Berlin Reviewed

I could say I wanted to let our experience in Berlin to sink in before I felt able to post about our trip, but that wasn't it at all. I just didn't make the time to write this week. So I started by wasting my time "composing" my thoughts and creating this nifty photo collage of my favorite pictures from Berlin.

You may wonder why there's no couple-y picture of Greg and I in the above. It was so cold I hardly felt like stopping for a picture and I worried that our camera would freeze open if we tried the timer. I know, it's an irrational thought, but hey, the camera still works and I don't regret not taking a picture of me freezing my butt off. ;-)

That being said, Berlin is awesome, even in the bitter cold (which wasn't that cold by Wisconsin or Minnesota standards - about 12-18 degrees F each day, but it feels cold when you're walking outside a lot). There's so much to see; I found myself wishing I had an extra day there to fit in another couple museums. Hands down our favorite museum was the Pergamon, which rebuilt temples and altars from Turkey and elsewhere in the world. It also had cool archaeological finds on display.

The Jewish Museum is architecturally amazing, but if you've been to many Jewish museums, the display in this one was only okay. It was very interactive though and there was still a lot about Jews in Germany before and after the Holocaust.

Another morning we walked along the East Side Gallery, which isn't exactly a gallery, but rather a section of the Berlin wall full of different artists' murals. Artists from all over the world contributed to it. Some of it reflected the graffiti scattered around the city. We also checked out the Topographies des Terrors museum about the Gestapo, SS and SA on the last morning. Again this was full of fascinating information, but I think by then we had learned enough about WWII for one trip.

Other than those sights, we ate great food and enjoyed exploring bits and pieces of a city that is very unlike Munich. Greg and I will brainstorm another post comparing the two cities for you all. In the meantime, you can check out the rest of our photos from Berlin.