Berlin: Potsdam

On our last day in Berlin we decided to head on over to Potsdam, which is about 45 minutes outside of Berlin (by train). We had NO plan at all (as usual) and just got off the train, grabbed a free map, dodged all the tourist people who tried to convince us to take a bus tour and decided we could walk wherever we wanted to go. Joseph and I never took "bus tours" and would just walk everywhere, only taking public transportation if it was really cold (most of the time in Berlin) or really far (Potsdam). Walking around was great exercise for all the unhealthy food we were eating (there should be/ will probably be a whole post dedicated to the Donner and Currywurst before I leave, they are both delicious). Even if it took us longer we had a great time seeing more stuff and getting a little off the tourist beaten path. For example, I was obsessed with cute store signs like this one

I think they are so cool looking. So much better then American store signs :)

Anyway, back to Potsdam. Potsdam is home to beautiful Sanssouci Palace (along with extensive gardens and lots of other buildings)...it was the summer palace whereas Charlottenburg was the winter palace. I'm not jealous AT ALL. Yeah right, I'm totally jealous. Who wouldn't want to live in this-

Look at my gleeful smile, you know I am totally contemplating moving in

I know right, just when you think you can't handle another gorgeous palace. Long sigh. I loved that it was yellow. The name actually means "without concerns" and ya know what? If I lived there, I bet I wouldn't have any! It was the favorite home of Fredric the Great, he is even buried in the park there.

As we walked thru the gardens, and almost froze to death doing so- I legit asked Joseph at one point if he would still be my friend if my nose had to be amputated- we ran across other buildings such as

A roman bath house. Naturally. I totally have a roman bath house in my backyard, too. I also have a windmill-

In addition, doesn't everyone have a small guest house a mile away to put guests they don't like? 

That's totally normal. Since we didn't have a map, it was funny to just keep running into these buildings. Also, there were lots of Anna-sized doors around for some reason which was awesome

I loved them! Aren't they the cutest?

All and all Potsdam was a winning day, even if we almost died from exposure to the cold... on the bright side there were like NO tourists (wonder why? But there were children skating on the ponds in the gardens) so we had the whole place to ourselves.

Berlin: Museum Quarter & Berlin 360

Berlin Dom

Obviously not my picture, you are
NOT allowed to take pictures.
I got this from wikipedia :)

I think the best/worst part of Berlin is that it is SO OVERWHELMING. There is so much to do- we spent 5 days there and it was not long enough at all. But we decided to spend one day exploring the Museum Island, which is home to a lot of the major museums in Berlin. It has a huge egyptian section, so I was in. Little known Anna fact: I totally wanted to be an Egyptologist when I was little (no one in my family agrees that this was a career ambition for me, but I know it was). It's actually home to the famous Nefertiti Bust, which is, ya know, 3,300 years old. It looks great for it's age :) There are also whole sections of Egyptian tombs that were taken and reconstructed... yeah I don't actually know how I feel about that... pretty sure Egypt would probably like them back- but they were neat to see none the less. Especially ironic about this (to me at least) is that I read at least 20 times about how Russia totally ransacked Berlin's museums after World War 2 and won't give anything back... well maybe it's kharma. Anyway....

Since I love buildings here are some of the museum quarter-

these are all of the "New Museum" which was closed, so we didn't get to go inside, but I was plenty impressed with the exterior. I'm not into "modern" art anyways, so I wasn't too disappointed.

I'm not sure what this one was called, but it was full of old Roman statues. Loved it :)

The next night-our last night in Berlin, after spending the day in Potsdam- it was FREEZING cold and Joseph and I on a whim decided to go to dinner at Berlin 360. Out train to Prague didn't leave till 11:30 and we had a lot of time to kill, (like five hours), and there was really no better place that we could have spent it.

It was expensive but 100% worth it. We had a delicious dinner, and as we sat down Joseph said "the only thing that would make this better was if it rotated" - don't worry it rotated :) So I would put it in the "perfect, once in a life time experience" category. Most of this trip has been on the cheap (or at least as cheap as we could make it) so it was nice to really splurge! 

...we even got desert! :) 

Berlin: Reichstag Building

One of the coolest things I have done (ever) had to be planned three days in advance because it required reservations. I wasn't sure what to expect but had read in a guide book that it was worth doing, so I was willing to go thru the hassle to visit the Reichstag Building and I am SO GLAD I did. Actually, our reservation was at 4:40pm and  we had spent that afternoon at Chatlottenburg Palace and loved it so much we considered skipping the Reichstag building to stay there longer, but thankfully we didn't. 

