Trip to Berlin!

The boys and I in front of the Reichstag. The big dome on top was awesome! What was even better was becuase Cody was in a stroller and all we got to bypass the long line and take a side entrance for the elevator! Finally having three kids pays off! The dome was added in the 90's and is open to the public for free. The views of the city are awesome and just well worth the walking!
Checkpoint Charlie is not quite what I expected. There are signs on the side that say "You are leaving the American sector or entering in I think 4 languages. we got there right before several tour busses unlaoded! The building on the right is where the CIA sat and watched the other side and spied. It was neat to see.
I have to look up the name of this. I know it is big and in the middle of traffic circle! You can go up to the top, but this was towards the end of the day so the kids were not too interested in the hike up.
Tyler was leaning down to touch the bricks where the wall was and Cody was looking over. I thought this was a cute picture. Part of the wall is still there, but the rest is marked by this brick path. We followed it for quite a distance when walking back to where we parked.

So if you have read the previous post about our GPS then you may wonder how the heck we nagivated the big city of Berlin! Well for 7,50 euro we bought a really, really good map! Not the quickest way to find things and again doens't tell you road construction and such, but we were able to see just about everything we wanted. Berlin has been tops on our list to visit and I wish we had more days to wander and explore. Unfortanately hotels are not cheap so the nights we did have cost us a lot! Like I said though we were able to hit ever major attraction and even discover some others. We walked everywhere which worried me with the kids, but they did pretty good. It wasn't as spread out as Paris and we had Cody in the stroller. He was funny though. He would get out to walk, go ten feet then say "too tired" and get back in. The picture above is Zach in front of what remains of the wall. On the other side is a very detailed history with pictures and tons of information. Zach said he thinks this was called no mans land or something. I was dealing with Cody not being too happy at this point. The pictures tell a very sad story and you could spend quite a while reading all the information.

We are so glad we were able to get up to Berlin and not only mark it off our list, but take back memories from it. On the way home we took the long way to find more of the Havel river. We came across the town of Havelweck and there is also Havelland which is like a county I think. We stoped along the river and walked for a while. Zach says I am not allowed to do any family history for his side till he is dead. He would like to die thinking he found his roots in Germany! So a great trip, full of surprises and a little tiring, but we are very thankful for the opportunity to go!