48 Hours in Berlin

Berlin in Under 48 hours!

With the boys schools starting Monday and University classes needing to be taught, we only had a weekend to squeeze in a trip to Berlin. Ok, so 48 hours is really not enough time, but sometimes you just have to take what you get.

My older son had an opportunity to stay in a Hostel at the beginning of the school year when his class had a week long trip to Wangerooge, an island in the North Sea.

In my mind, a trip to Europe would not be complete without a stay in a Hostel, so we tried it ourselves. My son was not thrilled at the prospect (there was no TV or pool), but the rest of us were thrilled.

I chose City Hostel Berin, which is in what was once East Berlin. Our room had 2 bunk beds, a small table and chairs, and a bathroom. The room was rather spartan, but it fulfilled all of our needs (except for a TV apparently). Breakfast the next morning was better than I expected. There was plenty of all the traditional German fixin's, including rolls, meat, cheese, boiled eggs, cold cereal, quark, and so on.

This profile is of the WW2 resistance fighter Gerog Elser. He died in Dachau after trying to assassinate Hitler.

Our first night in Berlin we reviewed a lesson we should have already learned. Do not buy/order Nachos in Germany. It is always disappointing. That red stuff down there is not salsa, it s marinara sauce! And that green stuff? It was not guacamole!

If you walk around in Berlin, you may see this little guy. He is the Ampel Man, and he was the crosswalk indicator in the East Germany.

Berlin is full of interesting and quirky bits of history. The picture below is of the Hotel Esplanade. Construction finished in 1908 and cost more to build than any other Hotel in Germany at the time. Much of it was destroyed in 1944/5. In 1996, it was moved about 800 feet and incorporated into the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz.

Once our boys were asleep, we walked to Brandenburg Gate to see the night time effect. If you ever get to Berlin, take the time to see it at night.

The next morning we dragged our boys out of bed and followed the path we walked the night before. Most of the tourist sites we saw are very close to where the city was divided. Pretty much all of the Berlin Wall has been torn down, but bricks mark where it once stood.

One of our first stops was the Reichstag. This is where the German parliament meets, and you can walk up inside the glass dome. There is no cost to see the inside, but you do have to reserve a pass several days in advance. Some people bypass the hassle of waiting in line by reserving a table at the restaurant. However, from what I could gather from online reviews, the food was pretty bad and over priced so we just skipped it.

After walking around a bit on our own, we walked back to the Brandenburg Gate to wait for the free walking tour of Berlin we had signed up for. If you have a limited time in Berlin, this is a good way to see many of the highlights. The tour was three hours long and we walked just about the whole time. The guides are paid with tips, so you only pay what you deem it was worth.

A little way through our tour we sat for a few minutes at the Holocaust Memorial, seen below.

The Bear is depicted on the Berlin coat of arms, but it more famous as the mascot of the city. You find these "Buddy Bears" scattered around the city.

Checkpoint Charlie was important because this is where the Foreigners and Allied forces could cross between the East and West. It was considered more accessible since it was controlled by Allies as well. The Berliners tore it down when the wall fell, but rebuilt it after they figured out it would be a good tourist attraction.

Halfway through our tour we stopped for a pick me up. We opted for (a rather expensive) hot chocolate. The novelty of it made up for the cost. At least that is what I keep telling myself. It was a cup of steamed milk to which you added chocolate chips to make it chocolaty.

As we made our way to Museum island, where our tour ended, we passed this art installation dedicated to mothers who had lost children in wars.

Buskers are very common in every bigger city we have visited. We have never seen an Organ man with a live monkey, but a stuffed monkey is common, although missing here.

Even though this building, the Berliner Dom looks like it would be really old, and it is. The first building was erected in 1452. It is beautiful and on nice days people pack a picnic and spend the afternoon here.

And to end, just a note about the Trabant, AKA the Trabi. West Germany had the Volkswagen Beetle. The Trabant, with its 2 stroke engine was the pride and glory of those in the East. It was cheap and easy to repair, so I suppose it met the needs of those who could save up enough money to eventually buy one!

If you go to Berlin, you will probably see a line of these cars out on a car tour, or a Trabi Safari. To this day, the Trabi instills warm fuzzies to ... someone.

Bis nächste Woche!

A little Spice in our Life

Salt!

I like to think that I have an open mind when it comes to trying new things, so when our friends asked if we wanted to see their local salt museum we were ready to go.

