Week 6: Berlin

Our time in Berlin absolutely flew by! This week we focused on German history and WWII, but we also had a few days focused on having fun in Berlin.

We started out the week on Monday by visiting the German Historical Museum. This was my favorite museum of the week. We’ve been spending so much time over the past few weeks focusing on the World Wars that it was amazing to be reminded how much other history Germany has. The German Historical Museum began with artifacts from the year 500 and went through the Second World War. We got to see knights armor, Prussian tents, cannons, and portraits of kings and queens.

Tuesday we went to the Story of Berlin Museum. The girls really enjoyed this museum, because it was set up with each room being a different scene in history. We learned about the origins of Berlin as a trading city and becoming a haven for people of different religions. We also got to learn about the burning of the books, see models and videos of the rubble of Berlin after WWII, and see different living rooms set up to be from East Berlin and West Berlin. It was a very engaging museum and the girls enjoyed doing a code breaking scavenger hunt activity to learn about Berlin’s history.

On Wednesday, we went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Audrey loved this museum because her report this week was about the Berlin Wall. She said she was able to learn a lot of important information to add to her report about the various ways people escaped from East Berlin to West Berlin. The girls found the suitcases, the cars, the plastic cow, the tunnels and the fake passports to be very interesting. Audrey was also fascinated by the two stories of people from West Berlin going to East Berlin, trading places with someone that they looked similar to and letting the person from the East escape using their papers. Then, the people from West Berlin reported theft and were able to get back to West Berlin. Since the last time I visited this museum, they also have added a whole section about current concentration camps in North Korea. It was very sobering to see the comparisons, and to think about events happening in America that some people argue could also be included in the museum.

Thursday and Friday were devoted to fun. On Thursday we went to visit Charlottenburg Palace. We explored the old palace, the new wing of the palace, the summer house, the mausoleum and the gardens. It was beautiful. The girls were very impressed by the pottery and the size of some of the rooms. It was very interesting how each monarch essentially had their own style, and rather than restyling the former monarch’s spaces, they just built their own space and made it in their own style. Much of Charlottenburg Palace was destroyed during WWII, so many of the rooms were duplicates of what was on record to have been originally there. It was amazing to see the original rooms that did survive the bombings.

Friday was the girl’s favorite day of our whole time in Berlin. We went to the zoo to see the pandas. The pandas did not disappoint! They were active for the entire hour we spent watching them. I think the girls each took 100 photos of the pandas, if not more. We all had a fantastic time, and managed to see the entire zoo. We saw polar bears, arctic wolves, African wild dogs, and mudskipper fish. We were fascinated by the mudskipper fish because we got to watch them climb out of the water to chase insects to eat! We had brats and pretzels for lunch, which was perfect for German zoo food. The zoo playground was also a hit! It was a fantastic final school day in Berlin. On our way back to the airbnb, we enjoyed our Friday afternoon ice cream.

Our final day in Berlin was Saturday. I spent the day enjoying the city. I slept in, which was a wonderful change of pace. Then I went and got a coffee, and walked around the city center. I explored the Berliner Dom and even pushed through my aversion to heights and went up to the top. I got to see some bee hives that are being kept on the roof of the cathedral, which I thought was a very cool way for the church to support the environment. I enjoyed walking along the Spree river toward the Reichstag. I found some old pictures of me by the Reichstag when I was in Berlin previously and realized how different the yard looks. I hope they can work on the grass again soon, because it was so beautiful with a full yard in front. I attempted to walk through the Tiergarten park next, but found it was all closed for the Berlin Marathon! I cheered on some kids finishing their race, and then walked below the Brandenburg Tor for the last time this trip. I ended up finding a rollerblading race, which was hilarious to watch. It was amazing to see so many seriously good roller bladers! I found a restaurant called Schnitzelei and had an amazing dinner of schnitzel, potatoes and a German IPA. Then I headed home to pack up to move to our next city!

Audrey’s favorite part of our Berlin visit was going to the zoo to see the pandas. Maurene’s favorite part was seeing the Brandenburg Gate. My favorite part was getting to revisit places I remember from previous visits, and also getting to see places I had never had the time to visit before. I also loved all the food!

Next stop: Paris!