Barcelona- last full day of vacation

Well, I was able to find a delicious dinner on Monday night.  I was going to head out for a classic Spanish tapas and sangria dinner by myself, but had seen a cool little stir fry place while wandering around and decided take out sounded way better.  I'd order and eat in the room watching TV.  This sounded like a great plan in theory, until I got to the hotel and realized the only English language channels were BBC News and Bloomberry.  Not the relaxing evening of TV watching I had planned!  Oh well.  My dinner was excellent!

I went to a place called Walk to Wok; you pick out what noodles or rice you want, they add basic veggies, and then you pay extra to add proteins/nuts/more veggies, etc...  Then you choose one of six sauces to be mixed into it.  They stirfry all of this right in front of your face, and it just takes minutes to get.  I got a huge container of noodles and chicken and veggies plus a Sprite for 10 euros.  Not bad!  It was such a cool concept, and the place was packed at 9:00 pm with people wanting dinner.  This was the kind of place that Nick would love.

Anyways, I was able to see Nick that evening too, which was nice.  He came back to the hotel before I had gone to sleep.  We had breakfast together the next morning, and then we headed out on the subway to Plaza Espana.  Me to (finally!) go swimming, and he was off to MWC.

I climbed Montjuic for the second time in 24 hours.  This time I had brought my phone with though, so I took a bunch of pictures of the fountains, statues and buildings that I saw along the way.  Also took pictures of the escalators since I knew people would have a hard time believing they were there!

I got to the pool and paid 12 euro entrance fee.  I followed the signs to Piscenes (or something like that, it was not 'piscina' as I had learned in Spanish class 20 years prior).  I determined the correct locker room and went in to change.  Unfortunately I did not have a locker so I had to carry everything out on deck and hope no one stole it.  I was trying to find the indoor pool, and of course all of the signs only pointed to the outdoor Olympic pool.  I was wandering around in just my suit and thankfully found an older gentlemen who did not speak much English but he did help me figure out how to get to the indoor pool from the crazy maze we were in.  Phew!

I had been so excited to swim at the 1992 Olympic pool, but the outdoor one was closed unfortunately.  So many of my former teammates had swam at those Olympics, it was pretty sweet to be there.  I was happy just seeing the pool even though it was too cold to swim in it.  I headed to the indoor pool and cranked out 3400 SCM, lots of IM work.  Of course there were no backstroke flags!  Thankfully I did not hit my head on the wall.  This pool was 50 meters as well, but when it was set to 25 meters there were no black lines on the bottom to guide you.  That was strange.  And the bottom was subway tile, which was stark but pretty.  I felt pretty good in the water so I can't complain- I wasn't going that fast but I was overjoyed I got to swim!

After I finished my swim and changed, I wandered around Montjuic and went into the Olympic Stadium and looked at a couple of other things.  It was pretty cool to see.  Then I headed back to the hotel; I had plans to meet up with Roberto at 1:00 so we could see Segrada Familia.

I met Roberto and we had lunch at the bar near the hostel; I ate half of the hamburger I think, it was a huge portion!  After that, we went to our hotel to see if we should buy our tickets in advance or risk waiting in a huge line at Segrada Familia.  The concierge said we should buy the tickets online so she helped us with that.  23 euros for this little outing, but I figured it was worth it.  Who gets to see a church like this during it's construction phase?  I can also view it as a contribution to the completion of the church construction.

With tickets in hand, off we went to the subway.  Of course, Roberto just walks up to whomever and asks how we should get there.  It was nice to not have to study a map for 30 minutes and pray that I went the right direction when heading out.  He could just easily ask anyone anything in Spanish the moment we felt confused; his Spanish was an excellent replacement for Nick's GPS  :)

We popped out of the subway and Sagrada Familia is RIGHT THERE when you emerge.  The size of it is staggering.  We had 45 minutes or so until our tickets were valid, but Roberto asked someone if we could go in early since it wasn't that crowded and off we went.  He was conversing in Spanish with the people that worked there, and when we wandered off he started talking in Spanish to me.  It was funny, his English is very good but I suppose when you've just learned a new language it would be weird to switch back and forth like that.

First view of the church, wow!

Details, details

What the church will look like upon completion- the lighter parts are not built yet

Interior stairwell

This is a nave, I'm standing not quite in the middle of the church, looking to the left

Stained glass

Columns

Looking at the front of the church from the center

Looking up, up, up

This is a church underneath the church!

Details outside

Roberto!

Mo!

Another model showing the work that needs to be completed

Details are abundant, even up high!

