No, I'm not actually a Berliner, and President Kennedy wasn't either. Nor was he a jelly donut. But that phrase has stuck around Berlin after all these years: while exploring, we passed a cafe that boasted of a sandwich with that very name. They still appreciate JFK's singular sentence of solidarity to this day.
We only had a day to spend in Berlin, so we wasted no time. Starting out on foot in that huge city, we made our way to Reichstag (the German parliament building). It's a beautiful 120 year old building that fell into disuse after WWII and wasn't put into full use again until 1999.
From there, we made the short walk over to...
Yep, that would be Brandenburg Gate. It was once the main entrance of the city, surrounded by the infamous Berlin Wall. Amazing to think it wasn't that long ago when no one had the freedom to pass underneath this exquisite piece of architecture and take a picture like this...
We made our way under the gate and out onto Unter den Linden ("under the linden trees"), the pretty, tree-lined road that stretches from Brandenburg to what used to be the city castle. The famous road was unfortunately mostly under construction, but I managed to snag a picture of the linden trees.
Next stop: the Berlin Wall.
Replica
Memorial
Memorial to those who died trying to cross the wall
Family members place flowers at the pictures of some of those that died.
Through the wall
East meets West
Crazy to think this structure once stretched for hundreds of miles, keeping East Germany in its own little prison. Even crazier to think that it really wasn't that long ago when the Wall finally came down after its almost 30 year reign of division and separation.
And here is where my camera battery died. Should have thought to charge it or bring my extra one along. Back to the hotel.
After a quick break, we took a walk along the outskirts of the Berlin Zoo and made our way to the first biergarten of the trip. Fatigue was slowly creeping in and taking us over, as we had been awake for almost 24 hours at this point. But we pressed on.
Lock bridges are EVERYWHERE in Europe.
The biergarten where we had lunch. And by lunch, I mean two weiß beers and a piece of strawberry cake. Yuh-mee.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the quaint and quiet little section of Berlin near our hotel and finally forced ourselves to sit down at a cafe and eat dinner. Lifting a fork was hard work. Keeping our eyes open was even harder.
Somewhere around 8pm, we were in bed and ready for a peaceful night's sleep, memories of our first day in Germany replaying in our dreams.
Of course, no one thought to mention that A) our hotel room was above a bar, B) Berliners don't come out to party until 9pm, and C) they don't stop until 4am...
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