We arrived safely in Germany yesterday morning. We had a long day of traveling on Friday. Our first flight left Buffalo at 6:11am we flew to O’Hare and had a lay over there then we flew into Dulles and had 5 hours before our flight to London. We decided to take advantage of the shuttle bus that goes from Dulles into D.C. it ended up working really well we walked the National Mall from the capital building to the Washington Monument and took a look at The White House. All in all we did dodge some rain drops but it was a nice time!
Capitol Building, Washington DC
Washington Monument, Washington DC
Obama's Pad, Washington DC
We had an uneventful flight to London then had a seamless transfer to Berlin. We arrived in Berlin late Saturday morning, navigated our way through the public transportation system and ended up at our apartment. After getting showers, changed and becoming more human like we ventured out to see a few of the typical touristy things in Berlin. We were also hoping that would help us shrug off some of the effects of jetlag. Kaiser Wilhelm church was our first stop; this church was bombed and damaged greatly during WWII. They built a new church, but kept the remains of the original church intact. From there we headed over to the Brandenburg Gate, and then wandered around the surrounding area, we found ourselves on some sort of water front near the Parliament building. Checkpoint Charlie was our final touristy stop for the day. This was the only point that foreign individuals could cross between East and West Berlin between 1961 and 1990. Our adventure out was topped off with a stop at a local restaurant to get some great German Cuisine. YUM!!!
Kaiser Wilhelm Church, Berlin Germany
Mosiacs, Kaiser Wilhelm Church, Berlin Germany
Jenny at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Germany
Reichstag, Berlin Germany
Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Germany
Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Germany
Our Sunday was an adventure; we took the train to Lutherstadt-Wittenberg. We maneuvered the U & S Bahns pretty well for that being only our second day in Berlin. The train ride was about an hour and a half long, going through some pretty countryside. Lutherstadt is a cute little town – most things were closed since it was a Sunday, but we still found some great things to do. There was a hoppin’ Best Western that was doing some sort of social hour for a large group of adults it had been going on most of the day. And we passed a store called Jenny Mode what a great name of a store. We wanted to visit the typical Martin Luther Reformation tourist sites. Our first stop was the Castle Church; this is the Church that Luther nailed the 95 thesis to the door and the church that he is buried in. After that we ate lunch at a great restaurant that was suggested to us by Pastor Lauterbach – my baked potato came out dressed up like a swan! How fun is that? We headed to the town church, St. Mary’s, this was a special church for Luther he not only preached there but was married there and 6 of his children were baptized there. After checking out St. Mary’s we wandered to Luther’s House. This is a three story building that is full of all sorts of interesting information about the reformation and the life of Luther and his family. A quick stop at the cellar for some apple pie finished off our trip to Lutherstadt-Wittenberg.
Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, Germany
Doorway where Martin Luther's 95 Thesis were supposedly posted
Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, Germany
Castle Church, Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, Germany
Saint Mary's Church, Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, Germany
Monday should be a good time there are a few museums that we are looking forward to visiting and we have a dinner date with Chrissy (Mark’s brother-in-law’s niece that lives in Berlin). It should be another great day!
We hope all is well back at home.