Berlin, Germany

So we started off Sunday morning with a hearty breakfast from the hotel we stayed at, Holiday Inn Express. It consisted of toast, rolls, ham & turkey, cheese, hard boiled eggs, cereals, coffee, and juice. Even though completely different than the breakfasts we are used to, it was pretty good and kept up full for quite a while.

Our first stop of the day was going to be Checkpoint Charlie, which was the most well known Berlin Wall crossing point between East and West Germany. By surprise, before getting to Checkpoint Charlie, we came across some remains of the Berlin Wall. Andrew and I both reached over to touch this great piece of history. After a while of staring and picture taking, we decided to move on and made it to the Checkpoint.

The Franzoesischer Dom (French Cathedral), Duestcher Dom (German Cathedral), and the Konzert Haus (Concert House) were our next stop. To our surprise the French and German Cathedral were an exact replica of each other. They were separated by the massive Concert House, which has intricate detailed statues in the front. We are still so amazed by these old historic buildings that have so many stories behind them.

We then put on our walking shoes to view the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) and the TV Tower. Of course along the way there were many museums we wished we could stop in, but knew we didn't have time. The cathedral was finally in our sight, and boy, was it worth the walk. Once again, it was so large with so much detail to it. Each of these massive cathedrals has a courtyard in the front where hundreds of people will lay on a blanket whether it's to take in the beauty, read a book, or just to rest. By this point we would have loved the opportunity to hangout for a while, but with the short time we had to sight see, we knew we had to keep going to see as much as possible.

Andrew and I both wanted to make it back to the Brandenburg Gate a second time, even though we were 20 feet from it ALL day Saturday. Through sign language, we managed to have someone take our picture with the gate as the backdrop. One block away was the Reichstag building (Parliament). If there was more time, the building has a large glass dome in the center, which allows you to go up to the top to have a view of the surrounding city. The line for this was out the door, so we weren't too disappointed!

Our last and final destination was the Holocaust Memorial. The memorial consisted of 2,711 concrete slabs of numerous sizes to remember the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Caution signs should have been throughout this maze-like memorial though, as children ran down the rows 100 mph!

By this time our stomachs were calling out to us, so we made our way back towards our hotel and stopped at an Italian restaurant at Potzdamer Platz. We had someone help translate the menu enough to know I was getting chicken pasta and Andrew was going to get an asparagus pasta. They were both quite delicious! After lunch, this gave us enough time to grab a cup of coffee, stop at a souvenir shop to buy a few Berlin shirts, and then head back to the hotel to pick up our bags.

We were sad to leave because we knew there was so much more to see, but we knew the airplanes wouldn't wait for us, so we jumped on a bus and made our way to Tegel International Airport! I'd recommend Berlin to anyone that is even somewhat interested in history. It was a great learning experience and very surreal!

Enjoy the pictures!! (There should be quite a few since we saw so many things!)

Read more...

International Paralympic Day in Berlin

We arrive at the International Paralympic Committee in Bonn at 6:35a Saturday morning to head to Berlin. The funny thing is, this was our first time riding in a Mercedes and it just so happens to be the taxi's taking us to the airport. Almost all the taxi's here are Mercedes, which is pretty funny to us. Even the garbage trucks are Mercedes!!

The main reason for the Berlin Trip was to attend the International Paralympic Day 2009. Andrew was to work at the multifunctional court, which had demonstrations of numerous sports such as wheelchair rugby, wheelchair dance sport, sit volleyball, and blind football (soccer). I didn't have an assigned task so I somewhat hung around Andrew and watched. I did, however, help Sumi, the Vancouver 2010 mascot, while on the stage with the German President, which was kind of neat. The highlight of the event was watching the long jump... it was so impressive watching these guys who were amputees, some missing one leg and some missing both legs, sprint down the lane and jump 6.5 meters (~23ft).

All candidate cities (Chicago, Rio, Madrid, Tokyo) for the 2016 games were also present handing out free gifts to anyone that wanted one. We both got collector pins, as well as pens, notepads and a cool paper fan from Tokyo. We also were served really good food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My favorite was dinner which was a potato soup and then they added chopped up hot dogs. A weird concoction, but very yummy!

One annoying thing that happened while at the IPD were these ladies and children who would go up to people and ask for money. My first experience of this was a little boy that came up to me and asked if I spoke English. Thinking maybe he was lost, I said yes, and then he holds this piece of paper in my face in English asking for money. I told the boy sorry but no and he went on his way. The mothers on the other hand weren't so easy to get rid of. They would follow you around for at least two minutes begging! One came up to me and asked if I spoke English and I said no, then asked if I spoke Deustch and I said no and then she looked really confused and just walked away. I somewhat felt guilty at the beginning, but then realized how rude they really were and just went on with my business.

Once the end of the IPD came everyone was very exhausted, but we all went out for a little celebration later that night at the Sony Center with the really cool colorful roof. There were about 25 of us all together and found the Alex Bar to have a drink and a friendly chat. Finally around 11:30 figured it was time for bed so we could wake up rested to walk around Berlin and sight see the next morning.