The Reichstag Building is the current meeting place of the German parliament, but there is a lot more history to it then that. It was originally finished in the 1890's and was used during the German Weimar Government (prior to World War 2), but was burned down in the 1930's - the fire is suspicious (as in no one is really sure who really started it) but Hitler (who had just become Chancellor of Germany) blamed it on communists and claimed it was all a plot by them to destroy Germany. He used the fire to help force thru a decree giving him (basically) unlimited power, and then used that power to arrest all his political opponents to gain a total majority. (Or at least that's what I remember from my history class about Hitler that I took as an undergrad.)

Anyway-the building is AMAZING and the view is AMAZING. And I wish I had better words to describe it, but I don't- so let's let the pictures do the talking:

picture not taken by me (I took it from Wikipedia)-there are now TONS and TONS of security and barricades in front of it, and everyone that goes in has to go thru serious security.

You get to tour the very top, the glass dome which looks like this:

looking up the dome

looking down the dome

...hard to imagine? Sorry. Just know that there is lots of glass and it's awesome! So you walk up the spiral staircase and have the best view of Berlin-

These pictures don't even begin to do it justice, but it was really amazing. It was sunset and so beautiful. Also, it's hard to explain, but the building just felt really... special. There is so much history and there was so much suffering by so many that lead to the Germany that exists today. Germany has been a unified country for a shorter time then I have been alive - it was reunified when I was 3 years old. It was a great experience and both Joseph and I loved it.

Then, walking back to our hotel we walked under the Brandenburg Gate-

which is also amazing and super historical. The Berlin Wall once ran about ten feet from this, but it was built by Fredrick the Great to represent peace... but during the Cold War was seen as a symbol of the closed off East Germany. JKF visited the gate (kindly, when he visited the Soviets hung huge banners so he couldn't see into the east) and it was where Reagan famously said:

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" 

BUT what he said before this was..

" Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" 

 Ah I love history.

Berlin: the Zitadelle and Charlottenburg

After World War 2 history, I was ready for some palaces, which always cheer me up- I just imagine myself as a Princess living in them... haha! So Joseph and I headed first to the Zitadelle, which is one of the best preserved Renaissance Fortresses in Europe.

The Zitadelle: it has a moat to this day. Love it-there were even swans swimming in it. 

The Julius tower, which we unfortunately couldn't go into because of the ice. But the tower held most of the war reparations that were paid to France after World War 1: 120 million marks worth of gold, to be specific,

The Zitadelle was pretty cool and has had lots of uses besides just castle, at one time it was the home of the elementary school for the local town, how awesome is that?! Not that I don't dearly love my alma matter (Troutdale Tigers!) all I'm saying is that going to elementary school in a real life castle is pretty freaking cool. 

It also had lots of statues and even a statue graveyard:

But most of the stuff was outside so we hurried right on thru the Zitadelle and moved onto Charlottenburg, which was more of an indoor experience (thankfully). 

Oh hello Charolettenburg, I want to live in you.

This palace was the idea of Sophie Charolette, the wife of Fredrich the 3rd. It must be super nice to just say "I want a palace" and have it built. Sigh. Anyway, this one was amazing (as usual). 

Just a charming, low-key hall for entertaining family and friends. No big.

The palace is also famous for it's gardens. Supposedly when Sophie Charlotte was having it built she modeled the palace and the gardens after Versailles (just like Zwinger Palace!) and the gardens were designed by a gardener recommended to Sophie Charlotte by Marie Antoinette. Apparently building giant beautiful palaces was all the rage among the aristocracy. :)

the gardens (which I am sure are gorgeous in the summer)

BURR-lin

Seriously, the title says it all. It was so SO COLD when we were there our main goal was to spend as much time as possible inside so we darted from museum to museum, not even really caring what the museums where as long as it meant we didn't have to be outside.  I don't know what was up with the weather- it was just bitter and miserable. And windy. Being outside for more then like ten minutes was totally out of the question.
Luckily, we ended up at some pretty interesting museums and lots of them were free! :) The first day we ended up stumbling into the Stasi museum, which was all about the Secret Police under the GDR. We hadn't planned on going there, but it was definitely worth while.  There were lots of personal stories about people going to jail for like 5 years for listening to the Beetles and stuff like that... so crazy. Also crazy is that Josh has friends who were born in the GDR! Apparently they have really strange birth certificates.