These columns were designed to assist with rain run-off, and to improve acoustics inside the church

Entrance to the church, via a side door

Anyways, we received our audio guides and listened to it outside at first, and then moved into the church to learn more.  We then went out the other side of the church to look at that somewhat finished exterior, and then headed back inside to ride up in the elevator for more views.  The ride up was in a tight round elevator that barely held 7 or 8 people I think.  We exited and walked along VERY narrow pathways; we were up very high, and were able to look out at the city down below.  This gave an even greater appreciation for the size of the church.  We could also see where they were constructing the the new spires, among them the tallest one.  They still have so much more work to do, but they expect it to be done within 5 years I think.  I have no idea how that could happen, it would be pretty amazing if they finish.  Anyways, we made our way down a super narrow winding staircase all the way to the ground floor.  I was glad we didn't have to walk up that way!   We turned in our audioguides and looked around a bit more and then noticed a door under the church that some people were coming out of.  I said we should check it out, and I'm glad we did!  There was so much information about Gaudi and the church down there; there was a lot of neat stuff to look at.  We also learned that Gaudi was 74 when he died and that he was hit by a street car.  That is how he passed.  Pretty sad, but he received quite a grand funeral procession.   He had such a huge inmpact on the architecture of Barcelona.  I was impressed that it was recognized during his life, sometimes your work is not appreciated until you are long gone.

We finished touring the basement of the church and then decided to wander La Rambla.  We walked through the cool fruit/meat/fish market to take some pictures, and then we passed by a bakery that had Cronuts in the window.  I had heard of these croissant/donut combos and the ones in the window looked amazing.  We stopped in and I happily dropped 2.5 euros on a chocolate cronut.  OMG, that thing was good!!!!  Totally worth the money, it was just perfect.  I know they are a trendy item right now, but I do hope I can find somewhere to buy those around here for a special treat!

Abundance at the market

Fresh fruits, veggies and juices. Yum!

The largest bell peppers I've ever seen!

Tripe and calf heads.  Not sure what you do with these but we weren't going to eat them!

After getting sugared up from the cronut, we continued on, in search of perfume me and a hair cut for Roberto.  We walked all the way to the seaport; along the way we saw the huge column statue monument for Christopher Columbus.  We also saw a lot of seagulls flying around.  We walked into a mall and Roberto recommended a store for the perfume; I was shocked at the prices.  I found the perfume for way less than at Sephora and other department stores and duty free.  I bought the biggest bottle since I was getting such a great deal!   So glad Roberto pointed out that store, I never would have gone in otherwise.   We left the mall to find a barber shop somewhere else, and I thought we had been transported to the movie set of 'The Birds'.  Oh my, there were seagulls swooping around everywhere!  I serioulsy had one little freak out where one got pretty close to me, but I was mostly worried about getting pooped on.  Roberto said it would be good luck if it happened, but then we both agreed that whoever said that was trying to feel better about getting shit on by a bird!  We escaped from the seaside poop free thank goodness!

We were able to find an Asian hair salon and Roberto got a haircut for 8 euros.  Not bad!  As I sat there waiting for him, I found it so bizarre to see Asians speaking fluent Spanish.  It's just not what you would expect.  We then wandered back to the hotel up a different street since I had walked La Rambla about 20 times by that point.  We walked by a bibleoteca and I was able to practice some of my extremely limited spanish vocabulary with Roberto.  "I want to swim in the pool", "library and books", and something about food and eating.  He was so kind to say I knew way more than he expected I would!  I should have tried to practice more but just wasn't feeling confident enough to give it a go.  Oh well, he basically told me that I didn't need to learn a language since most other countries learn English.  That saves me some trouble, lol!

We made it back to the hotel, and that is where Roberto and I parted ways but of course there is Facebook so we can stay in touch.  It was so fun to hang out with him and learn about Venezuela and his other travels.  Meeting other travelers was part of what I wanted to accomplish on this trip and I'm so happy I got to have that experience.  I can only imagine how many people my brother befriended while traveling the world for a year!

I went up to the room and got to relax for a bit before Nick came back.  We were going to head out to an event but decided to just grab dinner together.  I knew we should go to the stir fry place since Nick would love it.  So I ate there two nights in a row!  But I got something totally different.  And of course Nick loved Walk to Wok!  Wish something like that would open around here- I'd definitely go!

We enjoyed our meal in the bustling restaurant and then headed back to the hotel so I could pack and Nick could work.  My part of the trip was coming to an end, while Nick had 24 more extra hours after I left.

Nick and I both agreed that this was the best trip we've ever taken.  It far surpassed our honeymoon.  We were able to experience so many different things and places, learn so much, and really appreciate what we were able to do.  In Prague, we explored an amazingly well-preserved and beautiful city, and ate a wonderful meal for our anniversary dinner.  We also went to the ballet!  In Berlin, we got to see a rebuilt city that was bursting with history.  It was fun to take in a show at a club, it seemed very fitting for Berlin.   And in Barcelona, we knew that we wouldn't be spending much time together but somehow managed to enjoy breakfast very morning and three fantastic dinners.  Nick also was cool with me heading off to explore the city with a total stranger!  I of course wished that Nick could have joined me but he is so wonderful to let me have some companionship so I could enjoy the city more.  If I had been alone I'm sure he would have been worried constantly that I was lost and that I would never make it back to the hotel.  If you had seen me try to navigate in Prague you would all have the same concerns!

