Day 13 - Berlin: It "Takes My Breath Away" (Thank you, thank you. I'm here all week. Try the flan)

Hey Team,

Today's my only full day in Berlin (I have a night train to Munich tonight), so to make the most of it, I'm going on my first paid walking tour.  The tour started around 10:30.  I got there with some time to spare, so I did what I always do when there's nothing else going on:  Eat.


Look at this beautiful creature.  Is it a roll?  Is it a pretzel?  I don't know and, honestly, does it matter?  It has a ton of oven baked cheese on it and was the perfect 2nd breakfast for me this morning.

After I knocked out my appetizer above, I met up with about 30 or so folks and my tour guide, Derek, who was a history major in college around his hometown of Toronto.  He was exceptionally knowledgeable and a pretty cool guy.  Here's a rundown of the sights we saw:

Here's a shot of the Berliner Dom, Berlin's largest church, which is a Protestant Cathedral.  This is where the Royal Family (when there used to be one) would worship.

That's the Spree River running through the bottom of the picture.  This is near where Berlin got it's start back in the 13th century, when, as we were told, it was nothing but a "stinky fishing village".

This is Humboldt University which has produced somewhere around 20 Nobel Laureates.  Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Albert Einstein, and Max Plank as well as a lot of other famous folks all either studied or taught here.

And yes you should know who Max Plank is.  Go ahead, look him up.  I'll wait.

This is the Gendarmenmarkt, which is widely considered one of the prettiest squares in Berlin. What you see to the left is the German Cathedral. It has a very similar mirror cathedral on the opposite side of the square.

This one was built by the Germans as a response to the other one built by some French Huguenots who had been invited to settle in Berlin.  Y'know just to let them know who was still in charge so they didn't get any ideas about getting too comfortable.  Nothing like using God to intimidate your possible rivals I always say.

Here is one of the last remaining sections of the Berlin Wall to remain standing.  The irony here is, in order to protect it from vandalism, the German government had to build another wall around it.

Let's Go Communism! (clap, clap. . .clapclapclap)!  Let's Go Communism! (clap, clap. . .clapclapclap)!!!

This is a propoganda mural painted on one of the few remaining Nazi-built buildings by the Communist regime, which has now purposely been left up to mock the former governments.

Just when I thought democracy couldn't be any dumber, it goes and does something like this...and totally redeems itself! ..

This is a standard building built during the East German period.  You can tell because all of the building are prefabricated (if you look close, you can see all of the lines connecting to one another).  Each piece was basically brought down already made and hooked on to another piece making these building very cheap and efficient to make.  This creative thinking is what gave the citizens the idea to coin these structures with the loving nickname, "The Legos from Hell".

Here's the Brandenburg Gate, which is the only remaining gate from the original wall that surrounded Berlin.  It was actually quite a bit smaller than I had expected, especially for such an identifiable world famous artifact.  

Last stop on the tour was the Reichstag Building which is the seat of the German National Parliament. This was the site of the famous Reichstag Fire that Hitler used to consolidate his power in the 1930's and become dictator.

All in all it was a very educational tour and well worth the money.  Berlin was a wonderful city.  The surprise of the trip thus far.  I would definitely come back to hang out.

I didn't have a ton of time after the 5 hour excursion ended so I just wandered around for a bit and then headed to the train station to catch my overnight ride.  I rented what is called a "couchette" so I could sleep on the way to Munich.  Here's my berth:

I asked for the Serta Queen Size Super Sleeper but this was as close as they had.  Really it wasn't that bad at all.  Slept like a baby.  If you ever get a chance to sleep on a train, I highly recommend it.  Very cool experience.

Tomorrow is a great day, because my brother, Scott, is heading to Europe to meet up with me in Munich.  He's going to be hanging with me for the whole week.  Our first mission:  Oktoberfest.