Berlin: Part 1

I'm not even sure where to begin with my travel posts, cause I have over 500 pictures and a very poor short term memory about what we did every day.  Though every day activities in both places would most likely bore you to death so I think I'll just post some picture highlights and see how that goes.

Side note: I'm feeling much better after my last post.  I thought I had something worse than the post-vacation blues and that I'd feel that way forever and now that it's Tuesday and work is fine and I haven't gotten fired and I'm used to cooler weather and already made plans with my pals this weekend, I think it's all gonna be ok.  I'm still worried about the future and all that comes with it, but who isn't?  Anyways, ok.  Bye.

Berlin!  We went to Berlin for a week cause my brother and sis and bebe niece cutie pie angel bebe were there while John did research for his PhD!  They used to live there a few years ago so they were all too happy to return with bebe in tow to have a good time this summer.  And when we approached them about coming to stay with them for over a WEEK, they were happy and thrilled and accommodating and couldn't have been better hosts!  And obviously Annie was the light of our lives and made us happier than anything, ever.

Our days varied but the structure was mostly the same: an early awakening from Annie babbling in the kitchen, and after texting John our approval he would open the door and Annie would slowly creep in, not knowing what to make of us, and we'd play with her and I'd yell at Uncle Drew to put on athletic shorts because he can't just wear boxer shorts around his toddler niece; we'd eat croissants, Annie would nap while we got ready for the day, we'd go out exploring to some different place, and we'd all meet up at a biergarten in the afternoon for fun before a delicious meal and home for wine drinking and game playing and talking and laughing.  Pretty great week, in my opinion.

Here are some pics!

Siblings reunited!  The night we got there, outside the donner kebap place for din.  Yum yum.

On Saturday we went to a Turkish market where J&L got fresh fruit and veggies for the fam.  And Lauren cooked an amazing German meal for us on Monday!  It was delish.

Drew and I in front of the Fernsehturm, a big tower built in 1965 as a modern symbol of East Berlin to show "Hey, look at us, we're modern and cool!  Nothing to see here folks!"  NOT.  Still neat though.

Saturday afternoon at Volkspark Friedrichshain, a cool park that also had a lovely biergarten.

Best pals.

We might have stopped by a place to try on liederhosen for our upcoming trip to Oktoberfest.  Stay tuned.

Dinner at Der Alte Fritz.  Annie and Drew are sizing each other up.  He's in love.

Brothers!  Prost!

Brunch on Sunday morning at a bomb ass Italian place with a homemade Italian buffet!  And Uncle Drew was entertaining Angel Bebe with his classic napkin mustache, a party trick he's been using at my parent's house since the beginning of time.

On Sunday, John took us on an amazing bike tour of the city, and I didn't fall off or panic!  And I learned a lot about Berlin too.  Here we are in front of the Berlin Dom, the big humongous Protestant church here, which is also a sort of symbol of Berlin.  I too am looking my personal best.  Not.  Dangit.

This marked the memorial for the book burning in Bebelplatz, near Humboldt University, where the Nazis burned some 20K books in 1933.  This is a quote by German writer Heinrich Heine that says "Where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people."  He wrote that in the 1800s.  Foreboding, no?

Part of Humboldt University.  Pretty!

The Gendarmenmarkt- a square flanked by two beautiful churches.

One of the beautiful churches.

Over at Checkpoint Charlie, parts of the wall have been dismantled and murals have been painted.  This shows all of the world's bozo leaders.  Bozo is a euphemism for something else that Drew won't let me say on the blog.
*See Tiger Woods post for more details

Famous sign about entering the American sector.

The checkpoint, and the picture of the guard above it.

We also got to see the Memorial to the Murdered Jews - which is pretty cool and abstract.  More on that later.

The Reichstag!  This is where Parliament is.  This is also a building that Hitler burned down in 1933 but blamed on the Communists and Jews to consolidate power and start brainwashing his people.  Today, it's been rebuilt and is a beautiful building!  More on that later too.

Did I mention that we learned a TON of World War II history?  And communist history?  I may need a separate blog post about that, which you're all dying to read.  And you're in luck cause I'm dying to tell you.  So there.

This is the Berlin Victory Column in the Tiergarten, which was built in the 1800s to symbolize Prussia's victory over several peeps, namely the Frech/Napolean.  It's decorated in canons from the battles the Germans won.  No wonder the French wanted to blow it up after WWII ended.

Then we met up with this little nugget at another biergarten in the Tiergarten!  That rhymed!
But seriously, isn't she the cutest bebe you ever saw?

Cutie cutie cutie cutie cutie cutie cutie cutie.

Clownin with Uncle Drew.  And eating cookies.
(There are more pics of them together as I always had the camera.  Ah well.)

Smoochies!!

Gimme that water bottle.

Nailed it.

More clownin.  Ignore John, he's blinking I think.

The first two days were hot as hell as Berlin was experiencing a heat wave, but they were so fun and such a great way to get acclimated with the city and it's history.  More to come!