To Berlin!

The road to Berlin was long, but it flew by at mind-boggling speed as we zipped across the German countryside. John definitely loves driving, and what a place to do so! We only got held up for a while during some construction, but otherwise it was an uneventful drive. Once we got close to Berlin, however, John asked me, "So, you wrote down the name and address of our hotel right?" To which, I blanched and slowly turned to him to reply, "Uhh... no? I thought you did that..." Fortunately, we remembered the street that the hotel was on, and so, the hunt for our mystery hotel began!

We stopped at the first hotel we came upon, and I ran in to ask if our names were on the reservation list, praying that the receptionist spoke english. And wouldn't you know it, by some stroke of SHEER luck, we'd found our hotel on our first guess! What are the odds?! We weren't up for doing much but having dinner, so we crashed early.

Jason, smacking himself for forgetting to write down the name of the hotel.

Amber, clowning around at dinner.

Some butter I accidentally dropped into the candle when trying to soften it.

We set out early the next morning, hoping to squeeze as many activities into our day as possible. We fairly quickly figured out the subway system, and mapped out a few key sites that Amber had done some research on and figured would be worth checking out while we were in town. Obviously we could spend WEEKS in Berlin and still not besatisfied, so we decided that just a select few would be good enough for now, and give us an excuse to come back again someday!

Bear Hug!

We wandered along the river towards the Reichstag, or Parlaiment Building. The Brandenburger Tor was beautiful, in a square near where a section of the Berlin wall once stood. We meandered over towards Parlaiment, and decided it might be cool to go inside and head to the top, where there's an amazing view out of the dome. Plus, parlaiment was currently in session, and that could be interesting as well. But apparently, everyone else had this idea as well, and after about 45 minutes of waiting in line, we gave up and headed for our next destination.v

The Parlaiment Building overlooking the river.

What a bunch a' troublemakers!

Some of Berlin's beautiful architecture.

Ditto.

The Brandenburger Tor

When lost, we consulted this sewer drain cover for directions.

The Parlaiment Building

These were some extremely creepy performers, all controlling a very large marionette-esque doll that would walk around and dance with people. VERY strange.

John figured that, if the view from Parlaiment was out, what better way to get a nice glimpse of Berlin than from the "TV Tower," Berlin's tallest building, which has a rotating restaurant at the very peak. So, we got ourselves an audiotour, and ate lunch while learning some about the history of the area around the Tower. Berlin's not a very *tall* city, so from the top of the tower, we were able to see for countless miles in every direction, and it was quite breathtaking!

The TV Tower

Lunch in the Clouds!

One of a hundred beautiful views from the top of the tower.

The Berliner Dom, a church.

Chillin'. Ohhhh yeah.

A face only a mother could love.

Unfortunately, our next stop was just as much of a bust as the Parlaiment building, because the Berlin Guggenheim Museum was apparently closed for renovations. So, we decided to head to a different gallery, the New National Gallery, which was a treat. It had on display many beautiful and reknowned paintings, including some masterpieces of some of the more famous artists of the Impressionist, Neo-Impressionist, Modernist, and many other artistic movements. I could tell Amber really wanted to spend a lot of time in there, but it was a modestly sized gallery, and we were able to see most of the works before we'd gotten hungry and decided to continue on our way.

We wandered around the city for a while, enjoying some Bratwurst and other local cuisine, before heading back to the hotel and turning in.

John nearly jumped out of his skin when this sign next to him scrolled suddenly.

We saw some awesome cars on display at the Bentley dealership in a Car Mall. Yes, a shopping mall, full of car dealerships.

Another zippy ride.

"I want that."

The New National Gallery

John dwarfed by a Lego Giraffe at the Lego Learning Center

The Sony Center, a plaza completely covered by a very cool roof.

"Nothing satisfies my thirst like an ice cold Shwip Schwap! Ahhhh!"

I could not pronounce this street name in the morning, by night, I think I could have managed. It's funny what you pick up after only a day!

The next day, Amber and I were really interested in seeing the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, or Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, in central West-Berlin. This church was mostly destroyed during World War II, and a new church was erected around its ruins, symbolizing Berlin's resolve to rebuild after all the horrible destruction. It was really a sight to see, and we really appreciated the contrast between the archaic and the modern.