Checkpoint Charlie. In the museum I read part of the memoirs of a East Berlin guard who had worked guarding the wall, it was really interesting: he said no one wanted to guard the wall, but they essentially had no choice. He also said that no one gives them enough credit for "looking the other way" as much as they did / not offering suggestions for ways to improve the wall (as they were supposed too).

The next day we went to the "Topography of Terror" which basically outlines all the horrible crimes committed by the Nazis. The last exhibition was about the children with special needs who were systematically murdered by doctors who justified it by saying they were cleaning the gene pool. I definitely teared up a little it was absolutely heart breaking. Outside that museum is part of the Berlin Wall-

The Berlin Wall

I also wanted to go to the Anne Frank museum, (although the "real" on is in Amsterdam and we went to that one later, I thought it would be interesting to see how each museum portrayed the story. Yes, I am a total history nerd like that.)  But there were many problems with this: 

1) it was SO COLD Joseph and I were both getting so frustrated that we couldn't find it 

2) when we asked people for help they looked at us like we were stupid, but seriously "Anne Frank" is the same in all languages ... gahh! As a whole German people are so friendly it was really frustrating when they were not  

3) When I finally got on a wifi hotspot, we were NINE SECONDS away from the museum! 

4) After all that, the museum was closed.

outside the Anne Frank Museum in Berlin...which was closed

As a side note, I had been to Berlin before- when I was 16 with my Dad and Micah. But the interesting thing is how much more depressing (for lack of a better word) this visit to Berlin was: when I went before we didn't go to any World War 2 museums, just quickly went to Check Point Charlie and went to a parade and Potsdam. I don't know if my Dad thought we were too young to go to some of the more graphic museums  but this visit was much more eye opening about World War 2. 

Dresden: Zwinger Palace

Much to my delight, Dresden had a palace. The Zwinger Palace was modeled after Versailles: apparently after the King of Poland went there in the 1690's he wanted something equally as fabulous for himself (and who can blame him). Because the original palace was built as a fortification for the city and was no longer needed, he decided to give it a face lift. I think he did a pretty good job:

a moat... I want a house with a moat.

Not to shabby...just a casual summer home

Naturally I wanted to move in ASAP. Unfortunately most of the things inside the palace were closed so we just were able to walk around outside (for some reason most things in Dresden were closed- I guess that is the curse of the off-season traveler). Joseph and I had a great time walking around though and all and all Dresden was really amazing. My original impression of the city was super wrong and in this case: I loved being proved wrong!

Dresden: a walk around the city

Hygiene Museum: look my face is perfectly balanced that means I am beautiful! Score!

Initially, I was like, Dresden, oh I'm unimpressed. Because after Prague ("holy beautiful buildings everywhere") and Vienna ("what do I take a picture of, everything is amazing") I was initially a total snob. But that makes me super snobby since Dresden was basically raised to the ground in World War 2, so it's not like it' Dresden's fault or anything. Joseph and I went to the Hygiene Museum first, which was totally amazing. I would describe it like OMSI x100 it was so awesome! It was basically like an adult playground, there were tons of games and even a game where you put these brain things on and tried to get a ball to move by relaxing your brain waves... sounds crazy but it was fun! (And I lost twice.)

The second day we walked around a little bit and I felt bad for initially being so judgmental Although Dresden was completely destroyed, the residents were amazing and after World War 2 chose to build it all back. This church was built back, which is why the stones are all different colors:

And then we hit the mother load, and somehow stumbled on all these buildings:

Procession of the Dukes: a mosaic that shows the rulers of the area from 1100 to Fredric August III. It took almost 30,000 tiles to complete it.

Dresden is right on the Elbe River, which we crossed-

-to go to the most beautiful milk store in the world: my Mom had raved about how amazing it was, so we walked there and had to admit...it was pretty beautiful. Definitely the most beautiful milk store I have ever seen!

I took this but I didn't know you're not supposed to take pictures inside till Joseph was like "What are you doing?!" oops! 

On the way back we walked thru some gardens and I realized that my life's ambition is to be carved in stone and put in a garden. Here are some examples of how awesome it would/ could be:

I make a good statue, right? Now all I need to do is become super famous for something, get a large garden and I will make this happen! 

Little did I know the best was yet to come because (drum roll, please...) Dresden has a palace!! Which I didn't even know when we went there but was a total added bonus.