We caught an early train to Berlin. It was five hours with a changeover ... not exactly fun, but much better than driving!
Passed out at the train station ...
Asleep on the train ...
The train ride went very smooth, until we arrived at the Berlin station and I realized I left our tickets home on the train. After flipping out, like I tend to do in such situations, I was able to print them off at the hotel, and all was well. We took the afternoon easy, and kind of lounged around the room before going to grab dinner at a place call Augustiners. The food and the atmosphere were great, and the beers were huge.
Eli, making himself right at home in the king-sized bed ...
Our hotel pool was awesome. Eli LOVES the water. Dad and Reagan bought him a little baby raft that we can't wait to try out ...
Ready for a day at the Berlin Zoo ...
Our hotel was amazing. Very pretty, and also where they filmed The Bourne Supremacy! If we didn't have such a limited time in Berlin, I think we would have spent a couple days just lounging around the hotel!
Huge stairway ...
Outside of the hotel ... you can see a piece of the Berlin wall that they have on display ...
Every touristy shop has pieces of the wall that you can purchase, and different trinkets with chunks inside them. My question is ... how do you know that it's really the Berlin Wall?? How much of this wall can really be remaining? At what point will they be filling these trinkets with random pieces of concrete that they shipped in from Detroit or something? Just a thought ...
We spent our first full day at the Berlin Zoo.
The zoo was awesome, and we saw some animals that we didn't even know existed!
The next day Reagan had some business meetings, so Vic and I got up early and walked around until we found cool stuff.
This guy woke up at 5 am every morning, but managed to fall right back to sleep in our bed ...
This is the German cathedral in the Gendarmenmarkt - which is a huge square.
Also in the Gendarmenmarkt is this huge concert house ...
On the stairs of the concert house ...
After the Gendarmenmarkt we wandered around to find a McDonald's and ended up in the Checkpoint Charlie area.
Posing with the 'guard' ... I love Eli's face on this picture - he's having so much fun!
We found our McDonald's, and it was one of the coolest I have ever been in ... and, thanks to my dad, I have been in a lot of McDonald's. They had these machines where you could put your own order in, and pay ... once we were done, it was waiting for us at the counter. So cool.
The whole place was decorated like this, and the chairs were amazing ...
Germans aren't big on breakfast. If you're eating before 11:00, it will likely include a croissant, coffee and maybe some lunch meat type thing. McDonald's is the only place we have found that you can get American breakfast food. We ate there about 10 times during this vacation, which is more than Vic has probably ate McDonald's in his whole life.
Walking out of the Checkpoint Charlie area ...
View back onto the Checkpoint Charlie area ... the other side of the sign is a picture of a Soviet soldier. Pretty cool.
Pieces of the wall that have been salvaged, re-painted and displayed ...
Weird ...
Not sure what it represents, but it was massive.
Communication Museum ...
An eight million dollar Bugatti ... Vic was in love ...
We met up with my dad and Reagan, and headed towards the Brandenburg Gate area. I know this is the most touristy area of Berlin, but I was not prepared for how crazy it would be. There were so many tourist traps, and weird street vendors trying to make money ...
Like this man. Yeah, that's a real man covered in sand ...
Picture of the gate ... it was very cool. And huge.
Another weirdo walking around the gate area. I'm not sure what Predator has to do with Germany or the gate, but you could get your photo with him if you wanted!
Another shot of the gate ...
The fourth floor middle balcony is where Michael Jackson dangled his baby in front of the crowd of people ... love it ...
Poppy and Eli!
He had such a great time with my dad and Regan ... we need more visitors!!!
On our last night, dad and Reagan watched Eli so Vic and I could go out - which was awesome! We went back to Augustiners - where Vic ordered this ...
That's a knuckle of pork ... and he ate the whole thing.
Vacation was great, and it was so good to be around family ... and ... for someone to finally meet Eli! Seriously ... brothers, sisters, cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends ... when are you going to have another opportunity to come to Germany, stay for free AND have your own personal tour guides!? Get your asses here. Now.
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