All in all, we are super appreciative that my parents were able to watch the kiddos so we could have this amazing adventure together.  It was a perfect vacation and I couldn't have asked for anything more!!!!

Day 2 in Barcelona- not going according to plan

I learned today that is important to just go with the flow when you are on the road.  After yet another night of horrible sleep, I woke up at 6:45, which was way too early.  The half bottle of wine and one other beverage were not helping me feel any better either.  Ugh.  After a light breakfast we headed up to the room so that Nick could head to the conference and I could find a pool to swim at.  Oh, I must note that I tried a piece of the famous Jamon at breakfast and was shocked that I really did not like it.  I like virtually all pork products, but a pig leg left out to cure for god knows how long apparently doesn't do it for me (the hoof was still attached to the piece of meat they were carving up!).  Oh well, at least I tried it.  I certainly won't be trying any seafood while I'm here if Ican avoid it!  regardless, after breakfast I was not feeling so hot, but I was determined to swim!

The hotel staff found a pool I could swim at, after much internet search (I had tried previously to find one on my own with no luck).  I was to hop on the metro, go a few stops, and then climb Montjuik.  Simple enough, right?  Haha.  Of course I hopped on the metro going the wrong way,so I had to get off at the first stop and walk around to the other side of the station to go the correct way.  I got off the train at the correct stop and was suddenly at the chaos of MWC.  I headed in what I thought was the correct direction since it was towards a hill and was feeling confident that I finally made the right navigational decision.  Unfortunately, I was correct.  Up and up and up I climbed, there were even ESCALATORS  to assist!  I finally made it to the top, and was very impressed with my hard work.  The view was amazing and totally worth the effort!  I continued on, and after turning too soon for the pool realized I was going to have to walk way out of my way to get to the entrance at that point.  And it was almost 11 am, and I was expecting Roberto to call me at 11:30 so I needed to be in wifi coverage (which is not plentiful in Barcelona, FYI).  At 12 euros to get in and swim, I decided I was happy enough knowing I made it to the top of Montjuic and started to rush off to the hotel for wifi.  Oh well, I tried! And now I know where to go in the morning if I'm rested and hydrated enough to swim.  For 12 euros I'll be swimming 3 hours to get my money's worth!

I showered at the hotel (you can imagine I was a mess after such a hike!), and started to read my book.   I quickly passed out and awoke to the ringing phone.  It was 12:30 and Roberto was on the line!  I couldn't believe it, since my phone messaging was not working,  and I knew that Roberto had had a few drinks the night before too.  We met shortly thereafter; I was thankful I had a chance to snooze a bit before heading to Park Guel.

We hopped on the subway and headed the opposite direction I had gone earlier in the morning.  We climbed and climbed and climbed our way up another hill (which also had escalators!).  We were both hurting (my stomach was feeling muy mal), so we walked slowly.  We made it to the top and were rewarded with an even more spectacular view of the city.  Amazing!  While up there, I recognized some men who had eaten breakfast next to me and Nick that morning (one had on a Samsung jacket), so I started talking to them.  They knew who Nick was, small world!

Roberto and I took some photos and meandered slowly around the park; we both decided paying the entry fee of 8 euros was not worth it (roberto is sensible about money too), and we were happy with what we saw.  We headed back down the hill to the subway in search of lunch at La Rambla.

The view from Park Guell

Gaudi designed this park

Another Gaudi building at the park

This reminded me of a gingerbread house!

We enjoyed a great lunch and good conversation and then parted ways at the hotel.  We are going to visit Sagrada de Familia tomorrow around 1:00 so I'll have time to swim.  Not sure if I'll have time to squeeze anything else in.  I did some window shoppping late this afternoon, even though Ihave no room in my bag for anything.  I'm going to buy some perfume though,  and I wanted to buy some clothes at Mango and Zara but refrained.  Cute stuff for good prices!  Top Shop was overrated;poor quality and high prices!  Every place I went I was greeted in Spanish by the shopkeepers though; Imust look like a native but I sure as hell don't sound like one!!!  I have the worst spanish accent ever.

Oh, I also happened upon a cool market while wandering around.  It is rows of stalls filled with fruits, vegetables, fish, meats, etc...  Kind of like Pike Place Market but without the flowers and homeless people.  Anyways, the fruit stands have so many different kinds of freshly squeezed juicces available to purchase for 1 euro (they are 2 euro if purchased closer to the entrance to the market), and they also have a snacksized portion of cut up fruits to buy as well.  Those were 1 euro too.  So I got one of each for my afternoon snack, much healthier than the cookie or croissant I had been seeking out!

