It's been a while since I have been able to sit down and actually reflect on a few of the trips we have taken since Iceland. Topping that trip will be a difficult task to achieve, but I think we are up for the challenge. We have a few big trips planned before the end of the year and the arrival of our little bundle of joy, and I think these trips have potential to compete. (Stay tuned for blogs about us traveling with an infant next year. That should be entertaining!) So after our trip to Iceland, we stayed local for a while and participated in our town's celebration of "Karnival". This pretty much entailed costumes, parades, a plethora of frequently repeated German songs, and a whole lot of beer consumption. Then in March, I found out I was pregnant. Bye bye, beer. (Although Europe is great about offering good nonalcoholic beer, so when the craving strikes I can still indulge!)

Does it really get any more German than this? Here I am enjoying a bratwurst with a refreshing non-alcoholic Bavarian beer in Berlin. Yes, we finally made it to the Germany's capital city back in March. Was it fun? Sure. Historically interesting? Of course. Would I go back? Nope. Been there, done that, moving on. In regard to all the other cities we have been to in Europe, for me Berlin's allure waned in comparison. Geographically speaking, it is a giant city--nine times larger than Paris to be exact. Of course they have public transportation everywhere, but we prefer to walk a city, to really immerse ourselves into every nook and cranny we can during the short period of time we have to explore. Berlin is divided into many different districts, and walking from one district to another often resulted in a very long walk, through wind and rain on this particular trip, while passing a lot of architectural eyesores in order to make it to our final destination. To be fair, the city experienced a pretty tumultuous twentieth century, which obviously led to it's current lack of traditional European charm. From Nazi occupation during World War II to decades of tense division between the Soviet-communist East Berlin and free West Berlin, the past nearly three decades of Berlin's life have been dedicated to rebuilding and reunifying. As a result, there is still construction wherever you go. But one has to appreciate a city that rises victoriously out of the ashes to become one of Europe's most significant economic, political, and cultural hubs. (Apparently it also has a very popular clubbing scene, so if you're into that sort of thing then Berlin is the city for you!) My feelings about Berlin were probably also influenced by the fact that the weather was also pretty miserable the whole time we were there. It was dismal, rainy, windy, and bone-chillingly cold. Only about a week before this trip we had experienced a nice bout of warm, sunny weather. But I should have known this was just a cruel tease. March in Germany is about as fickle and indecisive as I am at an ice cream shop. Less than an hour after we arrived into sunny Berlin, a mass of dark clouds rolled in, swiftly stamping out all my hopes for sunny city strolls. But we drove six hours to get here, so it was time to bundle up, grab the umbrellas, and take if for what it was worth.

Okay, so there is still a fair amount of pretty architecture in Berlin. And I even spied these beautiful blue doors that reminded me of the hundreds I swooned over during our walks through Paris. So after some casual strolling, we headed down Unter den Linden street to hit the tourist high points.

Of course no trip to Berlin would be complete without walking through the Brandenburg Gate. The 18th century Brandenburg Gate has undergone an interesting evolution of symbolism--from Prussian victory, to Nazi regime representation, and now finally to a unified Germany.

The above building is the Topography of Terror museum, which is built at the site where the SS and Gestapo headquarters once stood. We didn't visit it, but I am sure it would be a chilling experience to learn the details and walk the grounds where heinous crimes were committed by the Nazis.

And not far from the gate stands the famous Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. We paid homage to the victims of the Holocaust for a while here before making our way to Checkpoint Charlie.

While here we visited the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, which I really enjoyed. The museum displayed chronological stories about the Berlin Wall and Berlin from World War II through the Cold War, and displayed artifacts from daring escapes orchestrated by desperate and ingenious people fleeing East Berlin for freedom in the West.

So that was a full first day! On Day 2 we were supposed to go on a free guided walking tour, but considering it was pouring rain and we felt we had already visited the historical highlights, we opted for a Hop on Hop Off Bus tour instead. We don't do these very often, but this was really the perfect day and city to utilize one of these tours. Since the city is so large, a bus tour is a great way to see a lot in a shorter period of time.

Not the best quality picture seeing as it was taken from the window of our bus, but this is the Reichstag, which houses the German parliament. I tried to get us tickets online to go inside and view the famous glass dome, but apparently you have to book those more than a couple weeks in advance so we missed the boat. But I hear it's worthwhile.

So we didn't stop at the Reichstag, but we did get out and climb the Victory Column. The column was built at the end of the 19th century to commemorate Prussian victory in the Prussian-Danish war. You do have to pay to climb the tower, but it wasn't too expensive. The ascent was typical to other towers we have climbed in Europe--steep, spiraling, and seemingly never-ending--but the views of the surrounding park and the distant skyline were worth the effort.

Well, it probably would have been better on a clearer day, but I still enjoyed catching my breath to these 360 degree views.

The next place we got out at was the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which maintains its damaged edifice for viewers to remember the destruction of the war.

Day 3 day began, per my request, with gourmet donuts and coffee at a place called Brammibal's. They were actually vegan donuts, but you'd never know! They very adequately satisfied my craving. My favorites were the blueberry pistachio and peanut butter banana. YUM.

So then we had to walk off that breakfast.

And we made our way to the East Side Gallery, which is a 1,316 meter long portion of the Berlin Wall that has been converted into an artistic display and memorial to freedom.

Then, finally making use of the public transportation, we took a train to Alexanderplatz for our scheduled time to visit the TV Tower.

Going up in the TV tower was actually probably one of my favorite experiences in Berlin, as it offered some amazing views of the best parts of the city. (And don't worry, there is an elevator for this one, thank goodness.) This was my favorite picture that Thomas took of the Brandenburg Gate. I'm glad we booked a fast-track ticket online, because the wait time to visit when we walked in was over 2 hours!

So that pretty much concludes our trip! There is a lot to see and do in Berlin, especially if you are interested in World War II and Cold War history. I'm glad we checked it off the list. Now onto the next!