Germany- Day 11 (Frankfurt temple)

 Day 11- It was a Sunday and I was back in Frankfurt. M, K, and family and I went to church. I hung out with them, went on a walk and went to see the Frankfurt temple.

M and K have a really nice trail near their house and we went on a walk.

After our walk, we drove to the Frankfurt temple which is about a 20 minute drive from their house. The temple has been under renovation for 3 years but is reopening in September. At least that's when the open house is.

This was as close as we could get to the temple. They had barricades around it to prevent us from getting closer.

 A is adorable!

So is B!

It was nice to have a relaxing day after the full days in Berlin. :)

Germany- Day 10 (Berlin continued)

Day 10- This was my last day in Berlin and I decided I wanted to see more of the Berlin Wall, so I went to the East Side Gallery first thing in the morning. I was there around 9 am and I had quite the experience.

I took the train to get to East Side Gallery. As soon as I got off at the station closest to the gallery, I noticed a stark difference from center Berlin. There were piles of trash everywhere. There was a homeless man talking to himself while pushing a shopping cart. And there were five men sitting just outside the station who were high and were either looking for drugs or selling drugs (seriously). And remember it was only 9 am.

I did not stick around there long.

I made it to East Side Gallery and there was a drunk man wandering around, but thankfully there was another man steering him away from people.

The East Side Gallery is a mile long section of the wall that they put back up where people can come and do art.

I found it fascinating! The art was beautiful! I feel like some of it was related to the wall and what it represented at the time it was up and some of it not so much.

 Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German President Erich Honecker (based off of an actual picture of them).

All of the pictures of the wall so far have been from the street side view.

But there were points that were open and you could go to the other side (the river side). The river side was grafitti and not the famous art from the street side view. This is a river side view of the wall.

 River side view!

Isn't the river pretty?!

I think it was at about this place where I saw a naked man driving a boat.

At first he was coming toward me and it looked like he just didn't have a shirt on, but as he got closer, I started to realize that he did not have any clothes on.

It was also near here that a man walked by me (I was the only one around, so I know he was talking to me) and said "Hi baby."

 Some more Berlin wall

 Another view from the river side!

After I was done at East Side Gallery (thankfully I didn't have to go back to the same train station that I exited from), I went back to center Berlin to go to a museum. I ran into this church again but from a different angle. It's a gorgeous church!

I visited Alte Nationalgalerie! This was my last stop before I needed to head to the train station to go back to Frankfurt.

There were lots of beautiful pieces of art in the gallery! This is Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877 by Gustave Caillebotte. I didn't get to see everything in the gallery, but I saw a lot.

After I finished at the gallery, it was time to head to my hotel to pick up my luggage and then to the train station. I got to the station a bit early and found myself something to eat and then waited for my train.

Thankfully I got a seat on the train ride back to Frankfurt and I was very happy about that!

I really liked Berlin and I'm glad I decided to go there! I already want to go back because there were a lot of things I did not get to do. :)

Germany- Day 9 (Berlin continued)

Day 9- I had signed up for a walking tour this morning. Although I think I could have gotten around Berlin on my own, I'm glad I did the walking tour. I didn't have to think about how to get to the next location and I learned some history and interesting tidbits along the way that I wouldn't have if I had gone around by myself.

I saw this building while walking to the meeting place of our walking tour. I have no idea what it is, but it looks a bit ominous.

 I also saw this building on the way to the meeting place of my walking tour. I liked the mosaic on the building.

Although this day was not as hot as the day before it was still hot enough to make me hot and sweaty.

The Berlin television tower aka Berliner Fernsehturm. The tower is the center of the city and it is the tallest structure in Berlin.

St. Mary's church is one of the oldest churches in Berlin and near the television tower.

On the same plaza as St. Mary's church. It's the Berlin town hall.

A statue of Martin Luther.

Statue of Martin Luther, St. Mary's church and the television tower.

Statues of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Alte Museum. I didn't go into this museum this day, but I did the next day.

Berlin Cathedral Church! Isn't it beautiful?! I didn't get to go inside, but I really liked the look of this church!

This is a memorial to the vicitims of war and tyranny. It was a beautiful memorial!

The inside of the memorial.

A mother grieving her dead son.

It's personal and touching.

The next stop on our walking tour was Humboldt University. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels both went to university here and apparently a lot of Nobel Prize winners went to school here too.

This is a sidewalk. They had these little plaques in front of the university and all around the city with names of people who were killed by Nazis.

Another part of Humboldt University. In this square, Nazis had big bonfires where they burned books.

After Humboldt University, we went to what people call the most beautiful plaza in Berlin. It had two churches on either side and a beautiful concert hall in the middle!

The concert hall.

One of the churches on the plaza!

After the beautiful plaza, we had a toilet and water break.

And then we went to Checkpoint Charlie. We stood nearby and the tour guide talked for a long time and then we took some pictures.

This was different than I imagined. It was in the middle of a busy road with so many cars and people around. I don't know what I imagined it to be like, but different than what it was.

I don't what this was but we saw this on our way to our next stop.

The grounds of the museum, Topography of Terror. We didn't go inside the museum but we stood outside while our tour guide talked.

This is part of the Berlin Wall in the place it was up when the whole wall was up.

Around here, there was a secret underground Nazi bunker. Also they found Hitler and his wife's bodies after they committed suicide near here.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Brandenburg Gate and the line showing where the Berlin Wall was. This was the final stop on our walking tour.

The tour lasted for over four hours and I'm glad for the things I learned and that I didn't have to navigate the city myself.

Brandenburg Gate from the front!

On the walking tour, I noticed that we passed the Berlin Mall and I kept that in mind to go back to and use the restroom and eat and rest etc. Thankfully it wasn't too far from the Brandenburg Gate, so I made my way over there after I was done at the gate.

At the mall, there was a large food court and I was have a hard time choosing a place to eat, but I decided to get curry wurst (since I had read somewhere that one must try it while in Berlin). I ate it and I wasn't a big fan of it. It was a hot dog with curry sauce. I think I was expecting a brat wurst or something better than a hot dog as the meat. But I'm glad I tried it.

The Berlin Mall was large and nice! It had a West Side and East Side of the mall. I stayed here for over an hour to use the restroom, eat and rest. I was so tired from all of the walking and standing from the walking tour.

In the east side of the mall, they had this large slide. No, I did not go down the slide. ;)

I retraced some of the steps of the walking tour and went back to the Topography of Terror museum. This time I went inside the museum. This is the Berlin Wall again.

The museum was fascinating! I learned about what was going on in Germany starting in the early 1930s through WW 2 and beyond. There were lots of interesting and disturbing pictures. It took me a couple of hours to go through (and I had to sit down a lot to rest since I was so tired.) But I liked it!

In Berlin, if the crosswalk man has a hat on, it means you're in East Berlin.

Another place the Berlin Wall was up.

If you look across the street you can see the brick line lines up with where the wall is up at the Topography of Terror museum.

I went back to Checkpoint Charlie so I could get a selfie there and pictures from different angles.

Another Berlin Wall line.

I'm standing in East and West Berlin at the same time.

It was time to go back to my hotel. It had been an awesome and long day!

On my way back to my hotel, I went into a couple of souvenir shops and learned that the bear is the symbol of Berlin and once I learned that I started seeing bears everywhere.

And I may or may not have bought a couple of souvenirs (including a German nativity). :)

Overall I had an awesome day and I'm glad for the things I saw and learned!