While we were in the area, Amber was really anxious to explore the Breitscheidplatz, which is apparently one of the hottest shopping spots in Berlin. It was very posh, but we had fun wandering along the streets and observing all of the different european fashions.

A cool statue near the Kaiser Wilhelm Church.

The old Kaiser Wilhelm Church.

The New Kaiser Wilhelm Church.

Knowing that we have a million things we'd like to do on this vacation, we didn't plan on spending too much time in Berlin. I'd love to come back here sometime and truly explore all of the museums and art galleries with Amber, but for now, our overview served to give us a tempting taste of the Berlin culture and history.

It's been a long couple of days, but also an amazing experience. Now it's time to rest up for a day or two before our next adventure. We might go to visit Neuschwanstein, or explore the Rheine countryside, as our next excursion, but we want to be back in K'town for the 4th of July, not only because there will be a big celebration at John's base, but because we want to see Transformers: The Movie :) I know. Geeeeeks!

Stay tuned!

Mehlbach and Kaiserslautern

Well, we took a day to fart around John's village and get over our jet lag, and then head into Kaiserslautern (pronounced Kaiser's Lautern) to take care of a few errands before REALLY jumping into the fun activities.

The village of Mehlbach

Mehlbach is the most amazingly quaint village; it's so quiet you can hear the cows mooing from the neighboring countryside, and the birds chirping all day long. There's hardly ever anyone around, save the occaisonal speed demon whizzing through town, or here and there an older man or woman tending a garden. It's quite peaceful. And as a result, there's really... nothing to do! There's a local shop with *delicious* pastries, and we were sure to take advantage of that.

Don't they look like best friends?!

The City of Kaiserslautern

We drove into Kaiserslautern to register John's driver's license as an international license, so we will be able to drive into France and Switzerland. At the registry, John went up to the door marked "Drücken" and pulled on it, and was astonished that the door seemed to be locked, and the office closed! After much cursing and sighing, a German man who had been watching us nonchalantly went up to the door, pushed on it, and walked in as the door swung open. All I could imagine was how hard it must have been for that guy to watch John struggle with the door without cracking up. Yep! That's John for ya! :)

John, defeated by a door marked "Push"

One of the coolest things I've found so far about Germany is how energy efficient and conscious everyone is. All along the countryside as we drove along, we passed countless windpower farms, and gigantic windmills silently whirling in the breeze. For some reason, they mesmerize me, and I find them fascinating.

The Silent Giants

Also, people here drive like there's no tomorrow; John will often get passed on the highway, while going 110mph himself! Madness. No wonder Germans build such good cars, they have to last the beating these people put them through!

Next: Berlin!

Oops

Sorry if anyone was unable to post comments before. You should be able to now!

The Arrival

We have arrived!

After a day full of farewells and me saying, "Hurry up, Amber, we're going to be late," my sister and I were finally prepared to begin our voyage. Kat drove us to Logan, and we boarded our plane without a hitch.

Amber and I, at Logan Airport

Goodbye Cape Cod!

Sunrise over the Atlantic.

The first flight to Manchester was blissfully uneventful, but despite it being an overnight trip, Amber and I did not sleep a wink. Perhaps it was the anticipation, or perhaps it was our own nocturnal natures, but we were still wide awake and enthusiastic when we arrived. Upon our decent, the pilot said over the loudspeaker, "And we're making our final descent into Manchester now; the weather is a nice 53 degrees, with overcast skies and a cold drizzle." All I could think was, "Way to reinforce the stereoptype, U.K.!"

