September 2014

Today I went to check out Topography of Terrors.  It’s located on the same grounds as the Gestapo and SS were back during WW2 and houses a small park and exhibits of the things the Nazis did while they were in power.

In the park outside there is a section of the Berlin wall and just below that is an entire timeline of Warsaw throughout WW2.  The whole stretch covers just the impact on Warsaw and ...

Don’t worry, I had no idea what a Sheng was either and it sure is interesting to hear.  September 2-22 is Musicfest Berlin.  There are all sorts of musical events occurring around the city and one of them is lunchtime performances at the Berliner Philharmoniker (free).  Since they are free I decided to check it out.  After I got lost and asked for directions I finally found the building.  I then walked all the way ...

Since the weather was pretty crappy it was a good day to spend inside.  I figured I’d visit Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall Museum.  It wasn’t really what I expected.  Probably less than half of the museum was about the wall and the cold war.  The rest was about NATO and international relations during and after the cold war.  The exhibits covered all the way up to the war in Iraq.  Not really what I expected from a German ...

Today was a short day.  I was up late last night so I slept in a bit and decided to take it easy.  Once I got moving I headed over the check out the Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin.  My host suggested I go so I could see some early computers since I’m a computer nerd.  I spent the afternoon wandering around there.  The museum covers everything from train, planes, and boats, to textile manufacturing, communications, and computers.  There ...

Another great weather day (for the most part) so I was outside again.  I decided I’d check out Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof.  It’s basically an abandoned airport that has been turned into a giant park.  I was told you could actually get into the old terminal but I couldn’t find a way in.  I did wander around the airfield a bunch though.  I started off looking for a bicycle rental place but I couldn’t find one.  Instead I found a ...

Since the weather was great again today (actually slightly hot) I decided to spend it outside and wander through the Tiergarten.  It’s like Central Park and has multiple monuments and statues throughout it.  In the middle(ish) is the Victory Column.  I didn’t realize until I got to it that you could actually go into it and climb to the top.  It was a bit tricky to figure out how to get to it ...

Since I pretty much walked constantly the past two days I decided to take it easy today and then since the weather was nice I figured I’d check out the zoo.  I’ll spare you with a ton of pictures of animals but I’ll include some of the more interesting finds.

Other than the zoo it was a pretty uneventful day.  No train ride issues or getting lost.  I had a “sandwich” made with schnitzel for lunch (on the train since ...

Sleep was good!  I was so tired last night I fell asleep before I got to meet my host’s husband plus I slept in this morning although I set my alarm for 8AM.  I was well rested though and ready for a day of adventure.  I did some planing and figured I’d spend a day on the east side of town.  I wanted to check out Unter den Linden, Museuminsel, Berliner Dom, and Alexanderplatz.  I got all my stuff together ...

Overseas flights suck!

My flight leaving Tampa was fine.  In fact it even left early and arrived early.  My flight leaving Miami to Berlin was another story though.  Ticketing was just a mess.  I originally booked everything through US Air but because of their merger (or whatever it is with American Airlines) I was actually flying American to Miami and then AirBerlin to Berlin.  I had no information about my AirBerlin flight though.  The boarding pass they gave me in ...