"Ich bin ein Berliner" Berlin, Part 1

We just got back from our first weekend trip - Berlin, Germany! We left Leipzig yesterday morning, and got back tonight, completely exhausted.

Be forewarned, this post has a lot of pictures!

I took about 300 this weekend, and it was really hard to narrow them down for the blog. So I hope you enjoy...

Branson on the train ride there, preparing for the weekend!

Yesterday, we all stuck together as a group  and went on a Fat Tire Bike Tour of Berlin. I had never been on one before, and it was awesome. It did rain a little bit, but that just kept things interesting. Our tour guide, Francis, was hilarious. He made lots of politically incorrect jokes, and we were laughing all day. Berlin is a beautiful city with so much history, and he did a great job of telling us where we were, how long it had been there, and how many times it had been bombed. Berlin took a lot of hits during the world wars, and is still under reconstruction.

Our tour guide, Francis. He was great! (If you are ever in Europe, we highly recommend the Fat Tire Bike Tours. Its faster than walking, and you get a great tour. Plus, its good exercise!)

There are still many parts of the Berlin wall that are intact and in their original places. Other pieces have been carefully removed and are displayed among the city. The graffiti on the wall was incredible, and so colorful. Some graffiti has been more recently added, but you can still see some of the original graffiti in places.

Jenny and I by one of the Berlin wall fragments in Potzdamer Platz. Peace!

I love the graffiti!

We got to see a large section of the original wall, still in place. There is now a fence protecting the wall, so that people won't deface the wall, or take parts of it for themselves to sell.

We rode by the last standing two-man sniper tower in Berlin. It was a very real reminder of how brutal the separation between East and West Germany was. There were two men in each guard tower. That way, if one guard tried to escape over the wall, the other would shoot him. If one guard refused to shoot an escapee, the other guard would shoot the escapee, then report his partner. Sometimes, however, the two men would become friends and try to escape together. The tour guide told us that only 12 guards successfully did this, and I thought that was an unbelievably low number!

This is a picture of Checkpoint Charlie, which was a US Government checkpoint through which many people escaped to Western Germany. It was great to see an American flag!

I thought this building was so beautiful. It used to be a German protestant church. The Prussians liked it so much, they built an identical building right across the square from it for their people to worship in. Creative, right?

Here are all of our bikes in front of the Jewish Memorial. The memorial isn't intended to represent anything specific, it is open to interpretation. There are 2,711  cement blocks in rows, which looked to me like unmarked tombs. It was a beautiful memorial, and after just watching Schindler's List last week in preparation for the trip, especially meaningful. 

Our group in front of the Reichstag, similar to the Berlin Capitol building. We were so glad the whole Winegeart family was able to join us this weekend.

After the tour, we split up into smaller groups for dinner and to stay the night. The rain set in again, and we realized we didn't know exactly where we were going!

Time to get out the map.

Sterling and Jenny and their umbrellas. The rest of us roughed it in our rain jackets.

Overall, Day 1 was great, even with the rain! We did have to walk a lot, but it was worth it to see the city. We'll get to go back several more times (Berlin is sort of like our travel "hub" for the rest of our weekend trips) so we'll get to see even more. Sorry this post was so long, but its hard to fit so much into a blog post! I guess I'll have to save my "stupid American tourist" stories for another post. Check back again tomorrow.. Jenny will post about Day 2 of the trip. Have a great night! 

Love yall

-Sylvia