My first thought was, "How many things could you see in a salt museum?"  It turns out there is plenty! I really had no idea how lovely salt could be.

Blue and purple salt crystals form in the presence of radiation

Salt can take many different natural forms.

According to our guide, it was important to have and wear a uniform - whether or not you were in the military. This is what the employees wore for special occasions when the Prussians were in charge.

Once those pesky Prussians were expelled, they had to have new uniforms, right?

Salt is not formed naturally in convenient tiny, white crystals ready for your popcorn. It has to be mined and/or refined one way or another. Take this salt slab for example.

A pillar of mined salt in its natural state.

Salt Henge.

This is a retired salt mine train now open to the public for the enjoyment of children and the awe of adults who wondered how these men fit inside.

Here is a lovely stained glass window. There is beauty and honor in everything, even in a salt mine.

We are thrilled whenever we happen upon an amusing sign. This one says, "Achte auf alles zuerst auf Gefahren". Pay attention to everything, but the danger first.

This was, as always a wonderful visit with our good friends at the beginning of our Spring Break. At the end we took a trip to Berlin, but more on that next week!

Köln - Cologne Odyesseum

Field Trip!

Several weeks ago, a friend of mine asked if we would be interested in going to Cologne (Köln) with her during the beginning of Spring Break. Cologne is only about 2 hours away by train and has a new attraction to add to it's list of "must dos".

She had been wanting to visit the Odysseum.  It is an interactive science museum filled with fun.

The first area focused on Life and Earth sciences. Here, my younger son and his friends are experiencing the creation of fossil footprints.

So, of course the next thing we would see would be an animatronic dinosaur.

Inside the tree was a computer screen teaching you about genetics. Luckily, it had German and English options, since I am pretty sure none of our family have learned these words yet.

On our way to the next section of the Odysseum we went past this art installation.

The next area we went to was focused on outer space. This had lots information about states of matter, engines and even a computer games that simulated flying a plane. The real show stopper  was the gyroscope chair. Astronaut in training!

The next area focused on robotics. This would have been way cooler of the remote control boxing robots were not out of batteries. However this game, shown below, worked by relaxing your mind. Whoever had the most relaxed mind was able to roll the ball away from themselves and toward to loser.

This robot could simulate emotional facial expressions - with the help of the viewer pressing a button with the expression of choice. I think this one was surprise.

After a snack and playground break, it was off to our last area ambiguously labeled Kinderstadt or  Kid City in English. It was full of fun activities of the scientific persuasion.

This activity focused on selecting the correct levers to color sort the balls.

What kid doesn't love playing with giant gears?

This was one of my son's favorites - solar powered motion.

This ball "levitated" in the air by magic (a fan blowing air).

Paton's head was cut off. Really!

Completing the circuit.

Fun with gravity.

Reflex test - how quickly can you grab the poles after they start falling?

This had something to do with tension - mostly, I just think it looks cool.

The highlight of this area was way up over our heads - the rope course.

My kids just wanted to play and were not patient enough to wait in the long line for a turn on the ropes.   For a nine year old, our friend has more patience than most adults I know.

Except for out train having a technical difficulty on the way home, our day was lovely. The sun was shining, we were with friends and we saw a little of Cologne.

I am hoping we can go back again soon for another visit. The cathedral is supposed to be incredibly beautiful and there are a million other things so see.

Hamburg or Bust!

Out of Control!

Spring break has arrived!

Two weeks off of school for Spring Break is a long time, so we are trying to squeeze in a few trips since our time in Germany is starting to draw down.

Our first stop was Ronnenberg to visit the Kellersmann family again. They are so good to us. Our trip wasn't as long as we would have liked because someone (Russell) had to teach a class. Oh well.

Our friends wanted to take us to Hamburg for the next day, so we all hopped on the train and off we went.

The train ticket we had, a Niedersachen ticket allows you to ride any local train (which means not the fast ICEs). Luckily, that ticket also included water taxis. Once we arrived in Hamburg, we hopped onto a water taxi and had a tour of  the Elbe through Hamburg.

I took a picture of this building before I even read the text painted on the house.  It says "Out of Control". I love the mixture of styles and colors on this row of building!

I also saw these two amazingl doors. 

This one made me a little home sick. Mermaids are the symbol of Norfolk. If you look closely, you can see the mermaid enticing the sailor.

