Berlin

That checklist of places to see while in Europe is getting smaller by the moment!

Spring Break week we took the train to Berlin for a couple of days of siteseeing in the old city. Man! If planes had legroom like 1st class trains, I'd not mind flying in a sardine can for 8 hours at a time! Room for Matthew to get up and stretch those little legs full of energy. Someone comes to get my drink order. Just a little much for the cost. (we paid a little over $500 for us to all go up there)

Next on our list? Amsterdam in May. With winter non-exsistent in Europe this year and flowers having bloomed so early, I think we'll really miss out on any tulips. :( Isn't that main reason to visit AMSTERDAM and the Netherlands? We are also knocking Madrid off the list the month before we're scheduled (in our minds anyways!) to head back to the states. 3 full days in Spain, including a trip to Toledo. I've wanted to go since high school spanish class (all 4 years of it LOL) and now I'll get to live it. A day in the Prado... what more could I ask for? SEVERAL days? A month? I am SOOOOOOOOO very excited to be making this trip.

The picture today is from Berlin. It is the boys in front of the Reichstag on the marker stating this is where the Berlin Wall once stood.

Some travel tips for Berlin:

1. Take the train, first class. (see above note)

2. If you're starved for some American touches, you can find BK, McDs, even DUNKIN DONUTS, in town. Actually the donuts were in many of the train stations. And our lunch on Thursday was at Schlotzsky's. That's just down the block from Checkpoint Charlie! Filler on their sandwiches is ONION though. I think they had the sourdough type bread, and a limited menu, but it was just a touch of home I needed.

3. Reichstag tourist tip: Take a child under the age of 7 with you to stand in line. We were probably an hour from getting in. Gentleman in a Bundestag jacket came and asked David how old Matthew was. (of course, he's just 5) We followed him down to the handicapped entrance and were at the top in mere moments! The new dome is quite a place to see Berlin in panarama. Little scary if you're not fond of heights but worth the walk up the ramp to see from there. Today's history lesson is this: Reichstag is the building where the Bundestag meets. Bundestag is the parliament body of Germany. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_building has some basic info on the building.

4. Pay the couple euro to go up in the Victory Monument. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_victory_column Another view (I didn't go up as the stairs were a little much) but the picture around the first level upstairs is amazing. It's like a mosaic. And something I didn't mention of til we left this site, was a monument to Bismarck. If you go thru the park near the column, there is a monument to Bismarck.

5. Get that picture of the Brandenburg gate. It's just a block or so away from the Reichstag.

6. Get the pass in the Hauptbahnhof to ride the buses and trains for the duration of your stay. For 48 hours, we paid 34 euro for David and I with the boys free.

7. If going to Berlin in summer and going to the Olympic stadium where Jesse Owens shined in 1936, be sure to arrive before 7pm. They close then. ALSO, if you want to get their audio tour, (I don't think they did regular tours in English), arrive before 530 as they will NOT give you the tour if you're there after 530. We arrived at 540 and were denied the audio tour. No point in paying to go on the grounds if you can't learn more about it! Lady was quite unfriendly. Do you think mentioning I went to Ohio State would have helped get me the tour? Might have run me off quicker I imagine!

8. Our hotel was minutes from Schloss Charlottenburg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Charlottenburg We spent a couple of hours walking the gardens and the palace. Much like American plantation homes, it's a big wooden farmhouse. Well, with some luxuries, but it the thought I had when we were walking up the stairs. (we went to the San Francisco in Louisiana and when CG ran down the hall there, it just was wooden boards thudding) They have musical performances in the palace on different occasions and sounded like something I would have liked if we'd had somewhere for two boys to stay while we went.

Speaking of the hotel, it was the Econotel. It was quite nice with a European continental breakfast (pricey but pretty good) The rooms were actually nice sized considering many hotels in Europe are much smaller than what we find in the states. And when you read reviews about hotels here, that is one major complaint about European hotels. If you come over with the knowledge of smaller rooms, it might still be a good experience. You're only SLEEPING there! An underground station is just 1.5 blocks from the hotel. An Edeka markt (grocery) store is just around the corner, next to the hotel. So if you don't want to drink the water, they have bottled water and lots of other beverages there. A nice pizzeria was down near the station. Decent food for not too bad of prices.

That's my review for now. If I think of anything else to share, I'll pass it on!