Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Sunday July 10, 2005
So in the morning it was time to hit the streets. We went back to Checkpoint Charlie quickly so that Andrzej could pick up a teddy bear souvenier for his girlfriend. When we got there, there were these people in soldier uniforms in front of the checkpoint posing for pictures.
I got a picture of myself with them, too... but it's pretty blurry, so I won't post it here.
I figured that it was time for me to try out Trabi Safari... the tour where you get to drive a Trabant around Berlin! It sounded really fun. We went to the pickup place... but learned that we had to call and make an appointment. Okay... we would do Trabi Safari the next day. Meanwhile, I took some pictures of the Gendarmemarkt, which was used a barracks for the soldiers of Napolean, I believe:
So, we decided to move on. We went to Alexanderplatz, the main city square of the former East Berlin. The place was a big open space with not much to it.
I thought we would find food here, but we weren't really successful. So we returned to the Freidrichstrasse Station where we saw food the other day. We enjoyed our first döner kebaps in Germany. They are like gyros... but have lots of shredded cabbage and taste really good. They are the most popular take out food in Germany. I had NO IDEA what sort of meat was in these things, but it was still good.
The day was pretty hot, so we decided to take in a show at the AIR CONDITIONED planetarium. It was located farther into the former East Berlin, so it would be a chance to see a slightly less shiny part of the city. The show was in German and was nothing special. *shrug* Though the Zeiss projector in the middle of the planetarium was REALLY COOL LOOKING. I want one.
Afterwards, we returned to Alexanderplatz and then went up the Fernsehturm. It was a clear day and we could see pretty far from the tower's observation platform, 206 metres up.
So, then we decided to return to the Reichstag (German parliament building). It was getting on in the evening and we expected the place to be easier to get into. We were right! The huge line had faded away. Nevertheless, we still had to wait an hour to get into the building.
We had to pass an airport style metal detector and had to pass our backpacks through an X-Ray scanner before we could get in. From there, an elevator whisked us up to the roof, which we were free to roam around on. It getting close to sunset, and there were some nice views of the city.
The centre of the roof featured a large glass and steel dome (to symbolize the 'transparency of government'). There were large mirrors in the centre and spiraled ramps along the inside the edges to lead to another observation area near the top.
We came back down and left the Reichstag. Here's a picture of me JAYWALKING across the street RIGHT BESIDE the Reichstag. What a rebel.
It was time for a late dinner. We had a coupon for this Mexican food restaurant... it was time for Andrzej's first Mexican food. We had quesedillas. Andrzej also had his first WHEAT BEER. He greatly enjoyed it. He wanted more. Meanwhile, I had a beer with Fanta in it and another beer with Sprite in it. They were okay, but not as good as the lemonade beer.
Andrzej vowed to find more wheat beer the next day. He really wanted the Belgian beer Hoegaarden, if we could find it.
I got a picture of myself with them, too... but it's pretty blurry, so I won't post it here.
I figured that it was time for me to try out Trabi Safari... the tour where you get to drive a Trabant around Berlin! It sounded really fun. We went to the pickup place... but learned that we had to call and make an appointment. Okay... we would do Trabi Safari the next day. Meanwhile, I took some pictures of the Gendarmemarkt, which was used a barracks for the soldiers of Napolean, I believe:
So, we decided to move on. We went to Alexanderplatz, the main city square of the former East Berlin. The place was a big open space with not much to it.
I thought we would find food here, but we weren't really successful. So we returned to the Freidrichstrasse Station where we saw food the other day. We enjoyed our first döner kebaps in Germany. They are like gyros... but have lots of shredded cabbage and taste really good. They are the most popular take out food in Germany. I had NO IDEA what sort of meat was in these things, but it was still good.
The day was pretty hot, so we decided to take in a show at the AIR CONDITIONED planetarium. It was located farther into the former East Berlin, so it would be a chance to see a slightly less shiny part of the city. The show was in German and was nothing special. *shrug* Though the Zeiss projector in the middle of the planetarium was REALLY COOL LOOKING. I want one.
Afterwards, we returned to Alexanderplatz and then went up the Fernsehturm. It was a clear day and we could see pretty far from the tower's observation platform, 206 metres up.
So, then we decided to return to the Reichstag (German parliament building). It was getting on in the evening and we expected the place to be easier to get into. We were right! The huge line had faded away. Nevertheless, we still had to wait an hour to get into the building.
We had to pass an airport style metal detector and had to pass our backpacks through an X-Ray scanner before we could get in. From there, an elevator whisked us up to the roof, which we were free to roam around on. It getting close to sunset, and there were some nice views of the city.
The centre of the roof featured a large glass and steel dome (to symbolize the 'transparency of government'). There were large mirrors in the centre and spiraled ramps along the inside the edges to lead to another observation area near the top.
We came back down and left the Reichstag. Here's a picture of me JAYWALKING across the street RIGHT BESIDE the Reichstag. What a rebel.
It was time for a late dinner. We had a coupon for this Mexican food restaurant... it was time for Andrzej's first Mexican food. We had quesedillas. Andrzej also had his first WHEAT BEER. He greatly enjoyed it. He wanted more. Meanwhile, I had a beer with Fanta in it and another beer with Sprite in it. They were okay, but not as good as the lemonade beer.
Andrzej vowed to find more wheat beer the next day. He really wanted the Belgian beer Hoegaarden, if we could find it.
# posted by Rob Szumlakowski @ 9:00 a.m. 
