and bullet shrapnel from WWII.

All in all it was an amazing and informative trip that I will never forget.

Click here to take a look at all of the wonderful pictures we took over the weekend.