I headed back to the hotel and got to see Nick briefly before he headed out to more events tonight.  I am sure I will be asleep before he gets home tonight.  I'm going to head out to dinner by myself; hopefully I can find something good. I saw many places while Iwas wondering around this afternoon and I doubt I'll be able to find them again.  I'm going to try though!  More updates tomorrow, and maybe I'll learn how to download photos so you can see more of berlin and barcelona.  Adios!  

Sunday in Barcelona

Our first full day in Barcelona we attempted to sleep in.  My sleep was assisted by Zquil since the beds here are just as hard as the ones at our hotel in Berlin.  The other bizarre sleeping situation is that we only have body length pillows!   Makes it hard to get comfy.  There are worse problems to have of course, but Ijust wanted to let everyone know that hotels are different all over the world.  We also have a bidet (sp???) In our bathroom here, a first.  I have not attempted to try it out yet, as I'm sure you are all curious!  I have less than 48 hours to give it a whirl though.

Our day started out with breakfast at the hotel.  It is 19 euros for the buffet from what I could tell; at that price they include mimosas and wine if you want!  Unfortunately we are not making use of that; it's hard to start drinking at 9 in the morning.  We finished our breakfast and coffee (yes, Nick has drank one or two cups of coffee every morning on this trip, he may finally be converted!!!!).  I saw that a tour started at 11, so off I went in search of the starting point.  I was in luck, as it began in the exact same plaza square where Nick and I had dinner the night before- I did not get lost!  I reserved my spot and then wandered around.  There was a fountain, and tons of people milling about.  There were mostly old men though; they had set up tables in the square of what looked like junk to sell, but it was mostly old coins and currency that is obviously no longer used or in circulation.  I was tempted to buy some for the kids, since they LOVE coins.  I could just see my grandfather (if he were still alive of course, and in Barcelona) picking through those coins with the other old men, likely finding a rare one.  It was quite a unique scene.

The tour started, and off we went to several important places in the Barri Gotic, which is the oldest part of town.  We saw a few churches (can't remember the names of course since my Spanish is horrible and a simple church name will consist of 6-8 words of course).  I learned why the Catalonian flag has four red stripes on it, saw an immigrant protest in front of the government buildings, saw the oldest buildings in the city, walked down insanely narrow 'streets' that were about 3 meters wide (that might be a generous estimate), and got turned around in circles yet again.  Oh, I also learned about a strange Barcelonian (or Catalonian?) Tradition of christmas time logs.  Apparently, you fill this log with treats/gifts, and on Christmas Eve, the kids unwrap it and take out the gifts.  Something about the log shitting?!?!?! I kid you not, our guide had the STRONGEST Spanish accent, so I could be wrong.  This shitting is an important symbol in Spanish culture, something about rebirth  or whatnot, so he showed us a figurine of a man taking a shit.  BUT, I just looked it up in Wikipedia and it is called a CAGANER.  Google it!  Sure enough, as I wandered around after the tour, there are figurines all over the souvenir shops of whomever (famous people are not spared) with pants pulled down, squatting and showing off the glory of their functioning bowels (with a pile of poop behind them!).  Bizarro!

A traditional caganer

13 geese to represent a female martyr of Barcelona

A government building (I didn't capture the protesters outside of it)

Traditional Catalonian dance, held on Sunday's only

Roman columns

Beautiful church, named after Maria and pine trees.  The name is long and in Spanish so I can't remember it!

After thetour was over, I asked for directions back to La Rambla and of course took a wrong turn and ended up walking down by the large avenue that runs along the marina.  I knew I would make it the bottom of La Rambla and from there I would just walk up it to the hotel.  I was in search of food though, and of course I turned off La Rambla onto a side street and became lost again.  I was famished and just sat down at a place called Hamburgs or something like that.  A German themed eatery in Barcelona.  I had a snitzel sandwich and a Spannish Hefeweizen beer- who would have thought??  It was quite a good sandwich, even with cheese and mayo on it.  All during lunch I studied my map to see how I would get to the hotel.  I knew I was close, but after eating and heading out I realized that I was only a block away.  Doh!  I made it back safely somehow, I really wish my phone worked here so I could use GPS!!!!!

