Berlin

Over Columbus Day weekend we went to Berlin. We've been living here almost 10 years and had not gone there yet! This was a good time to go because Ethan was old enough to understand and remember what he saw there. Here's a few shots from our tour of the city.

The portion of the wall still up is a kind of outdoor museum. There is a display you can walk through with a timeline and pictures from before and after WWII.

 

Checkpoint Charlie is a tiny little building in the middle of a street. The guys standing there with the flags look kinda grumpy but they were actually very nice! The guy on the left stamped my passport with "Checkpoint Charlie" in several different languages.

These are a few pretty sites from our bus tour. I don't remember what everything was.

The Brandenburg Gate was pretty neat. I bet it was quite a site back when it was in use. It was one of the gates to the city back when it had a protective wall. (1730)

This was pretty interesting. We didn't get out and walk around this area, but it was emotional just driving by. It's called Bebelplatz, and was a site for Nazi book burnings. Do you remember the scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? 

This is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews.

The city was a little less emotional than I expected, I think due to the fact that we had both kids with us. That kept us moving, kept us out of museums, and divided our focus. The one thing that actually helped me stay focused was that Ethan kept asking "why" over and over. Why was there a wall, why was it torn down, why were people mean, why, why, why. He wasn't the only one who wanted to know why.