July was once of our biggest travel months so far! Whew...Denmark, Sweden, Hamburg, Munster and Berlin? When did all of this happen? We already added most of the pictures with the exception of Berlin.  Berlin's pictures should be up on the site in the next couple of days.

Berlin was definitely an amazing city! I don't know how to explain it other than it had a feeling of a "New" 850 year old City. The city was exciting with young and old people and buildings...haha. We stayed in the downtown Marriott, thanks to my many travels from work; I had some points to cash in. It actually was in the Mitte District (middle of the town) near the Potsdamer Platz. The hotel was equipped with air conditioning and an indoor swimming pool. In the states, these are normal and/or expected things to have at hotels. This was the first hotel we stayed at that had A/C and this weekend was sunny and in the 90s everyday. So after sweating all day, we were happy to come to our hotel and get cooled off!

There was a lot of new construction since The Wall went down in that area and of course...drum roll....STAR BUCKS! Sorry, but in our area of Germany, they don't seem to have many (any) of the same stores, cafes as home. Although, I do have to admit, now that I have had many Kaffe mit milsch here, Starbucks has some competition.

We did some sight seeing on the East and West side of Berlin. Near our hotel there was a Wall Memorial to show pictures of what it used to be like when they were still up. We went to the Berlin Zoo, which as you know we love the Zoos! We got up early and saw many animals, including seeing the Polar Bears get feed. Totally amazing! There are pics of that too. We walked up to the top of the Berliner Dom (Lutheran cathedral), which had to be almost 1000 steps!! It was built between 1895 and 1905 and during WWII, the building was bombed by the Allies and severely damaged in 1944.

 

We visited many museums and took advantage of the, “come this way and cut in line since you have a stroller”. I have to admit, I felt a little bad, but rules are rules! Stroller = No wait. We looked “Babylon, Myth and Truth” at the Pergamon Museum. The exhibit explores the roots of our Western Culture through the archaeological relics. Some of the items on exhibit here were: architecture, religion, law, work, science, everyday life and the Babylonian legacy. There were even writings that were found from Babylon 5 ½ millennia ago. Sounds boring, but it was actually really cool! We also went to the German Museum of Technology Berlin. There were lots of trains, planes and boats and things to touch and play with there. We took a city tour by boat on the Spree River, by recommendation of Jason’s cousin, Peter. He also came along with us. It was a nice ride through Berlin. We visited the Brandenburger Tor, Berlin’s land mark. We went to the Reichstag, where the parliament chambers are and is one of the most public federal buildings in the world. We went to the top of the dome within this building. It was an amazing view and an amazing spiraling walk!

On our last day we checked out of our hotel then drove to a nearby town Potsdam. We visited the Sanssouci Palace, a castle and its gardens. This was built under Frederick the Great during the 18^th Century. He also built a huge castle for his mistress, lovely. I won’t bore you will the history lesson, but it was beautiful.  WOW, we did a lot!