We took a short walking tour of the city and saw the Rathaus. A Rathaus is basically city hall. Hamburg's Rathaus is open to the public and holds concerts and exhibitions. It is not a museum, but the building itself is pretty historical so there are tours through it.

Our next stop was an Italian restaurant where we ordered, then waited and waited for our food. Then waited some more. Sadly, bad service seems to be exactly the same here as it is in the U.S. I am convinced the waitress forgot to put in our order!

Luckily our children were very well behaved and waited patiently.

Our final destination of the day was the Miniatur Wunderland.  Just in case you have no idea what that is, imagine an entire building filled with model train layouts. I am not talking about your strange neighbor's train set that circles the basement. This was truly amazing. You can walk through a good portion of the world in HO scale. The lights were set on a timed dimmer to give you the night time perspective every few minutes.

There were so many amazing displays that is was hard to pick a few out to share.

Can you see the Ferris Wheel in the picture above?

This palace reminds me very much of King Ludvig's Chimsee palace in Bavaria. This is the same king who constructed Neuschwanstein (Cinderella's Castle) .

This exhibit (below) was one of the most popular. There are doors on the wall that let the model airplane through on it's "take-off", complete with jet noise sound effects.

There was even a post war exhibit - "Never forget" is pretty important here.

The exhibits included city and attractions from around the world. It was interesting to see what someone from another country would pick as a representation for other lands. Here is a desert scene from the US. I think it is supposed to be a part of Utah.

Here is a depiction of Las Vegas. The details were pretty impressive. This portion was complete even with the column of light beaming out of the Luxor.

Here is a scene from Scandinavia. The water in this section was no simulation!

One of the last sections we saw this beautiful replica of a church in Scandinavia.

The last section was a winter wonderland, complete with sign warning you that the snow is actually small pieces of glass that can cut you!

No matter what age you are, if you ever have a chance to visit Hamburg, the Miniatur Wunderland is definitely worth a visit if you have time.

One day is really not enough time to really see Hamburg. There is so much to see there that I really hope we can visit again to experience more of the city.

Easter In Germany

 Frohe Ostern!

The Easter Bunny seemed to find us all the way in Münster  - not that we were actually worried.  He brought some yummy chocolate in many forms, including lollypop form, and even hid 8 Überraschungseier for the boys to find.

Easter Morning was beautiful. The breeze was a little cool, but the sun was shining again. We previously heard from someone that the Labmerti Cathedral had a beautiful Easter procession and mass, so we decided to bike into the old Stadt.  St. Lamberti Dom, founded in 1090 A.D., is one of the oldest churches in Münster. Sadly, the building is having some major renovations done at the moment, so it was closed for all religious services.

 About half a block away is the Überwasser Kirche. Since the Dom is under renovations, this is where the masses are being held at the moment, unless of course, you want to go to one of the countless other churches around here.

Many of the churches here have beautiful stained glass windows. Many are replicas of the originals since World War II destroyed most of the originals.

The first hour was was full of music. The congregation sang, a boys choir sang and the organ was lovely. The boys waited about 30 minutes before they asked to break out the iPods.

The second hour was the actual mass. Since it was Easter Sunday, there was a special mass led by the local Bishop.  A rather grand procession was led by alter boys and girls swinging incense burners, followed by various robed people. The Bishop came at the end blessing the congregation as he went.

At a later point, the Bishop blessed the congregation again sprinkling us with holy water (which was only shocking if the water hit you before you saw it coming because you couldn't see over the tall person in front of you).

By the end of the service the cathedral was filled with a cloud of incense and a lovely feeling. I love the part of mass where you greet you neighbor. We were sitting by a couple of sweet older nuns who didn't bat an eye at sitting next to our two boys.

Easter evening our wonderful friends, the Kellersmann family, invited us to partake in another Germans tradition; The Easter Bonfire, or Osterfeuer.

As per tradition, the Christmas tree was added to the bonfire helping the initial flames really get going.

Sadly, the beautiful pyramid collapsed after a while.

None the less, we were all able to roast our wursts and enjoy a lovely meal (on a separate grill because it was impossibly hot at the fire). We brought a little touch of American cuisine with us in the form of S'mores fixings. I think they were a hit because everyone ate at least one.

Even though we are away from our family and friends back in the states, we have been lucky enough to be included by others here in Germany. With out our friends here we would be lonely indeed.  We are grateful for all of our friends, where ever they are!