Dann gab's Berlin.

Elske, Silas, and I took a trip to Berlin!
It was FANTASTIC!

How did we get there? An 11 hour train ride, which began at 0:17!

 We saw every part of the day from a train.

 And then got right to work on seeing Berlin. There were some break dancers who put on a show right about the time we showed up at the Brandonburger Tor. I think they were waiting for us, and I thought wrestlers were jacked...Dang!

This is the Reichstag. We didn't actually get to go into the german government building, because you need to make reservations three days in advance. Some genius suggested we sneak in the back. We decided against it, given the fact that two of us were foreigners.

 By boat! That was awesome! The explanations of the sites were played in German and English, which is good, because my historic/ political German is not exactly as wonderful as it could be.

Did I mention we didn't sleep much on the train ride? So, we took a nap next to the canal. The boat we were on is in the background.

 This is a good image of how we felt when we finally journeyed to our  humble nighttime abode. It took at least a couple of hours, because we had a bad map and some bad directions, but at least our bellies were full! Funny story about where we stayed...we could see the little peninsula from the side of the river we were walking on, but we still had to walk two miles down the river to get to the other bridge to cross the river and walk back up the peninsula. That was just the end of the journey. We found a better way to get there the next day.

 Then we set up our tent! Well...I borrowed it from one of the kids. It was her Easter present. This thing is nice, but maaaaan did it get cold at night!

Right next to us, but not  in the picture is a restaurant. It was playing "Born in the U.S.A." I yelled out "Hey! This is my song!" Then we took a picture in front of the Siegessäule on our way to church.

This is the memorial for the Jews killed in the Holocaust.

In order for me to keep the Sabbath day holy, we went shopping at Aldi (discount supermarket) Saturday night, and picked up a very interesting variety of foods for a utensilless picnic in the Tiergarten. Apples, bread, beans, corn, kiwi, jogurt...use your immagination!

 Thank goodness (for all of our sakes) I was en tirely excluded from the navigation process.

 We took some more pictures in front of the Tor. Why not?

Berlin Wall.

 Elske, ich liebe dich!

 Go with your heart, because today is a beautiful day.

Berlin at night.

Lots of lights, but no people...

 Silas said "We have to see the Gate at night!" So we did, and it was well worth it.

 What goes on in a Berlin train station at 3:00AM? Well, a lot of waiting for the trains that aren't coming, or aren't going where they say they are.

German's are very particular abou their rubbish. There was paper rubbish, glass rubbish, packing rubbish, and normal household rubbish.

 We got our train tickets three minutes before the train was scheduled to depart. Can you say "RUN!!!" We made it!

Then we settled down for a seven hour trip of sleeping, eating ice cream, and correcting all of Vanilla Boat Crew's lyrics. Most of them didn't need much help. Silas is mad good at English. Sometimes I had to laugh at myself, because I couldn't remember if something was right or not. I need to get better at my own language.

Our Berlin trip consisted of three of the hottest days I experienced while in Germany. I think that added to the exhaustion, but we didn't care, becuase we were having the time of our lives.

I am so blessed to have found the friends I did in Germany. I will never forget the good times we had together, and I look forward to more when I come back.

Liebe,

Karynne