Auf Wiedersehen, Berlin

Our last day in Berlin started off with skeleton donuts....

And a ride on the underground....

A visit to the T.V. tower...

And, sadly, more reminders of the horrors of war...

Jeremy found a few cars he would like to add to his imaginary car collector's garage...

We had an amazing lunch at a great Thai Restaurant....yes...we had some great Thai food in Berlin!!!

photo courtesy of Jeremy.:)

 Did some more more great shopping and found a Lego Santa!

 Got to browse and shop through an open market...

 And had a great dinner and a quick family pic to celebrate our last night in Berlin.  Danke Sehr, Guy, for an amazing trip with the best trip planner ever!!!  I love you!:)

Poor Elizabeth, she was so tired from all the walking we did.:)

Unexpected development,,, J lost a tooth in Berlin..First person in our family to do so!  The German Tooth Fairy will have to make a visit!:)

Third Day in Berlin

Our third day in Berlin started off with a walk along the streets of the eastern side of Berlin, and we came across these reminders of the atrocities of WW2...

Right there on the corner of this street...

Since yesterday, was a very somber day full of learning about history and the horrors of what war and hate can do to people, we thought the kids deserved a day to have some fun.  A friend of mine in Groningen had told me about the Game Science Center in Berlin, and I knew it was right up Jeremy and Elizabeth's alley!:)  If there is anything that Guy and I have learned in our years traveling with kids, is that you can visit all the historic places, but you need to remember your littles and that they need to have some fun, too:) And, did they ever have some fun...

The animation picks up J's facial reactions.

Listening to a virtual haircut

Making your own story, as you go along with the Chooseatron.

Ping pong video game

Turning your voice into a kaleidoscope on the television screen...so cool!

And those pictures were just a few of the things offered at the science center.  Then, after lunch it was time to do some swanky shopping at KaDeWe.  I got to stroll through the department store where I could have dropped the equivalent of $1000 on a Stella McCartney sweater coat....oh..to have that kind of money to drop!!:) It was very interesting to see how "the other side" lives.:) But instead, we headed up to the gourmet food floor and the kids discovered anything and everything that could be made into chocolate.  Jeremy discovered chocolate cars!:) And, I discovered a very extensive selection of wines from around the world...no picture of that, though, I was too busy exploring!:)

And they both ended up with a few KaDeWe treasures!!:)

Another great end to a great day in Berlin!:)

Second Full Day in Berlin

Tuesday was our second full day in Berlin, and Jeremy and Elizabeth found some more bears!!!:)

The kids found a statue of the cool pre war walking signal.:)

We visited Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church today.  It was bombed during a raid in 1943 during WWII.   The city of Berlin decided to leave it that way as a reminder and memorial to the war.  The windows in the front are still blown out and have not been replaced...

Cracks still in the ceiling in the entry way from the bombing.

Then, we were off on a walk through Berlin...and we found many of those Buddy Bears.:)

The kids were really excited to take the Berlin Underground.  They love the subway system.:) And, there was even a subway Buddy Bear hiding out down there,:)

You have to try Currywurst when you are in Berlin...so good!!:)

Picture of the kids in front of the Berlin Zoo.:)

We went to the Check Point Charlie museum today.  Check Point Charlie was one of the check points set up to pass from East Berlin to West Berlin and visaversa during the time the Berlin Wall was built.  I highly recommend visiting this museum to get perspective on how many people risked their own lives (and freedom) to escape and help others to escape to West Berlin...

Picture of the kids outside the actual Check Point Charlie post.

Inside the museum there are several exhibits showing how people hid in hollowed out compartments of cars and in suitcases to get past the border patrols.  This is a mannequin..not a real person.

After we visited Check Point Charlie and learned about the Cold War, we were off to the sight of where the Berlin wall once stood.  Throughout Berlin you can see the scar from the wall and it is marked on the ground as you walk through the city...

Elizabeth pointing to the marker near Brandenburg Gate of where the Berlin Wall once stood.  These markers are all throughout the city.

In a few parts of the city, there are still parts of the Berlin Wall standing. We went to the part near Check Point Charlie.  Here are a few pictures of the wall from the Western side...

The picture below shows the various sectors set up throughout the city during the Cold War...

Guy and the kids looking at the wall from the Eastern side. Jeremy and Elizabeth really could not believe that a wall was built through a city to keep people from escaping to freedom on the Western side.  It is almost unbelievable to me as well...

Below the wall, dug into the ground is the remains of an old military building used by the Nazis in WWII...

Picture of the kids with the Berlin Wall and the old military building in he background.

There is an exhibit set up in the same area called The Topography of Terror...

I have learned about WWII and cannot even begin to imagine the horrors of the people and family members who witnessed it.  If you are in Berlin, it is a free exhibit which gives the information along with pictures and a time line to show how Adolph Hitler came to power and the National Socialists gained their popularity...

If you enlarge the picture below, it answers the question I had about how could something like this ever happen...

Picture during the rise of the National Socialist (Nazi Party)

Timelines of how things developed in Europe during WWII...

It was a very well done exhibit, and I cannot even be able to due justice to the horrors of that war.  Jeremy and Elizabeth were able to follow along also, and there were head phone stations set up where they were able to listen to speeches made by both sides of the war which brought history to life for them.  Jeremy was completely blown away by the fact that people with handicaps and were too sick were murdered during that time (which was only the beginning of the horrors to come).  It was not the most uplifting exhibit, but it did give all four of us a deeper understanding of the timeline and events of the war in the same place where the war happened.

Which leads me to the last picture of the day.:)  When we got back to our apartment, it was time to relax and have some fun. Elizabeth decided to give Guy a new hairstyle...

See you tomorrow!:)