We arrived in Berlin, Saturday, June 21! We had an awesome train ride experience. We decided that it would be good to take an overnight train, sleep all the way and wake up in the morning in Berlin! So we paid an extra 30 Swiss Franks to make sure that we would get some good sleeping seats, but on our way we had to make a connection in Basel, and on our way to Basel, the Train died. it didn't move for about 20 minutes and we missed our train to Berlin!!! we were like uh oh, we paid for the train ride, and the hotel, and now we wont get to Berlin. Luckily when we arrived in Basel, there was another train leaving for Berlin. so we hopped on, but we weren't able to get good sleeping arrangements, and we ended up in a cabin with 6 other people! all night for about 8 hours! yuk! Ryan slept on the floor of the compartment and I attempted to sleep against the window. we arrived in Berlin very tired and sleepy, so we went to our little hotel and slept for about 2 hours. We wandered around the Schloss Charlottenburg and walked down the river and through the
Teir garten and found a cool blown up church, the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche, and of course, we found the Brandenburg gate. Sunday morning we headed to the Berliner Zoo and explored the animal kingdom, it was very fun! and we found a unicorn! We went to Spree island and wandered through the Berliner Dom, and we went to the Pergamon museum. In the museum was the actual Pergamon Altar where king Nebuchadnezzar once walked. it was so cool! we also found the Fernsehturm, or the toothpick, it is the second tallest structure in Europe.
It was such a hot day, we ended up going to a fountain and ran through it a few times, well for about an hour, just to cool off. We went to the monument dedicated to the Jews who died during the holocaust which was actually put right where the death strip used to be. It was very interesting seeing the contrast between western Berlin and east Berlin. After 20 years of the Berlin Wall coming down, you can still feel the division. On the eastern side, the water pipes aren't under ground, but above ground just like in Russia! I wanted to see the Berlin wall, but we found out that just about all of it had been torn down and only a very small piece was left inside of a museum, I didn't really want to pay 20 euros to see a rock. We didn't see Checkpoint Charlie either, but thats ok, I wasn't in the mood to have someone convince me that I needed to buy a Visa to get to Eastern Berlin (apparently there are still a lot of tourists who think that they need a visa and will pay a lot of money to see Eastern Berlin, what a scam!) We watched the soccer match and had great food and a wonderful time in Berlin. What an adventure! but it doesn't end there, we hopped a train in the evening heading to our next destination, Heidelberg.
We arrived in Berlin, Saturday, June 21! We had an awesome train ride experience. We decided that it would be good to take an overnight train, sleep all the way and wake up in the morning in Berlin! So we paid an extra 30 Swiss Franks to make sure that we would get some good sleeping seats, but on our way we had to make a connection in Basel, and on our way to Basel, the Train died. it didn't move for about 20 minutes and we missed our train to Berlin!!! we were like uh oh, we paid for the train ride, and the hotel, and now we wont get to Berlin. Luckily when we arrived in Basel, there was another train leaving for Berlin. so we hopped on, but we weren't able to get good sleeping arrangements, and we ended up in a cabin with 6 other people! all night for about 8 hours! yuk! Ryan slept on the floor of the compartment and I attempted to sleep against the window. we arrived in Berlin very tired and sleepy, so we went to our little hotel and slept for about 2 hours. We wandered around the Schloss Charlottenburg and walked down the river and through the
Teir garten and found a cool blown up church, the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche, and of course, we found the Brandenburg gate. Sunday morning we headed to the Berliner Zoo and explored the animal kingdom, it was very fun! and we found a unicorn! We went to Spree island and wandered through the Berliner Dom, and we went to the Pergamon museum. In the museum was the actual Pergamon Altar where king Nebuchadnezzar once walked. it was so cool! we also found the Fernsehturm, or the toothpick, it is the second tallest structure in Europe. 
It was such a hot day, we ended up going to a fountain and ran through it a few times, well for about an hour, just to cool off. We went to the monument dedicated to the Jews who died during the holocaust which was actually put right where the death strip used to be. It was very interesting seeing the contrast between western Berlin and east Berlin. After 20 years of the Berlin Wall coming down, you can still feel the division. On the eastern side, the water pipes aren't under ground, but above ground just like in Russia! I wanted to see the Berlin wall, but we found out that just about all of it had been torn down and only a very small piece was left inside of a museum, I didn't really want to pay 20 euros to see a rock. We didn't see Checkpoint Charlie either, but thats ok, I wasn't in the mood to have someone convince me that I needed to buy a Visa to get to Eastern Berlin (apparently there are still a lot of tourists who think that they need a visa and will pay a lot of money to see Eastern Berlin, what a scam!) We watched the soccer match and had great food and a wonderful time in Berlin. What an adventure! but it doesn't end there, we hopped a train in the evening heading to our next destination, Heidelberg.
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