Fall Break Take 1 - Berlin

  Berlin, Germany
Monday, October 27, 2008

Term 1 is officially over! After a gruesome final couple of weeks filled w/ LONG papers and exams it was time to partay! Our favorite professor held a paper-turning-in party for us on the Saturday night before we were kicked out of the Netherlands. It was really fun for us to get to hang out/drink with a professor we had all term (at his house). We found out that he won a Nobel Peace Prize ... it was hanging ever so subtly in his kids' bathroom! The man (and his family) is truly amazing!

Nobel Peace Prize

 

Us w/ the Van Kriekens

After a late night out, Sunday morning Kieffer, Sarah, Erin, and I packed up the last of our crap (which didn't look like that much when it was in our room, but was A LOT when stuffed in our bags) and headed out for fall break. We took the train (6 hours) to stop #1 ... Berlin! I've heard some really terrible things about Germany, and they were all wrong. We had so much fun!! 

All Packed Up

Train Ride

Monday we went on a tour of Berlin via our favorite mode of transport ... the bike! Our tour guide was great (and hot). We hit all the highlights ... Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, the Holocaust memorial, the beer garden (and a lot more. See the pictures at the end of the post).

Bike riding

Chepoint Charlie

Beer Garden

Chipped Berlin Wall

When the tour was over, we asked some of the bike guys what we couldn't leave Berlin w/o seeing. Their main suggestion was the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall. So we headed out w/ map in hand. After about 20 minutes of walking, we checked the map to see if we were headed the right way. We were, but we also noticed that we hadn't covered that much territory. Needless to say it was a LONG walk there! It was well worth it, though. This section of the wall hasn't been chipped away by tourists like the stretch of the wall we saw during the bike tour. It is also the section that has all the awesome art/graffiti! I think there is about 1.5km of the wall left in this section of Berlin.

Me and the Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall 2

Berlin Wall 3

Berlin Wall

After 6 hours of biking and a long ass walk to the wall it was time for dinner, beer, and bed! Tuesday we headed to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and the Holocaust Memorial Museum. Checkpoint Charlie was awesome. It illustrated/told a ton of the stories of how people escaped from East Berlin over/under the wall. The Holocaust Museum was depressing! The memorial is a couple hundred rectangle boxes (coffin shaped) at varying heights and the museum told a bunch of stories of the people that died. Major downer!

Dinner and Beer

Checkpoint Charlie

Holocost Memorial

After the museums we had just enough time to eat some dinner, grab our bags, and head to the train station. On to our next destination!

Train Station