4
years ago Blake was living in Germany serving a mission. I have always wanted to visit Europe
and even more now since marrying Blake.
I’m sure when he was there he never thought he’d be returning in 4 years
later with the neighbor girl 2 streets over! He has a special love for that beautiful country and the
wonderful people there (he is still in great contact with a lot of people over
there). We promised each other one day we’d go visit and so we decided why not
now!
Of
course we both put off packing until late Monday night! Blake worked a half day Tuesday. I went running and then spent the rest
of the day getting last minute things ready for the trip. We met at Pres and Sandy’s when he got
off and Scott took us to the airport.
Our first flight went to Detroit and then to Amsterdam. That flight was long and Blake and I
maybe slept a total of 1 hour, sleeping on a plane is impossible! Our last
flight took us to Berlin and wasn’t too long. Blake and I were so giddy when we finally got there and
didn’t feel sleepy at all. Blake
literally could not stop smiling because he was in heaven being back in
Germany.
We rode a taxi to our
hotel and Blake talked to the driver the whole way. His German came back in about 0.2 seconds and it was sooo
fun to hear him speaking his German!
We unloaded our bags, freshened up and hit the town. Blake found us the cutest LITTLE
hotel. They definitely know how to
use space well. Everything is mini
but it really is all you need! We
hadn’t eaten in ages so we rode a few trains, buses and underground subways to
get downtown. We ate dinner at a
little café in a high end clothing store (their version of Nordstroms). You paid by weight and we ended up
spending 35 Euros for just Blake and I to eat salad haha whoopsies! It was super yummy though! We headed to see the Brandenburg Bridge
after. It was so beautiful!
Another view a little further down the road
We walked around some parks and saw a
few other tourist sights. This is a monument to the Jewish victims from World War II, there are 2,711 blocks of concrete, each a different size and representing a different person.
We
passed a yogurt shop and they had sugar free so Pop and I just couldn’t pass it
up!
After we went to see the last
standing part of the Berlin Wall which also has a neat museum next to it. It’s so crazy to see something in
person that you’ve read about in books so many times!
Our last place we went to see was Check Point Charlie (where
the Americans were to help protect people trying to escape).
We caught our trains and buses back
home and our legs were sooo tired from all the walking. We got back to our very cozy little
room and scooted our awesome twin beds together so we could still cuddle.
It was a great first day of our
European adventure!
This morning Blake and I woke up at 5 and were ready to go but we didn’t
want to wake Pres and Sandy. We
knew we needed to sleep more or we’d pay for it later so we opened the shades
and windows and napped on and off while we watched the sunrise and listened to
the bustling city. We finally got
up around 7:30 and called Blake’s parents. After we all got ready we hit the streets in search of
breakfast. They have amazing
bakeries around every corner. The
one down from our hotel was AMAZING, the bread here is out of this world. We sat outside to eat and chatted for a
while. We caught a trolley (kinda
like trax) into downtown. The
public transport here is so cheap and sooo convenient! We went to see the Berlin Dome which is
amazing to see.
They have a
ton of museums here so we decided to visit a few (thanks to Sandy’s awesome
Rick Steve’s travel book we knew which to visit and where to spend our time in
each one) We went to the Neues
Museum first. They have the famous
bust of Nefertiti there. I have
seen that in so many books and it was really neat to see in person! (You can’t
take pictures there so I just got this online) We went to the German History Museum after. They have some really neat World War II
memorabilia there. The museums
were awesome but were super exhausting and we needed a break for a bit so we
went off in search of lunch.
We
ate at a nice little wrap store with table right along the Spree River, so
beautiful! After we decided to
take a boat tour on the river. It
was super relaxing and fun to see everything from the backside…..only downer
was the guide only spoke German haha so Blake was the only who knew what was
going on but we all still had fun!
We had our energy back so we hit another museum, the Pergamon. They had some amazing Greek artifacts
there and it was fascinating! We
were all museumed out and so we hit the town. We walked around Humbolt University campus. They had so many cute cafes and fun
shops all around. We stopped to
get a little treat for Blake and Pop that they’d been craving all day,
currywurst (yellow bratwurst covered in curry and ketchup). We ate at a little outdoor table
looking right at the Brandenburg Bridge.
Blake told me I had to try a bite because we were in Germany. I did and about died, definitely not a
brat girl! We sat and chatted
forever, it was a lovely evening.
We rode back home and then got dinner at a cute Italian place around the
corner from the hotel, all the food here is awesome! We just got up to our rooms and everyone has crashed except me. We pack lots into just one day but we’re
loving it. Tomorrow we leave
Berlin and head south to where Blake served his mission. I can’t wait to meet all the awesome
people I’ve heard so much about!
Still can’t believe we’re in Germany!
