A great start to Berlin

Today we made it to Berlin! It was a long day, starting at around 7am when we began our trek thru Copenhagen to catch the train to Berlin. Since we were unable to reserve seats for the train, we were expecting to stand for the duration of the 6 hour journey. Fortunately, we were all able to find seats...phew.

Once settled into our hostel, we headed out to get a jump on the many sights of the city. We had hoped to join a free walking tour at 4:00pm by the brandenburg gate, but the tour never happened for some reason so we made our own afternoon agenda. First, we visited the memorial to the murdered Jews. This is Berlins holocaust museum, which is made of 2700 concrete stones that have a very somber look but feel like a playground at the same time, so there are kids running all over the memorial. The museum is underground and it is very well done and very moving. The museum included some first hand
accounts of the events that occured in extermination camps, these were some of the most moving stories I have ever heard from the holocaust. We also had time to visit the topography of terror museum, an exhibit about the evils of the nazi regime built on the former site of nazi power. After seeing museums on world war II in both London and Paris, it was quite an experience to see the same topic covered by the germans. They do not want to cover anything up, mostly they seem to want the world to know that they are sorry for what happened and never wish it to happen again. This was confirmed by a wondeful German man we had the pleasure to have dinner with.

-The bear