Guten Tag von Berlin

We had a full, fun, interesting, and informative day in Berlin!  This morning our flight from Amsterdam arrived in Berlin at 9:30 am and we took a bus from the airport into town to our (really nice and very comfortable) hostel. There is a small cafe at our hostel, so we enjoyed a bite to eat there before we headed out to the Deutsches Historisches (German Historical) Museum.  We found the weather today to be a bit overcast and windy (but no rain, nice), so we layered up for the chilly breeze and toughed it out.

Everyone was really dragging and worn out from traveling, but it was still interesting learning more about German history, especially for most (I think) the more recent Nazi era in the 30s and 40s and the divided East and West Berlin during communism.  One of the things that I enjoyed today was seeing some of our students present to the group on topics that they had studied and prepared before the trip. While at the museum, Maddy presented about the Trabant car (often called Trabby for short) and what it meant to East Germans during communism.  It really is facinating learning more about such an unbelievable time in world history, for sure.

After the museum, we took a walk down Alexanderplatz and Karl-Marx-Allee, two significant boulevards in East Berlin history.  We also stopped at historical Cafe Sybille for eine tasse caffe oder heisse schokolade mit sahne (a cup of coffee or hot chocolate with whipped cream) and the important journaling component to CFE week. Some of the girls tried out ordering their drink in German after a short (10 second) language lesson from Mrs. Johnson. During our afternoon of learning about Berlin history, lead by the very knowledgable Mr. Johnson, Trenton presented to the group about the Stasi.  

The last major stop of our CFE day #1 was at a Berlin Wall memorial and park where we got to see preserved pieces of the wall, read plaques explaining the various memorials in the park, and got to hear more about things that happened on either side of the wall in the very much divided city.  Kalli presented to the group more about the Berlin Wall while at the memorial.  All three presenters today did a great job, and I look forward to hearing more presentations as our trip takes us to other wonderful and historical European cities. 

For dinner, most of us had some kind of German Wurst (bratwurst) - the popular variety I had tonight is called Curry Wurst - bratwurst lightly sprinkled with curry spice.  I also had kartofflsalat mit mayonaise - good old German-style potato salad. Others had pommes frites (french fries) sprinkled with paprika - a spice often used in Germany on various foods. A tasty meal!  You'll have to quiz your son or daughter on all the new foods they tried while away after we get back home. :)

We ended the evening in various ways - exploring some of the shops nearby our hostel, hanging out at the hostel playing cards, relaxing, showering (which felt great after a long day of travel), and of course, finally hitting the hay! We're hoping jet lag doesn't hit anyone in the group too terribly hard.

Here are some photos from our day - enjoy!  More tomorrow on our Sunday in Jewish Berlin and visits to the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag.     ~Mrs. Johnson

Kalli's Berlin Wall presentation... she has a captive audience.

Group photo (minus Mr. Stromberg who was taking the picture) at the Berlin Wall memorial park.

Some of the ladies on the trip.

On the brown slab are photos and birth/death dates of some of those shot and killed when they tried to escape East Berlin. You can see the wall in back of the photos.

Other pieces of the wall that were preserved and are in the memorial park area.