This morning I spent several hours preparing for the rest of our Germany trip. I wanted to refer to Nate's family genealogy. As I went on ancestry.com I was able to find info about Granda Elouise's, who is still alive, grandfather. He was from Brandenburg which is right outside Berlin. There were some "clues" sent to me about him from ancestry.com and when I went to the records they sent, it showed info about his baptism and that it had happened in Berliner Dom. Well, that is where we went last night for a short service. It was the church where I had really felt a spirit there and had the three amazing paintings on glass depicting Christ's life. We had heard the organ played there last night and it was so beautiful and how strange to thing that back on March 1, 1845 Otto Hermann Priwer was baptized there 175 years ago. What an awesome thing to uncover this morning. It was so cool to be in a place that marked a significant moment in the early years of his life.
I spent the rest of the morning getting our game plan and discovered AutoStadt which looks really cool and is a huge VW Complex- almost like a theme park for car and design enthusiasts. We decided we needed to leave Berlin early tomorrow to get there and check it out and then make it to Walsrode, where the world's biggest bird park is by nightfall. We plan to hit the Bird Park and then make our way down to Frankfurt to go the LDS Temple on Sat afternoon and then get in the vicinity of Bamburg, Bavaria where Elouise's other grandfather was from and had a glass business there and visit a couple spots that might still be there where Elouise's mother might have grown up and where her father lived. We will make it to Stuttgart and visit Mercedes and Audi Museums and then to castles in Bavaria and then Munich.
Today was going to be a great day using the ebikes. We took in a lot of history the past couple of days and got a little heavy with such a focus on the darkness of the Nazi and Soviet regime. We decided we would visit the Zoo which is supposed to be the largest in Europe. That involved riding through a huge park in the middle of the city lines with paths that weave through the woods. We had a lunch spot scoped out too and enjoyed pizza and chicken and salad by a little lake in the park. But first we the park popped out onto a major intersection that we have seen throughout the week here that is almost like our Washington monument, where you can see it from many parts of the city, The Berlin Victory Column. It stands in the center of a 5 way intersection and is a beautiful column noting victories of Germany's past with Victoria, gilded statue again symbolizing victory, atop. We walked up the inside of the column to a viewing area which had mosaic murals depicting victories and then climbed the few hundred winding steps to the top and was awarded a great view of the city. Back on the bikes we stopped for lunch a bit later at a great little spot by a lake.
We made it to the Zoo around 2 p.m. The zoo had a grand gate and of course we rent almost directly to the bird park. The zoo felt like we were in the middle of gardens and had for the most part great animal enclosures which felt very natural. We saw everything and I think my best zoo experience ever. Sam loved the birds, although sad not to be able to hold any. but we easily spent an hour and a half looking at their huge variety of birds from around the world. We loved looking at the primates and were totally entertained by 4 HUGE gorillas that came out right when we walked up. We also couldn't believe the giant anteater, one of the coolest and strangest animals I have ever seen. We loved seeing these almost sloth like Orangoutangs which had this crazy long hair and huge hands and nails and swung around like it was in slow motion. They were awesome. We spent over 3 hours at the zoo and then tried to shoot over to the Charlottenburg Palace before it closed. Unfortunately we missed the last entry but we walked around the beautiful gardens and grounds.
On our way back towards our hotel we stopped at a little outdoor cafe on the corner in a Hansel and Grettel looking cabin in a park and had crepes. Just a perfectly charming spot. We pedaled up the big shopping street by where we had dinner the other night on Kurfurstendamm. Fun to bike past the shops, like we were on 5th Avenue and we ended at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It is really beautiful in the way that the remains of the bombed out church, which was hit in a bomb raid in 1943, has been cleaned up but left in what locals call " The Hollow Tooth" It is an iconic symbol and actually has a Memorial inside of it and a church which has been con temporized. It is surrounded by some modern structures which I believe also cover ruined remains.
We cycled back to the Ritz where we have been staying and stopped by Starbucks to grab some drinks in the Sony Center- huge modern complex and outdoor dining area next to the hotel. It has been bustling with the upcoming international soccer match that is here this weekend.