At that point I had time to relax while Nick finished up with two meetings.  We then headed out for dinner after a ridiculous amount of research on Trip Advisor.  Lo and behold, we get to the restaurant and of course it is closed Sunday nights!  Back to the drawing board and we were both starving.  We decided to try a vegetarian restaurant we had spotted earlier- what a good decision!  We ordered  a bottle of wine, split a declious pesto salad and then Nick got a veggie burger while I had a pasta dish.  It was very good, reminded me of something Iwould have made at home!  After dinner (which ended at 9:45 pm), we met some of Nick's coworkers to play pool.  We met some other travelers and had a fun night talking with them.  It was nice to finally meet other people that spoke English!  We had not talked with anyone else the whole trip except for an older couple from Melbourne on our Sachsenhausen tour.  I love talking with my sweet husband, but it was definitely a lot of fun to socialize with new people and hear about their cultures! Roberto from Venezuela was part of the crew for the evening and so I made plans with him to hike to Park Guell the following afternoon after I swam.  Iwas looking forward to heading out with someone else instead of wandering around getting lost by myself!  Bonus points that Roberto is obviously fluent in Spanish too  :)

Day Seven: Berlin to Barcelona

Surprisingly, we woke up very early Saturday morning.  We had a lot to do and not much time to do it in!  We showered, ate breakfast, packed and headed off to buy souveniers before heading to Charlottenburg Palace.  Unfortunately, the shop Iwanted to buy something at was not open yet, so we headed to the Palace (which was good, since it took us longer to get there than we anticipated).  Sorry everyone, I'm coming home with no ampleman tchotches.  Ireally wanted something from that store!  Oh, the ampleman is the crosswalk man that was used in East Berlin traffic signals.  He appears to be marching, and his outline would remind most of a communist looking symbol.  Once the wall came down, these street signs were being replaced, but the former East Berliners said they wanted to keep this sign of their past.  The city agreed, so it is a good reminder of the past and also showed that not all of the eastern culture was worth replacing.  In fact, new street posts in the former West Berlin now have amplemans in their crossing lights.  So it is now getting harder to differentiate where you are located in the city!

Anyways, we made it the Palace, grabbed tickets and headsets and rushed through the rooms.  We had no more than 1 1/4 hours  to tour the whole placee.  A lot of the structure had been badly damaged in the war, so it was mostly rebuilt, espeically the top floor.  And a lot of the furnishings and artifacts were brought in from the destroyed Berlin Palace.  There was still plenty of original work to see though.  The palace was built for Frederick I (??) Andhis wife, Charlotte Sophie.  It was quite an ornate summer / vacation home!  The original gardens looked amazing too.  It was originally named Leipstag Palace (or something like that), but Frederick renamed it Charlottenburg after Charlotte Sophie died.  We were unable to tour the 'new wing' as it is currently being renovated.  Just as well, sincee we had no time!  We rushed back to the hotel to grab our things, and then headed to the airport on the metro.

We had heard the airport was pretty crappy, and Ireally wanted to grab one last doner kebab before getting on the U-Bahn but Nick was sure there would be food available at the airport.  Oh boy, Iguess you could say he wascorrect.  Our options were a sad 'Irish Bar' that seemed to have no food, a place that sold totally overpriced salads and sandwiches that didn't look worth the cost, and.....  Burger King.  Guess where we ended up? Sadly, BK.  Ihad not eaten there since college!  We paid almost 15 dollars for 2 burgers and a combo meal.  Yikes.  It tasted exactly as I remembered though.  It was sad to leave Berlin eating Burger King after enjoying so much good food there.  Oh well.

The boarding process for Easy Jet was bizarre; you couldn't go to your gate until 45 minutes before your flight, so there was major overcrowding in the main small terminal; there was virtually no seating.  Once your gate opened, you had to go there or else you wouldn't get on your flight.  There was seating there at least, and then you walked to the plane on the tarmac.  Note to self, the small gray carryon that Nick uses all the time for travel was too large for Easy Jet so we had to gate check it.  Free of charge thank goodness!  Saved us $75!!!

We both slept on the plane a bit, and arrived in Barcelona with no troubles.  Nick picked up his MWC badge at the airport (this conferencee is huge), and off we went to the hotel in a Mercedes!  It was nice to have a ride and not have to figure  ourT out how to get to our hotel.  Ishould start researching how I'M going to get back to the airport on Wednesday though!

We checked into the hotel and then headed towards La Rambla.  We found an Italian restaurant to eat  dinner at.  We ate outside, I think it was about 59 degrees, very pleasant near the heat lamp!  We shared a pitcher of Sangria, which tasted just like the 'sangria' Imake.  Iwill continue to stick with my cheap red wine mixed with peach fresca, no sense cutting up fruit and making juices and syrups to have it taste identical!  Don't knock my version, many skeptics have been swayed  :)

Charlottenburg Palace

Waiting for our plane at the airport in Berlin

Finally boarding; we were excited to leave that sad airport!

Plaza Real in Barcelona

Day Six- Berlin

Nick is back at work, so it is now my turn to update the blog.  We were so busy in Berlin there was no time to write.  So I will attempt to recap what we did there, but I'm sure I will forget something (nothing new there!).