The IPD was fun and were both glad to be a part of it!

Read more...

Comments are fixed...

It was brought to my attention that the comment button was not working for those who wanted to comment on our blog posts. Well, it is now fixed so comment away!!! :-)

Read more...

One word... CRAZY!!

So we woke up Saturday morning sad that it was the 4th of July and we weren't in the United States to celebrate with fireworks, but it just so happens that Germany has a yearly concert bash and it was also on July 4th. It was called the Rheinkultur. The link takes you to a page of pictures from last years event if the pictures I post don't do the LARGE crowds justice. Rheinkultur is the largest free-of-charge concert within Germany and each year brings in close to 200,000 spectators.

Andrew and I definitely are not ones for a crazy scene, but we knew it was a must to check out the festival. Walking to get there was an event in itself. We are still baffled how everyone just walks down the street drinking a beer and to top it off they are mostly 16 years old. We did learn, however, that it's legal for 16 year olds to order beer, which is crazy to us. Buses were working overtime as every bus we saw was crammed full of people. Sidewalks on each side of the street were lined of people walking to the "big" event!

Once entering the gates we decided to walk around the park to check out what was going on. There were five different stages throughout the park, each with a different genre of music. There were many different types of food stands and a Beck's beer tent every 50 feet or should I say 15.24 meters. If anyone needed to use the restroom, which I made it clear I wouldn't, had to either pay 50 cents to use a "clean" restroom or use the porta potties that just looked nasty from the outside! Andrew and I were amused by the male urinal porta potties that were just out in the open. We snapped a quick picture of it, even though its gross, it's just very different! We also came across a fountain, which apparently is the place to be when it's hot. People of all ages where either in the water or grabbing water and throwing it on each other. All i could think of was how dirty the water was, but I guess everyone just wanted a way to cool off and have some fun.

As each minute passed I think 200 new people entered the park. We tried hanging out in the more empty areas, but that lasted about 2 seconds because we would immediately be surrounded by 10 people. There was quite the crowd... everyone seemed to have their own style and I'm not quite sure if I would call it style. For girls the "in" thing is to have some sort of black leggings on and ballet slippers and guys should be wearing capris with a European mullet (FYI I think the American mullet is cooler, haha).

We met up with Kim, who also works at the International Paralympic Committee, and hung out with her and some of her friends for about an hour then decided to call it a day after 4 hours of fighting the crowds and the heat. So even though we didn't get to see our traditional fireworks, we did spot a hot dog stand with an American flag on it and took a picture. Hope everyone enjoyed their Independence Day!!! The Rheinkultur was interesting, but was also fun at the same time. Glad we had to opportunity to experience it!

Read more...

Weekends aren't for relaxing in Germany

We had quite the eventful weekend...

Friday night we went back to our favorite place, the beer garden to listen to some jazz. This week was Chicago Jazz. We had one small problem between the time we left the apartment and arrived at the garden... it decided to pour down rain. Of course we were soaked from head to toe (and yes toe, b/c we both had our flip flops on). We have yet to learn our lesson to always have an umbrella with us in case of emergencies (Germany has very unpredictable weather). The band was great though and we would go see them again in a heartbeat!

Next came Saturday... it started off with a nice bike ride along the Rhine River to the city center. As soon as we got close, I knew it was a bad idea that we rode our bikes because we had to dodge the thousands of people on the streets of Bonn on their Saturday morning stroll. It gets frustrating at times being on a bike while everyone else doesn't have a clue in the world... makes me want to go buy an air horn to use instead of my tiny bell on my bike that couldn't make an ant move out of the way. We finally made it to our destination "Tacos", a very good Mexican restaurant. We are starting to get the hang of dining out in Germany.

Now that our bellies are nice and full we decided to go sit down in Starbucks and enjoy a nice thing of coffee. Plus, the sky was starting to get dark and we didn't want to get stuck in the rain again!

While in the center we had plans to meet up with Kim, a co-worker of Andrew's at IPC. She wanted to show us around her town, Poppelsdorf and give us a tour of her flat. Once the weather "somewhat" cleared we headed in her direction. Poppelsdorf was a very cute and quaint town with small shops lining both sides of the main drag. Her flat was also very nice, as it was decorated in Ikea (my favorite). We enjoyed the company and the useful information about Bonn, thanks Kim!

Sunday was the big day, Andrew's first baseball games. The games were in a small town called Verl. It was about a 2 hour drive northeast, so we first had to meet at a McDonalds to carpool with the rest of the team. The drive was an experience in itself. We had our first ride on the Autobahn. There were only the few drivers that pushed the limits, everyone else just seemed to go peacefully on their way.

