Reichstag

Hello everyone! Sorry I havent been posting, there hasnt been much internet access or time lately. We're in Sheffield with my moms cousins! Having a great time here and Adrian and Christine are so kind.

To try to catch up im just going to be doing a quick description of the day and then a photo dump. This is all on my phone so the formattings not much to speak of, but it is what it is.

So in our last full day in Berlin we spent the morning in the Reichstag building, grabbed lunch and saw a protest in paris platz, then spent the rest of the day in the museum across the river from museum island by the general war memorial, where we saw one of the oldest remaining globe maps and learned a whole ton of history. Then we ended the day by going to a delishious ramen shop, where I had some fantastic tonkatsu, an interesting ginger lemonade thing, and some sake.

Flying Pigs

On November 3rd we hopped on a train to Amsterdam, to check in at our hostel called the Flying Pig, apparently for the projectile winged pigs that have repeatedly crashed through their lounge roof (see picture below.) After we checked in and dropped off our stuff, we took a walk around the huge park just outside the hostel, where we got to experience Amsterdam's insane bicyclists, and "creative" art structures (see creepy child statue under bridge photo.)

When it started to get dark we headed back to the pub and asked the receptionist if she had any recommendations for nice pubs in the area. She sent us to a really out-of-the-way place, with great food and a fantastic waterfront view. Highly recommend.

We didnt eat a lot at the pub so we decided to get more food. We ended up at a kinda meh kebab type store, but it had some crazy calzones. I got one shaped like a fish.

We then called it a night and walked home, during which time I saw a Tesla store!!! :DDDD

These are basically whoppers, but they taste like, 5x better. Kit kats in England taste better too. :P

Apparently their streetlights have reflectores on the tops to reflect all the light back down?? Theyre really cool and super efficient. Literally everywhere we went was ridiculously well lit.

Kaiser Willhelm church

So today was a pretty quiet day. We decided to head through the park in the middle of Berlin - which is apparently bigger than NYC's Central Park - to visit a church on the other side. The church had been destroyed during the war, and in a large part, after some restorations, was left that way. A new church was built next to it and the existing structure is now used mostly as a memorial, and a symbol of peace and forgiveness.

This tea we had in the morning was AMAZING.

First we stopped by the Reichstag building to see if we could get into the walkway winding around the clear dome that tops it - symbolizing the transparency of the government and oversight of the people. It turns out we need to make a reservation for it, so we got a ticket, which apparently comes in the form of a formal letter.

We are now officially welcomed to the building at 9:30 am tomorrow

The walk through the park was beautiful, and especially fun with the leaves changing color all around. What? Seasons? I'm from california, we don't have those.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood....

"Andrea, what's your favorite season?" "Fall!!! :DDDDD"

Walking through the leaves

This monument is at almost the very center of the park. There's a viewing platform on top.

After a long walk and a bit of lunch we reached the church!

beautiful architecture

These mosaics were fantastic.

The cracks left in the ceiling are fascinating.

The clocks on this building actually still work, amazingly enough.

We also visited the inside of the new church, which looks pretty strange from the outside as a kind of cinder block facade. But it has quite an effect on the inside.

Glass tiles cover the entire wall

I think this is about a third of the size of the original church?

More sections of the new construction from the outside

We got a snack in the nearby plaza, where I found a really interesting fountain, as well as a really cool public space area

Sulfuric Acid at the bottom? H2SO4

We took a bus back and wandered through an art market, which had really good quality and beautiful art. I spent way too much money there. Finally we decided to grab a cup of tea and head home.

My tea was more expensive than a cappuccino. And, of course, a "cup of tea" will obviously lead to cake as well.

Tomorrow we're visiting the Reichstag and going through a museum, and we'll see where we go from there.