We took the opportunity to get to our hotel early tonight, meaning 9 p.m. since every night it doesn't get dark until around 10:30 and we haven't gone to bed before midnight since we arrived in Berlin. Just finishing up with our blogs around 11:30 p.m. Tonight we need to get some sleep. Big day of driving and Autostadt and maybe even bird park. Loved Berlin and could spend another couple days here, but time to see the rest of Germany. So glad we had bikes, which took the place of cabs and allowed us to get everywhere all over Berlin. Thanks to the Ritz for providing those for us.
I spent the rest of the morning getting our game plan and discovered AutoStadt which looks really cool and is a huge VW Complex- almost like a theme park for car and design enthusiasts. We decided we needed to leave Berlin early tomorrow to get there and check it out and then make it to Walsrode, where the world's biggest bird park is by nightfall. We plan to hit the Bird Park and then make our way down to Frankfurt to go the LDS Temple on Sat afternoon and then get in the vicinity of Bamburg, Bavaria where Elouise's other grandfather was from and had a glass business there and visit a couple spots that might still be there where Elouise's mother might have grown up and where her father lived. We will make it to Stuttgart and visit Mercedes and Audi Museums and then to castles in Bavaria and then Munich.
Today was going to be a great day using the ebikes. We took in a lot of history the past couple of days and got a little heavy with such a focus on the darkness of the Nazi and Soviet regime. We decided we would visit the Zoo which is supposed to be the largest in Europe. That involved riding through a huge park in the middle of the city lines with paths that weave through the woods. We had a lunch spot scoped out too and enjoyed pizza and chicken and salad by a little lake in the park. But first we the park popped out onto a major intersection that we have seen throughout the week here that is almost like our Washington monument, where you can see it from many parts of the city, The Berlin Victory Column. It stands in the center of a 5 way intersection and is a beautiful column noting victories of Germany's past with Victoria, gilded statue again symbolizing victory, atop. We walked up the inside of the column to a viewing area which had mosaic murals depicting victories and then climbed the few hundred winding steps to the top and was awarded a great view of the city. Back on the bikes we stopped for lunch a bit later at a great little spot by a lake.
We made it to the Zoo around 2 p.m. The zoo had a grand gate and of course we rent almost directly to the bird park. The zoo felt like we were in the middle of gardens and had for the most part great animal enclosures which felt very natural. We saw everything and I think my best zoo experience ever. Sam loved the birds, although sad not to be able to hold any. but we easily spent an hour and a half looking at their huge variety of birds from around the world. We loved looking at the primates and were totally entertained by 4 HUGE gorillas that came out right when we walked up. We also couldn't believe the giant anteater, one of the coolest and strangest animals I have ever seen. We loved seeing these almost sloth like Orangoutangs which had this crazy long hair and huge hands and nails and swung around like it was in slow motion. They were awesome. We spent over 3 hours at the zoo and then tried to shoot over to the Charlottenburg Palace before it closed. Unfortunately we missed the last entry but we walked around the beautiful gardens and grounds.
On our way back towards our hotel we stopped at a little outdoor cafe on the corner in a Hansel and Grettel looking cabin in a park and had crepes. Just a perfectly charming spot. We pedaled up the big shopping street by where we had dinner the other night on Kurfurstendamm. Fun to bike past the shops, like we were on 5th Avenue and we ended at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It is really beautiful in the way that the remains of the bombed out church, which was hit in a bomb raid in 1943, has been cleaned up but left in what locals call " The Hollow Tooth" It is an iconic symbol and actually has a Memorial inside of it and a church which has been con temporized. It is surrounded by some modern structures which I believe also cover ruined remains.
We cycled back to the Ritz where we have been staying and stopped by Starbucks to grab some drinks in the Sony Center- huge modern complex and outdoor dining area next to the hotel. It has been bustling with the upcoming international soccer match that is here this weekend.
We took the opportunity to get to our hotel early tonight, meaning 9 p.m. since every night it doesn't get dark until around 10:30 and we haven't gone to bed before midnight since we arrived in Berlin. Just finishing up with our blogs around 11:30 p.m. Tonight we need to get some sleep. Big day of driving and Autostadt and maybe even bird park. Loved Berlin and could spend another couple days here, but time to see the rest of Germany. So glad we had bikes, which took the place of cabs and allowed us to get everywhere all over Berlin. Thanks to the Ritz for providing those for us.
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