Now, I had a vision in my head of how transferring to our Lufthansa flight would go, and it seemed very simple to me. Get off. Get new boarding pass. Get on plane. Done. But is it ever that simple? Apparently Manchester airport is either the most horribly unprofessional establishment in England, or they were all just having a really off day. We were herded down a corridor when we disembarked, and were met by a squirrely, cross-eyed old man, who, instead of handing out boarding passes as I was hoping he would, was instead giving people vague directions as to where they were supposed to go to inquire about getting their new boarding passes. The several people in front of us were given directions like, "Take this hallway all the way, then turn left," or, "go up the stairs and through the door," but we were lucky enough to have actual printed tickets which we had delivered beforehand, so he took special interest in us. Instead of struggling to send us off to become someone else's problem, he conferred with a very confused looking lady behind a desk, and she proceeded to let us through a security checkpoint after scanning our bags. I swear it was the first time she'd ever done this. After gathering our things and rolling our eyes, we walked through a door and were immediately lost. We followed some signs for Transfers, and eventually found our way to a desk with a bunch of people in a queue. We waited in this line for a few minutes, before really noticing that the only person behind the desk was on the phone, and the rest of the people in the office behind the desk were studiously avoiding eye-contact with any of us in line. Ahh, Britain. After some of us started getting upset, a squat little man with way too much energy popped out of nowhere and proceeded to try and help everyone all at once, which was hilarious. He grabbed our passports and tickets, put them behind the desk, and then proceeded to vanish with another customer down a hallway, and we didn't see him for a good 15 minutes. It was around now that we started getting alarmed, because our flight was set to board in less than half an hour, and some of the other customers had already wandered off in search of someone to yell at. Finally, the little man returned, and proceeded to tell us that his Lufthansa computer was broken, so he'd have to call the airline to get us transferred. Beautiful. The best part of this was that he had to hand-write our boarding passes, which I was positive would cause some sort of problem.

Yes, that is a hand-written boarding pass. *rolls eyes*

But, lo and behold, we were let on the plane, and were able to relax again. That is, until the turbulence. Allow me to retype that: That is, until the Turbulence. I don't know if it was the constant jarring, the almost being tossed out of my seat, or the ladies behind us ghasping in terror, but Amber and I both came within inches of getting sick on that flight. After what seemed like hours, we finally set down in Frankfurt, battered, nauseous, tired, and about ready to collapse then and there.

Fortunately, our bags arrived right about when we did, so we were able to put all this business behind us, as we finally met up with my best friend, John, who we're staying with now. It's a good thing my phone was working too, because he was waiting about as far away from where we exited the airport as he could possibly have been.

It felt good to sit in a comfy car seat again, and let John escort us back to his house in Meilbach, a village outside of Kaiserslautern. Of course, it would have been simpler if he hadn't gotten lost. I guess it was all the excitement of having two practically comatose passengers that had John so distracted that he missed exit after exit, requiring us to backtrack down twisting roads, in the rain, while dodging in and out of traffic moving at 100MPH to get back on track. Whew! What a ride!

John, trying to find out where we are on his hacked GPS.

This sign made me giggle. Hey, I was tired.

John's house! Lucky number 17.

Finally, we arrived, and not a moment too soon. It was about 2:30 local time, and Amber and I were beat. John gave us the tour, but it was clear we weren't quite with it, so he elected to just give us some sheets and send us to bed.

What a day! It's so nice to finally be here in Germany. The village is exactly as I'd imagined it, and John's house is great, with the exception of the plumbing... yeah, don't ask! Tomorrow, we're going to investigate the local village, and try and figure out if John can drive in France and Switzerland using his German driver's license.

And now, back to sleep! Still on East Coast time, gah!

The Journey Begins

Hello everyone! I made this blog to document my trip to Europe, in this fine summer of 2007. Please leave me some comments, and be sure to check back regularly, as I'll be posting lots of fun photos of my adventures.

It is currently Sunday, June 24th at 12:13am as I write this, and my trip will begin later today. My sister and I will fly out of Logan Airport here in Boston, heading for Manchester, England, where we'll grab a connecting flight to Germany, to meet John. John is my best friend, who is currently serving the in Air Force, stationed just outside of Kaiserslautern, Germany. He has a house to himself, and is quite lonely, what with being thousands of miles from his friends and family, so Amber (my sister) and I figured this would be a great opportunity not only to go and cheer him up and keep him company, but to explore Europe, a place that neither of us have ever traveled.

My one regret is that Katherine, my fiancée, will be unable to accompany us; sadly, she doesn't have very much vacation time, and she and I both agreed that it's better spent going to visit her family in California, which she will do in a couple of weeks while I'm away.

Well, I'm about halfway packed now, and it's getting late, so I should get to sleep. My next post will be after arrival in Germany, so check back in a day or two!