A Day Of Thought Provoking History

Today for our last day in Berlin, we headed out for one last dose of history, starting with the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall.  The East Side Gallery is a 1.3km long section of the wall which was covered with paintings by artists from all over the world after the wall was taken down, turning it into a international memorial for freedom.  A lot of those paintings have been destroyed by erosion, graffiti, and vandalism, but there is a major restoration project happening this year, in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the “Fall of the Wall”.  At the time we saw it, not much of the restoration had been complete, but the paintings we did see were interesting and the East Side Gallery was definitely worth a visit! (more…)

Bagels Sights And Shopping

Following a recommendation I found on the Internet, we started today by eating at Salomon Bagels in the shopping center at Potsdamer Platz.  Back home we’re both a fan of bagels, but I don’t think we’ve ever had a proper Jewish bagel (they are a traditional Jewish food) and I had read that Salomon Bagels was a good place to get a traditional-style bagel.  They were one of Berlin’s first bagel stores (I think it’s now a franchise chain with multiple locations) and the Potsdamer Platz location isn’t the original, but it was convenient for us because our sightseeing plans for today concentrated on this area. (more…)

Thursday Night @ Museum Island

Similar to Paris’ free museum Sunday, Berlin offers free admission to many museums on Thursday evenings (but it’s every week, not just once a month), so we headed to Museum Island tonight when Paul was able to get away from work for a bit.  We had initially planned to just go to the Pergamon Museum to see the Ishtar Gate, but since we finished with it pretty quickly, we managed to squeeze in a visit to the Altes museum to see the Bust of Queen Nefertiti as well, which was a nice bonus (more…)

Shopping At KaDeWe

After a rather full day at the zoo yesterday, we decided to take it easy today and just do some browsing at KaDeWe, the second largest department store in Europe after Harrods in London.  It’s definitely the largest department store I’ve ever been in, with a selection of items that would fulfill almost any shopper’s needs, ranging from clothing to gourmet grocery items.  If I lived here KaDeWe would definitely be my shopping haven! (more…)

A Day @ The Berlin Zoo

Before this year, I had never heard of the Berlin zoo, even though it is the most internationally well known zoo in Germany and has the most comprehensive collection of species in the world.  This past April, however, I like many others on YouTube, became familiar with the Berlin zoo because of a crazy lady who jumped into the polar bear enclosure.  Having heard about the crazy lady and the polar bear named Knut she was trying to get close to, this was a zoo I really wanted to see and this morning we set off to spend a day at the zoo… (more…)

First Day Out In Berlin

After another long travel day (which went from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.) we got to Berlin, the capital of Germany, yesterday, but didn’t do anything after checking into the hotel because it it was so late.  Today we headed out to Alexanderplatz, a large sqaure in the Mitte (city center) district of Berlin, where we tried some German schnitzel and went to the Berliner dom, an impressive Baroque style cathedral near Museum Island.  Not an especially exciting first day in Berlin, but it was nice and relaxing (more…)

Hofbräuhaus To End Munich :)

After spending some time at the hotel making phone calls home to wish our moms a happy mothers day, we headed out to try the world’s most famous beer hall, Hofbräuhaus, for our last meal in Munich.  We’re both in agreement that this was the best possible way to finish off our time in our first German city – the food was excellent, the beer was amazing (and back home, I never drink beer!), and the atmosphere was one of a kind.  It’s no wonder this place runs second only to Oktoberfest as a tourist icon of Munich! (more…)

Last Day In Munich

Much to Paul’s dismay, our last day in Munich started with me waking him up to go see the daily clocktower display at the Rathaus-Glockenspiel.  The 15-minute show of chiming bells and figurines moving around didn’t impress either of us much since we didn’t know the story it was telling, and Paul decided to spend the next hour being grumpy at me for waking him up for nothing 

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Daytrip to Salzburg

After a lot of arguing/contemplation, we decided to daytrip to Salzburg, Austria today.  I initially wanted to go to the town of Füssen (in Germany) to see the famous Neuschwanstein Castle  of King Ludwig II (it’s the castle that Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle is modeled after), but Paul was more inclined to check out Salzburg since it’s right at the border of Germany and Austria and it’s more convenient to visit it now than during our trip to Austria later this year, when we’ll be in the eastern side, nowhere near Salzburg.  (more…)

First Taste Of German Food & Alcohol

Our first day out and about in Germany started with me discovering an important fact about myself – I can’t handle alcohol at lunch!  The decision to order wine at lunch resulted in me wandering around feeling slightly drunk all day, trying everything I could think of to get rid of the drunk feeling until I gave up and went back to the hotel and passed out for a few hours!  Sigh, gotta love my Asian genes… (more…)