Our first day in Berlin was filled with a tour as Nick has already described.  It was completely fascinating to see what this city has gone through in just the past one hundred years.  That evening, after our visit to the Checkpoint Charlie site and theTopography of Terror Museum, we grabbed some donor kebabs and wine for dinner.  We ate back at our 'smoke-free' room.  While it was labeled as non-smoking, it reeked of smoke sincee it shared thesame ventilation system as other smoking rooms!  Needless to say, we kept the window ajar at all times and cranked the heat.  Anyways, the doner kebabs were delicious, and we liked the price too!  (3.50 euros).  We went to bed late after researching what to do the next day, not getting the best sleep due to the hard beds and thick, hard pillows.  We went from about 10 hours of sleep a night in Prague to about 6 in Berlin.  Hotel Josef in Prague completely spoiled us and set the bar high.  I'm sure we would have been totally satisfied with our hotel in Berlin otherwise.

On Friday, we were all set to head out to Potsdam to check out Sanssoucci Palace, but we changed our minds during breakfast.  There was a guided tour to Sachsenhausen (sp??)Concentration Camp that left at 10 am, and we enjoyed our tour so much the previous day that we wanted to go on another one with the same company.  Thursday night we even contemplated hiring Ryan for a private tour, even though we knew it would cost a pretty penny.  Ifigured it was so last minute that it probably was not possible.  Now we know for our next trip to Berlin though!

Anyways, we met our tour group and off we headed to Hophbaunoff train station to catch our train to Oriange-something.  The train was great; we had one stop along the way, andthen it was 20 minutes non-stop out to the country pretty much.  Definitely not a bad option if  you work in Berlin.  The train was very nice too.  We arrived in the town and walked 2 km to the camp.  The town was a bit dreary, especially given the rainy weather, so Ican only imagine how horrible to was for the prisoners to walk through the town upon their arrival.  The townspeople used to line up and watch them all carry their belongings to the camp.  Imust note that there were not many Jewish prisoners at this camp.  It was more for communist prisoners, gypsies, and such.

We were given a quick orientation upon arrival.  Sachsenhausen was built in 1933 I believe, but was rebuilt in 1936 as a model concentration camp.  Heinrich Hemmler (???) Designed the camp in a triangular shape so that the central guard tower would have clear line of sight over the whole camp.  This seemed like an ingenious solution to keeping a constant eye over the prisoners, but when the camps became overcrowded and they needed to expand, it proved problematic.  No matter, they expanded it further to accomodate even more unfortunate prisoners.

We walked along the work access road (during the winter, prisoners were transported off-site to work elsewhere since  the land in the camp was frozen solid and unworkable), and then entered the main gate under the watchtower.  The "death strip"was explained to us. There is a different term she used, but that's waht Iwould call it.  There was gravel, an electric trip wire, a barbed wire fence, several more yards of space and then a great wall that would have to be climbed.  There was pretty much no way in hell anyone could escape over this thing, even without a guard seeing you and shooting you dead on the spot.  We were then in full view of the camp, it is massive in size.  The check-in area was right there; the prisoners had to do roll call twice daily, often standing for hours in the freezing cold or blazing sun while they were accounted for.  If any prisoners died overnight (which was common), their fellow prisoners had to carry them to the roll call area so they could be accounted for as well.  If you did not show up, you were usually shot dead if they found you in the barracks.

We were shown two replica barracks in the Jewish section of hte camp.  These were built to hold 150 people but 400 were usually living there.  The conditions were retchid; 3 men to a bunk, nasty toilet (which they were allowed to use only twice daily, imagine having diarrhea!)and shower area, no heating.  Itlooked horrible.  We were also shown a prison within the prison; it was built for special prisoners like Joseph Stalin's son and the man who had attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1938 (??).  We were told about how these prisoners had 'nicer' living quarters but underwent brutal torture.  Days/weeks/months in solitary confinement (often in holes in the ground where they could not sit), or arms tied behind their backs and then hands attached to a pole and a box under their feet kicked away so their arms would break and shoulders dislocate, left to hang for lengthy periods of time in that condition.  Another punsihment would be to have to stand in the same position all day, often in a semi-squat with both arms extended forward at an upwards angle.  You can imagine how difficult this would be to do, and if they moved, a guard would shoot them.  Truly horrible.

The prisoners were of  course basically slave labor, so daily life was a living hell pretty much.  They were given barely any food (conditionns worsened in the winter of 1939-40 due to the war),and expected to work pretty much all day.  It is remarkable that anyone survived.

