And then we took Berlin!

Its been a whirlwind trip here in the big city of Berlin! There is certainly a lot to do and see in this city. Although most of the buildings are from various ages of Germany and Berlin's turbulent history. It certainly has a more immediate feel of what has happened here in this city. After the fall of the wall in November of 1990, there are still amazing stories and monuments to what happened in this city not all that long ago. The city has become fully modernized, and has its fair share of North American chain stores but there are also the unique monuments to this city's past such as Checkpoint Charlie. When you walk into the museum and see the wall (there is a small section of it still standing), you get a real sense of what happened here. Our tour guide spoke vividly about their experiences when the wall fell, and it made the past really come alive. Also we drove to Potsdam, for those who aren't familiar with the history, this is where Stalin, Churchill, and Truman decided how Europe was to be split up. We were in the very room where the three superpowers met that eventually gave rise to the Cold War. A thrilling feeling! In the same area are the great palaces of Frederich the Great who built some tremendous buildings in this scenic location.

From Berlin we travelled to Dresden to see the sights of this wonderful little city. It has a small square in old town which has a beautiful protestant church and beautiful gardens and museum. We had a short time there to have lunch and shop and then we made our way back onto the bus to drive to Prague. Can't wait till we arrive there! It is one of our most anticipated stops on this tour. BTW we have made some nice friends from Toronto, who are on this trip as well, and we've been hanging out on the trip. I'll post Berlin Pics soon and you'll have to check back to be sure you have seen all the pics. I'll keep posting!