Pig Knuckles and Beer Buckets

Once again I owe the title to Luke. The reason for this is due to the delicious lunch that he enjoyed today. It definitely looked and smelled great! I enjoyed a turkey steak with a salad and baked potato. We started our day by heading to a square called Alexanderplatz, here we looked around and found the unique place for food.

 

We had a full day seeing many monuments around. The golden lady used to represent peace, but now she represent victory.

 

Our day started our quite rainy, but we were prepared and ready for whatever came our way. Luckily it really didn't rain that much in the end, but just scattered clouds, the sun still found a way through to warm us. 

 

 

Due to a recommendation from Mr. Rick Steves from our walking tour we went into the Radisson hotel and saw their aquarium tank with an elevator in the middle. This was pretty cool, they call it the aqua Dom. Never the less it was interesting to see and very large.

 

These guys are site often seen around Berlin. They walk around with a grill attached around their waste and all the necessities needed to make a hot dog great. They are called grill runners. Pretty funny to see, and on a day such as today they have the umbrella above them, not sure if that is normal even for the sun shade or if it was something that they had just for today.

 

We made our way to the Berlin Wall Memorial. Surprisingly we didn't really go to the actual memorial because they had set up across from it a large stretch of information following where the wall used to be. This included where houses once stood that the wall ran through, the secret under ground tunnels, where a church of reconciliation once stood, the watch tower, and of coarse the wall once stood and pieces that are left of it. This was very interesting to see. The stories of what people had to go through to actually cross the wall. This included spikes on the other side of the wall, a patrol lane people patrol every 5-10 minutes, an inner wall that had sensors of any type of motion within a certain distance would activate, and German shepards that were vicious to stop you if  you were crossing. There was so much here but it was very interesting to see. We have definitely got a well rounded view of this situation. From the east people, west people, and government, as well as the issues that went on with the Jews and all that entailed.

 

Along the way today we also came across a great sign in a bar, world clock in the square, a shadow of Luke on the ground. Luke enjoying a doughnut that he said was real delicious, doughnuts are apparently something that the Germany's thrive in, We walked through a park and Luke posed in the greenery. Berlin has the most green space then any other city in Europe. He also loves my fluffy fuzzy hair, which is great, cause when I forget to bring a hair pony this is what he gets to live with. Hehe big hair don't care? Hmm. We also came across many more of the Bears that were painted, with a metro map, in jeans, many many bears we have seen but I do like this guy with the flowers on him. I unfortunately didn't catch Luke hugging the bear but he was. We also came across some wings outside the Mexican embassy that you could take a picture with for free. So we certainly needed to take advantage of this.

 

We had a great busy yet relaxing day, ending it off we stopped  and picked up dinner to have at the hotel. We feel we have seen all the major things in Berlin and more, although we would love to continue to explore we were also looking forward to a little more of a relaxing evening. We picked up some salad, fruit, water, and for Luke a pretzel. Now I love Auntie Anne's pretzels in Phoenix they are so delicious and smell just as good as they taste, they are DELICOUS!! Luke just needed to remind me it was a good pretzel just not quite as good as antie Anne's. So sad! But glad he enjoyed it. 

We learned today that Berlin means swamp and indeed Berlin underground is very wet due to even draining water for any basement, but also in the case of their river and canal cruises. They have no anchor signs here. This is due to the fact that during the war 1 in 10 bombs dropped on Berlin actually exploded. Because of the fact that Berlin had such soft ground due to excess moisture, many of these bombs are still unexplored in the river that runs through Berlin where they have boats and cruises go through so they say no anchors so that they do not hit a bomb. That fact alone was sort of weird for me to hear. And scary that there are that many under ground they say no anchors. 

Another great day in Berlin. Crazy that we are already middle of June and a month and a half into our trip. Although it doesn't feel we have been gone that long it is weird to think of how much time if left and all the places that we will still see. 

Quick random note going back to Holland. Dutch even back home seem to be 'cheap' being in the Netherlands I wouldn't say that this was the case. Although I did notice when in restaurants many of the people were tourists. Not sure where that came from, although Luke and I have both said it in reference to him at different times. 

We also on our way out of the Netherlands came across a few people who recognized Havinga to be Dutch name. Both in the instances were from Freisland, where Havinga we learned originates. They seemed to be quite interested in the history. We also learned how to say Havinga the way a Dutchman would. Luke has also been mistaken as someone who speak Dutch a time or two and he seems to enjoy this because it makes him feel more local and in my opinion makes him feel more Dutch then maybe he sometimes does. But it is funny to watch. 

We have certainly enjoyed Berlin, it is a big city, definitely not a walking everywhere kind of place, especially in the rain, but still duable as we have learned. It is a bigger city definitely made for cars it also has beautiful green space that is much enjoyed by many. 

Tomorrow we head to Dresden which is also in Germany, but closer to the Czech Republic border. Looking forward to seeing more of what Germany has to offer. 

And so the adventure continues...