Prisoners came and went, which was new information to me.  In 1939, when they had to make room for new prisoners, a large batch was let go.  Overcrowding was a constant issue.  Towards the end of the war, most prisoners were Russian, but there was a huge influx of Jewish prisoners as they were herded from the eastern-most camps as the allied forces advanced from the east.  The SS started killing as many prisoners as possible, I think there were 10,000 Russian prisoners executed, most by gunshot.  The bodies were all cremated on site, since apparently at one point a truck that was carrying dead bodies got into an accident, dead bodies fell out of the truck and I'm sure the sight of that raised some eyebrows.  Who knows what the townspeople knew though; did all of the cremation soot falling all over town give them pause to think? Or if they were aware, were they too brainwashed by and scared of the regime that they kept silent?  Our tour guide did not know.

In 1945, Sachsenhausen was liberated, but only 3000 (???) Prisoners were left, and they were the most ill and had been too weak to particpate in the Death March (north to the sea, where if they made it they were to be put on ships which were then going to be set on fire).  This was all an attempt by the Nazis to cover up the atrocities.

The camp continuted to be used, from 1945-50 to hold Nazi war criminals, and then used by the Soviets as a training ground for army and police, and to commemorate Communist martyrs.

Imust mention also that there were no uprisings at the camp due to the prisoner hierarchy established by the Nazis.  Everyone was grouped according to their'crime':jewish (lowest), gypsie (lowest), homosexual, communist, true criminal (the highest).  Hence, none of the groups got along because of the heirarchy.

The tour concluded with a walk through the infirmmary and morgue, after passing by the cremation area.  We then walked back to town to catch the train.  It was a depressing day, to say the least.  It makes me feel sick knowing that such heinous acts were committed where we had walked.  It gives me even greater appreciation for all that we have and hope that this could never happen again.  Though sadly the term 'history repeats itself' was coined for a reason.

After such a sad day, we decided that it was time to for something fun and enjoyable.  We headed back to the hotel to have some beers and relax, then grabbed dinner on the street again.  Doner kebab for me (Ihave no shame in eating a repeat meal!), and some not as good thai food for Nick.  Icould not finish my Brandenburger sparkling wine while eating, so Idrank it on the way to our concert.  Apparently you can drink alcohol on the street in Berlin (and London and Prague from what Icould tell).  Why is the USA so uptight about these things???

Anyways, we hopped on the U6 and U7 to find the place where we would watch Tosca.  I had no idea what to expect: a small club, a decent sized theater???? It eneded up being a small theater, in a funky area of Berlin.  Of course I heard no English the whole time were were there.  The show started only a few minutes late, and ended way too quickly, after only an hour!  It was interesting and cool to be there; subdued Germans out for a Friday night of light electronica music.  Their behaviour very much reminded us of Seattleites!   We felt right at home :)  It was a good show, and afterwards we decided to walk arOund a bit since we were in a new 'hood.  We were surprised at how many people were out at 11:30 pm, yound and old.  It makes you feel totally safe, that is for sure.  We headed back to the hotel for another poor night of sleep, with plans to wake up early in the morning to tour Charlottenburg Palace.  Could we accomplish this before we needed to head to the airport???

Berlin Day 2 - First Full day...and it was FULL!

I started out the day with 90 minutes of hard core (no, not exercise)...email on my phone trying to stay on top of work during my vacation. :)  Someone's gotta pay for the trip! hahahaha  After that we got motivated quickly and hit the hotel breakfast buffet.  It was good and they actually had ketchup with the scrambled eggs, boom!  Love that it's free and fast, that let us get out the door and head out for our walking tour of Berlin.

We hit the U6 subway by our hotel and quickly determined that it wasn't running, doh!  Not cuz it was obvious in all the English being spoken around us, it was simply the fact that all the Germans were leaving the platform with frowns on their faces.  Now what???  Once again, google maps to the rescue.  Plugged in the meeting place for the tour and Google maps told us exactly how to use public transportation via bus instead of subway.  It was awesome.  We went from, oh crap, we'll never make the tour, to calm cool and collected.  We only wait a few mins for the bus which was around the corner and got off a few stops later.  It was actually one stop too early but we got to another street car stop that was headed to the same place and hopped on it for one stop.  Took us right there with almost 15 minutes to spare, we are getting good at this!

The tour started at Hackesher Market and lasted for over 4 hours.  It was jammed packed of great info from a REAlly awesome tour guide.  Ryan was from Scottland but had lived in Germany for 6 years and was a huge German history buff, he really knew his stuff and he did a fantastic job recounting it!

We started over at a park across from Museum island where the first settlement of Berlin actually occurred back in the 1100s.  Ryan went over a ton of history about Germany from approx the 1600s with the 30 years war up through present day.  I'm not even going to begin to recount any of that...way too much detail and there's no way I would do it justice.

