Saturday, October 24, 2015

Snippets from Germany

This Fall Amparo and I took a three week tour of northern European capitals and Russia.  Experiencing eight countries, eight different languages and five different currencies. Juggling all of that was both fun and a challenge. This and the next few posts will be snippets from that trip. The complete story will be worked into a book for the family. So here we go...

SNIPPETS FROM GERMANY
Coming out of the airport, our first view of Berlin.  Has sort of a Star Wars feel to it. 



Once in the Art'otel, we crashed after being up for the last 23 hours. That evening we went walking...


There is new construction going up everywhere in Berlin. Since almost all of Berlin was destroyed during the War, new construction is either modern steel and glass or made to look like it was built in the 1800's. 

Of course we had to get some local cuisine...


and walk some more... Thought it interesting the doorway to Dunkin Donuts was next to the doorway to McFit on the second floor.  Get your latte and cream-filled jelly donut then walk it off on the treadmill. Both places were busy.


Mama bear hugging her soccer playing son next to headless joggers. 


The next day we bought a three day city bus pass so we could ride anywhere the buses go in city centre.  And then, none of the bus drivers checked to see if we had a pass when we boarded.  Guess they figured two grey haired tourists couldn't be dishonest. 

Seeing Brandenburger Tor was high on our list.




Library tower above and corridor below. See what I mean, new construction made to look old.



Kaiser Wilhelm church tower still stands. One of the few pieces of buildings that remained standing after the bombing of Berlin in 1945. 


Has not been restored or rebuilt. Only supported to keep it from crumbling more.  The church bells were replaced, now marking the hour every day. At noon the bells ring out a melody.


Time for a snack in an outdoor cafe. Strawberry chocolate mousse pie and hot tea while we people watch the world go by.


Even here, when shopping's done, still have texting to do.


A different type of bicycle, for delivering goods to and from stores?  Noticed most here remove the bicycle seat when they chain their bikes for the night.


We decided that English and German are similar in many ways making it easy to read signs and directions. We should probably spend a week or two exploring the rest of Germany in the near future, but for now...

on to Denmark and Copenhagen.


Auf Wiedersehen
CCjon





4 comments:

  1. Wonderful photos. I like the bicycle, pretty unique!

    For some reason I thought you'd be in Chile about now...

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    1. Thanks, Chile is on the horizon...
      Should have spent some figuring out how the steering worked on that bike. Now it's still a mystery to me.

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  2. Great pictures and great commentary! Very interesting construction facts. Building things to make it look old. I hope you two can travel Germany some more in the future. Southern Germany has so much history and is beautiful. Looking forward to the book!!!!

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  3. Germany is a really great country to tour...the history, the castles.....only went to Berlin once, don't remember much. This was back in the days of the IGB and the "thrill" of going into East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie.

    I have to explore Northern Germany next time I am in Europe.

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