Thanksgiving Vacation 2012 - Berlin Day One.

This year our annual family Thanksgiving vacation was a trip to Paris, France. Each year we take turns on where to go for this trip. This was my sister's turn and she had chosen the Maldives, a small, tropical island chain that is expected to be under water within a 100 years. Well, somehow that trip got changed to this Paris trip that I wanted to take. My sister, brother and his wife went to Paris before I started going with them on these overseas adventures. So now I'll have to wait four more years to choose our next destination, which as of now will be Santiago, Chile with a side trip to Easter Island.

I had options to travel to Paris. I could have used frequent flyer miles to travel for free, but my sister was able to get me free tickets on all legs of the trip but one and in business or first class! How nice. And as an added bonus I got to travel with her on a side trip to Berlin, Germany. So one day in Berlin and then we would meet up with our brother and his wife in Paris for three days. We had planned another day trip to Luxembourg, since it was a short distance by train from Paris, but it turns out that it is also very expensive, so that trip was scrapped, leaving Luxembourg for another day.

We left San Diego Saturday morning and jetted off to Washington DC for a short layover. Then the overseas flight to Frankfurt. Flying in business class on these trans-Atlantic flights is nice because you get plenty of food and the seats have lots of leg room for sitting and sleeping. However, with the flight being only seven hours, by the time they get done feeding you, there is only about four hours left in the flight, and they wake you for breakfast 90 minutes before landing. So you only have three hours to try to get some sleep, and I was lucky to get about two hours. From Frankfurt we transferred to Berlin and got to our hotel by 11:30 AM on Sunday and were then ready to explore the city by noon on very little sleep.

Our hotel was located in a historic part of Berlin. There were remnants of the Berlin Wall right outside our hotel as well as the Berlin Wall Trail. We had an idea of what to see, and thought about getting tickets for a hop-on-hop-off bus that would take us too many of the important sights, but it turned out we walked to most of these sights. Our first stop was the Checkpoint Charlie museum. We followed the Berlin Wall Trail, stopping along the way to take photos. Most of the original wall is gone, and there are many small sections that are on display and many have been painted by various artists. We did pass by one of the longest remaining sections of the wall, which sat between a busy street and the Museum of Terror.

From there we found the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in an area that was very busy for a Sunday afternoon in November. It was also very touristy and there were people asking for money, which is really annoying. I made sure my wallet was safe from thieves. Once inside the museum I really didn't know what to expect. It was made up of many small rooms on three floors, and each room had a theme. The most crowded room was also the most interesting. It had many artifacts from when people were trying to escape from East to West Berlin, such as a suitcase that was used to carry a women across the border. It had the stories of these escapes written on the walls in four languages. I found it hard to read them because of all the distractions from the people walking around.

So we continued on to other rooms and floors. Not all rooms were dedicated to Checkpoint Charlie. One room was all about Ronald Reagan and his famous "tear down this wall" speech. Other rooms had paintings of the "Arab Spring" from 2011. After more than an hour we left the warm museum and returned to the cold streets. There was lots to see on the streets in the area, and we spent some more time taking photos of decorated Berlin Wall pieces. Then we walked back to the hotel to take a short break.

After our break we headed out the other direction from the hotel. Our first destination was the Brandenburg Gate. This area too was very busy and now there were tour buses everywhere too. Down the street from the  gate was a pedestrian walkway that was lined with trees lit with white lights. They were getting ready for Christmas and more lights were be strung up as the day went on. Since we didn't use the tour buses we ended up doing lots of walking. We were headed to the Berliner Dom, which we could see from a distance (or a landmark near it), but it took a long time to get there, partly because there was some event going on and the police had the road and once side of the sidewalk closed. There were near 100 police and dozens of police cars and vans. We didn't know what was going on, but eventually we made it passed the closed section and to the Dom.

We weren't sure what was in the church, probably just that same stuff that's in all Cathedrals in Europe. Once inside we did see the usual displays of religious art and sculptors, stained glass windows, organ pipes and of course the painted dome at the ceiling. After walking around we found the entrance to the steps leading up to the top of the dome. We weren't sure how far up they went, but we were happy that there were 270 steps that went all the way to the top where you were on the outside of the church dome and could walk entirely around to get a full view of the city. Unfortunately it was cloudy and hazy outside, so views were limited, but it was still worth the climb to see Berlin from above.

We then walked back down the steps and continued the self guided tour to the basement where the crypts were located. This was a much bigger area of crypts that usual. We wandered around for about ten minutes before leaving the Dom and walking back to the hotel. By now the police activity and ended and all the streets were open. We stopped by the building that seemed to be the center of the activity, and inside was a large room with a small statue in the center, which was surrounded by newly laid wreaths. There just had been a ceremony where foreign dignitaries had visited the site and laid the wreaths, apparently a common event. We encountered the same situation later in Paris.

By now it was getting dark Berlin is pretty far north, and the Sun sets near four in the Winter. As it got darker the Christmas lights shined more brightly, making the mode more festive. The Brandenburg Gate was also lit up, making for more photo opportunities.

Our plan was to go back near our hotel and get some Gluhwine form the not-quite-open Christmas market. The market was opening the next day but they were already selling the hot wine which we first discovered in Vienna two years before. The hot drink tasted good in the cold, but since we were so sleep deprived and tired, the alcohol took effect quickly. So we went back to the hotel for dinner. We had access to the private lounge where they had a full dinner buffet available for free. The food all tasted good and after two beers I was about ready for bed. I had thoughts of going back outside, but was glad that I returned to my room. It didn't take long before I crawled into bed and got some much needed sleep.

We didn't leave for Paris until later the next evening, so we still had a half day left in Berlin and  planned to make the most of our time the next day.