We then moved over to the water and got a great view of the Luthern churn next to Museum Island.  For a protestant church it was MAGNIFICENT from the outside and was as beautiful as any across Europe.  It's important to note that Berlin doesn't have a whole lot of original, classical architecture left.  So much of it was destroyed during WWII and WWI that the vast majority of things you see are relatively new, within the last 50 years or newer.  Still, what was left intact was beautiful like the rest of Europe.

We spent a little bit of time on Museum Island which is made of up 5 world class Museums all in classic greek architectural style.  Some were completely restored after the war and had no signs of anything bad happening, others were intentionally left with bullet holes and mortor damage so as to not forget the past and how tumultuous it was.  This was a running theme.  In wars past the Germans had always wiped away any signs of unrest but modern Germans don't want to forget, they want to remember.  They want to be reminded of how painful the past was so they don't do it again!

From there we headed over to a small but meaningful monument.  A small open building with with a single hole on the roof over a woman holding her dead son.  Very moving yet another reminder of the atrocities of war.  Across the street was Humboldt University, the site of the first book burnings by the Nazi's.  Yet another poignant stop on the tour and a reminder of how precious our freedoms really are.  We then headed down to the end of Unter den Linden which is where the Brandenburg Gate is.  This is a very famous landmark in Berlin which has stood the test of time and has always functioned as a starting point for many miltary victory parades over the centuries.  It doesn't block anything, just serves as a grand passageway into Berlin.

We passed through the Brandenburg gate, and had a quick look at the Reichstart (totally spelled that wrong I'm sure) but this is the current German Gov't building, our version of the Capitol Bldg.  Rebuilt over the years but very unique with classic architecture but a modern glass dome room, mean to symbolize the transparency of Gov't complete with walkways through the dome to allow the people (mainly tourists) to keep watch over gov't! :)

After that we headed to a really incredible monument to commemorate the millions of Jews who lost their lives during Hitler's reign.  It's a collection of large concrete rectangular blocks that are all neatly spaced but vary in height from as low as a foot on the outer edges, to over 15 feet tall in the middle of this vast array of thousands of columns.  Truly nothing like I've ever seen and it simply can't be described.  When you look out upon it, you don't realize how big it is, or how deep/tall the columns go.  It likely represents the journey the jews went through.  In the beginning of Hitler's rule, the perspecution of the Jews was minimal, only some minor things taken away, then as time progressed more and more was taken away, eventually their lives in many cases.  When you've walked into the middle you get a sense for how they must felt being completely cut off with no idea where to go next and everything looking the same around every corner.  Yet when you entered the monument, you had no idea it was going to end up that way.  Brilliant!  It was expensive though, I think it cost $29M Euros in 2005, not cheap.  But worth every penny in my opinion.

After that we headed to a parking lot, this was directly above where hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker.  There are virtually no markings other that a plain sing to denote the location.  This was done intentionally.  Pretty startling to be in this location but also very unique to have been there.

From there we hit a cool new monument in the shape of a man's silhouette.  It was the man who attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1939.  He planted a bomb in the place where Hitler gave a speech every year at the same time during his reign.  The bomb was set to go off half way through hitler's speech but becuase of bad weather the speech had to be cut short and Hitler left.  The bomb did go off as expected and killed the speaker and 5 others who had been in that location.  If only....

From there we went to a popular landmark commemorating a populist uprising in 1953 that was squashed by the Soviets brutally.  Just down the street we then visited the last remaining portion of the Berlin Wall.  This is the only location where the wall still stands in it's original location.  It's about a block long and amazing to see in real life.  It's so hard to imagine all of West Berlin being encircled in this thing...hundreds of miles!  The live lost trying to get over/through it...just breathtaking. Just down the block we hit checkpoint Charlie, one of the few gates between east and west Berlin.  This was where a 16 hour standoff between the US Army and the Soviets in 1961 almost caused WWIII.  It's also right around the corner from our hotel, pretty cool location.

We finally ended up in a grand square a couple blocks away where two nearly identical cathedrals and the national concert hall are located.  Which was also next to a restaurant named "Mark Brandenburg"...one of my teammate is named "Marc Brandenburg"!  Too funny.

We then snuck in a little break at the hotel and went back out to the Topography of Terror museum.  This was at the same location as the Berlin wall strip we visited and was all about the SS.  We spent a few hours there and it was all pictures and descriptions yet we didn't get through it all before they closed at 8pm.  Pretty amazing overall what Hitler and his accomplices were able to do.  So horribly sad that anything like this could happen in modern times.  Very much worth the visit and we may sneak back to finish it off tomorrow of Saturday.

I powered through this and put a lot down, but there's still so much I couldn't convey about our day.  Berlin is such a unique place with it being the center of the most prolifict conflict in recent times.  While it's been 25 years since the wall came down, Germans are still very much in the reunification process and will be for a while.  It's safe to say, Mo and I have a very unique appreciation for what Berlin and Germany are all about!