Andrew did great for his first game... his team, the Bonn Capitals, played a double header and lost the first game, but won the 2nd. Andrew made some great defensive plays and I was super proud of him. He is definitely a little beat up today from pushing himself so hard, but that's the only way you get the most out of things right? Sunday was a super long day, we were out of the house by 7:45a and didn't get home until 9p. Traffic was horrible on the way home, so that didn't make things much better. We made it home safe and sound though and had a great weekend.

I took a few pictures while Andrew was at the game yesterday, so enjoy!!

Read more...

Cologne (Part 2)

After tearing ourselves away from the ginormous cathedral we decided to head down the small alleyways to look at all the different shops. There really wasn't many different shops than what we have in Bonn's city center, just bigger. We tried checking out a few stores, but everything was packed and we just weren't in the mood for trying things on. Cologne's city center had a Burger King calling out our name, so that's were we had a bite to eat before heading off to try and find Old Town (Aldstadt).

We did end up walking the wrong direction and basically got lost within the city for about a half hour before finally getting our bearings straight of which direction the Rhine River was. While trying to find our way we came across some very interesting things. There was some sort of religious demonstration going through the streets, it was somewhat scary, so we just picked up our pace and walked the opposite direction. We also saw a buggy full of about 8 guys peddling down the street with the name "Beer Bike". And that's exactly what it was, there was a keg on the front! There was even a Mexican band playing outside one of the shops.

Finally we made it to Old Town and yes it was very old town. Aldstadt is one of the few remaining towns left standing after WWII and it was very neat to see it in person. Everything is bright and cheery, with lots of restaurants and bars. We wanted to fit in with the crowd, so we found a kiosk down by the river and bought two Kolsch beers. It still baffles us that you can randomly walk down the street drinking a beer and its okay. I still felt like I was doing something illegal though, haha.

Our plan was to visit the Chocolate Museum and Olympic Museum, but after walking there and not finding the Olympic Museum very interesting and seeing the Chocolate Museum was 7.50 euro a person, we decided to wait. We will probably be back there another time anyways. So, we decided it was about time to head back to Bonn because we didn't think our feet and bodies could handle walking any further. We had to finish the trip off with a bang and some how managed to find the only "gay street" in Cologne. Everywhere you looked there was a different XXX store (for men only). Last time Andrew decides which direction we go, haha!

It has come to our attention that its not as easy to find a public restroom and most of the ones you do find here, there are those people that supposedly are keeping the bathrooms "clean" for you (which requires a tip at the end)! We thought that was bad until, we were searching for a bathroom in the train station before heading back home. It costs 1 euro to use the restroom and you have to walk through a turning gate, like you are going on some roller coaster. The men's and women's bathrooms were basically together only separated with an imaginary wall... very strange!

So finally back on the train we went and it was definitely a more peaceful trip home than the one heading to Cologne. We hope to go to Cologne again before leaving Germany because we had a really great time. We could see the Dom Cathedral a hundred more times and it would never get old!!

Enjoy the pictures!

Read more...

Traveling North to Cologne...

So we decided to give the public transportation a shot outside of the Bonn region and head up to Cologne, which is about a 30 to 35 minute train ride. We nearly missed our scheduled train, but with a little running and a really quick ticket purchase we made it just in time! To our surprise, once on the train, we realized we sat right behind a group of guys that were finding every way to have fun. Between the very loud yells "YEAH", the German bar songs (which you can somewhat hear on the video that is on the Shutterfly website), and the explosion of confetti every 5 seconds we knew we were in for a treat. It was pretty annoying in the beginning, but then we figured we might as well find some amusement out of it or else it would be a very long train ride!

We made it to Cologne in one piece only with our ears ringing a little and were off to find our first stop, the Dom Cathedral. Little did we know when exiting the train station the cathedral slaps you right in the face! Starbucks also slapped us in the face, so we had to make a quick detour to purchase our all time favorite coffee. Apparently everyone and their mom had the same idea and we began to think we made a bad decision, but finally got our coffees and headed straight for the Dom. We thought we have seen large churches, but nothing compared. It was baffling knowing we were staring at something that began being built in the 1200's (and took over 600 years to be complete). The detail was incredible. We made one full circle around the cathedral and ended up in the front looking at the 2nd tallest spires in the world! While standing there taking in the view, we cracked up because there were at least 5 street mimes trying to make a few extra euros. I made the joke that maybe we should do that in Bonn... who knows could make us rich! :-)

After taking in the many views of the cathedral from the outside, it was now time to see the inside. Just as we thought, breathtaking! The ceilings were sky high and the stained glass windows were so bright and colorful. We paid 1 euro to receive a brochure that went into detail about the many different statues/paintings throughout the church. There were 9 chapels that were funeral monuments of many Archbishops. Some dating back to 1270. We could have paid an extra 2 euro and walked 500 steps to the top of the spires to have a few of the city, but for some crazy reason we both decided against that idea. Even though this was the first landmark we viewed since getting to Cologne, we already knew the trip was worth it.

I will post another blog about the rest of the trip to split up the pictures a bit! Enjoy!

Read more...