berlin

after thoroughly enjoying our time in potsdam and at the schlossgarten hotel, we took the short train ride into berlin. 

 the potsdam train station.

we made it into berlin and took a taxi (with a very interesting man with very strong opinions about the current state of muslim affairs throughout the world) to our hotel right in the heart of berlin.

 here are some glamour shots of our hotel.

 we dropped our stuff off there and headed to der spree (the river that runs through berlin right by our hotel).

 every saturday morning, there's a flea market along the river. 

 and you know b and i love a good flea market!

 there were a surprising number of mini smurf toys at this flea market.

 and, of course, owl necklaces like the kind i have and are found in every continent in the world!

 museum island is right next to the flea market--although we didn't go to any of the museums.

 for all of our adoring yoga fan readers.

 more white gold!

 an interesting pin.

 from the berlin oympic games. 

 bosch would have been an interesting exhibit to see.

 rococo mermen.

 the famous tv tower in berlin.

 and a gorgeous old cathedral. it's amazing how well this survived the war.

 a diorama of berlin.

 we went inside a little exhibit that showed how parts of berlin used to be before the war. they are currently working on updating some old buildings that got destroyed nearly 80 years ago.

 stools! like our stool at home.

 one of those metallic people who move and don't talk.

 marx and engels.

 a spider web.

 more of those cute smurfs.

 we went back to our hotel and checked into our room.

 we took the train to go to our next destination.

 mass transit in berlin was a bit more confusing than it had been in our potsdam.

 we were trying to get to the berlin wall.

 we made it to a part of berlin i had never been to before. a very youthful and poorer part of the city.

 oh man, if only we'd attended this!

 we didn't end up finding part of the berlin wall, but we did meander to a place where there were old communist era buildings still around.

 what looked like an old communist era car too.

 we crossed the busy street and found a thrift store!

 this thrift store was in one of those old communist era buidings. they had converted an apartment building (or part of it) into this store. 

 this store was awesome! you just kept going up the stairs to find another floor. four in total! this is the store of my dreams--literally, i have had dreams very much like my experience of walking through this store.

 the vintage clothes they had were amazing. unfortunately, they knew they were amazing and priced them accordingly. i didn't buy any clothes (i just couldn't bear to pay those prices), but we did buy a few small items.

 we went to alexanderplatz. i was hoping to find the curryworst with peanut sauce place i went to the last time i had been in berlin, and i thought i had found it! it felt like the exact right place. but they didn't have peanut sauce--so we opted not to get anything from it.

 there was a big group of people flash dancing.

 we then just walked around berlin stopping and looking at whatever caught our eyes.

 the berlin bear flag.

 this was some government building--although we couldn't tell what kind of government building.

 maybe city hall?

 we found a great ceramic store where everything was 50% off! (another dream store.)

 they had a lot of fun items. we ended up buying a few bulgarian bells. 

 i was hoping to find a turkish lamp store i had been to before, but it seemed to have gone out of business. that can happen over the course of five years.

 an awesome sundial clock.

 a beautiful old church building.

 a german bird!

 we walked inside the church, but opted not to go all the way in (as there was a fee, and we didn't feel so drawn to pay a fee).

 but what we saw from the entrance way was cool.

 a statue of st. george slaying the dragon.

that night, we took the train and walked for awhile to make it to an indonesian restauarant! our hopes were so high that it would be good. and, thankfully, it was!

 it was fun to see indonesian people and read an indonesian menu again. what?! they had es teler durian! (we didn't order that, but it was fun to see.)

 jus alpukat! you can bet i did order that.

 wayangs on the walls. it was like we were back home.

 oh the sate ayam--enak sekali!

 we admired the tiles on the wall in the subway station we took to get home.

the next day, sunday, we took the train to go to church. it was a german-speaking ward, but there were enough english speakers that there was an english-speaking sunday school class. it's always interesting to go to church in another country.

 on our way back from church, we stopped at the bauhaus school.

 we got introduced/re-introduced to this school/movement.

 they are such minimalists who love beautiful, yet simple, forms.

 we enjoyed looking at things, but we didn't buy anything.

 we thought this sign was funny.

 we thought this "truck" was funny. it seems very non-european. it's so big!

 we made our way down to checkpoint charlie.

 there it is.

 

 always good to see places like kfc around the world. note the sign underneath kfx, and the guy dressed like a guard.

 funny to us was that these "american" looking guards were not american at all. 

 we went into the checkpoint charlie museum and looked around some.

 you can still buy parts of the wall.

 finally, we made it to a place where we could see part of the wall.

 a small segment of it.

 a larger segment of it. 

 fun old travel cards.

 

 cute old cars you could rent and drive around berlin.

 the die world globe thing i took a picture of 5 years ago.

 then we made it to a big section of the wall.

 thankfully, they've retained this.

 right next to the wall, here, is an old stassi headquarters building.

 a statue missing its head.

 we went inside the building--it was beautiful inside.

 after using the nice bathrooms in that building, we walked back to the wall and went inside its museum. here's a picture of nazi men wearing funny hats on a retreat they went on. brother.

 we then went to the brandenburg tor (or gate in english).

 this is another iconic berlin place.

 a person making very big bubbles.

 i always marvel at how the german language can have such long words.

we spent sunday night in berlin and then flew home the next day. below is a picture from the berlin airport. it was a long trip home, but it was such a fun trip!