Berlin Wall

Germany redeemed itself with Berlin…or maybe it was just the nicer weather and better hostel (actually, one of the best hostels we’ve stayed at). Berlin’s a huge city (and Justin’s favorite)…and pretty spread out. Luckily, Germany’s public transport is the best—you can take the subway, underground train, tram, or bus—and it’s not even that confusing. I don’t think we ever even had to ask for directions (a lot of people asked us though, in German…). Although I am starting to go a little crazy on all of this public transport...

So we got to Berlin and made a beeline straight for the wall. Justin loved it of course…it seemed kind of little to be the big Berlin wall to me and also seemed climbable…so Justin decided to give it a try.

He failed but turns out it is climbable! Our tour guide said he climbed it at like 4am when he was drunk a few weeks ago. (There actually used to be two walls and a sand trap with spikes in between the walls…so it didn’t used to be so easy to get past them.) Anyway, got a few pictures with the murals…

Or, rather, Justin did. I got a little bored after a while and found a mini beach right next to the wall:

And then the next day we went on a free walking tour (tips recommended…shock). It was actually really good—who knew the old parking lot we were standing on was Hitler’s bunker where he killed himself? For someone who doesn’t like history, I actually thought the stories about WWII and the Berlin wall etc. were pretty good.

Last day in Berlin we decided to take a day trip to Wittenberg to check out Martin Luther’s old stomping grounds. Wittenberg reminds me of Rockford—a bunch of people walking down little streets eating ice cream. We saw his 95 Theses posted on the church door (turns out it’s a replica), and then were too late to make it inside his house because it closed. But we did see the outside of it (it was a huge old monastery!).

That’s all from Berlin—nothing too exciting or crazy; we mostly just explored the city, and I finally felt like I caught up on some sleep after the tents in Munich. Made it to Amsterdam last night and I can smell the weed already…