Monday - Central Berlin - Unter Den Linden Strasse

Monday was our last day in Berlin. We had another traditional German breakfast at the hostel (meats, cheeses, fresh rolls, fresh fruit and veggies, hard boiled eggs, yogurt with musli, orange juice, coffee and more) - we are definitely eating well and enjoying the local specialties.

After breakfast we said goodbye to our home away from home for the past two days, Circus Hostel in Berlin. We kept our bags in their luggage storage area for the morning while we went out to walk and explore the town one more time. Some notable sites we walked past and discussed as a group include the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, KaDeWe, the Brandenburg Gate, the United States Embassy, Humbolt University, Neue Wache, and more.  It was Darby's turn to present, and she told the group about the May 10, 1933 Book Burning and the memorial that now stands where that event took place. We walked along Unter den Linden Strasse to the Museum Island where we could choose from a few different museums that we could go to, and we also had lunch in smaller groups.  See pictures below for more details.  By the way, I asked Mr. Stromberg to estimate how many miles we've walked over our past two days in Berlin, and he said probably about 12-15 miles total - wow!

In mid-afternoon, we caught a train back to our hostel to collect our bags, then took a bus to get to the airport for our flight to Vienna. We had a smooth trip and are now all happy to be in beautiful Vienna, Austria. We went to an authentic Austrian restaurant for dinner and many chose to order the popular breaded veal or pork meal called Schnitzel. The group is settled into our quaint home for the next two nights, Pension (meaning family-owned inn/hotel) Suzanne. 

Leaving our room at Circus Hostel in Berlin.

The lobby at Circus Hostel.

KaDeWe - it is the biggest department store on the continent. Some girls in the group agreed that it was like a nicer version of a Nordstroms.

This is just inside the door we entered into at KaDeWe. Mr. Johnson gave us an interesting thought to consider before we had a few free minutes to look around the store: imagine you were a teenager (or any age, really) in the oppressive East Berlin during communism. You have very little entertainment available to you - like going out to the mall with your friends, to a movie, etc. There is little to no color in your East Germany world - most everything around you is very drab, nothing really to stimulate your senses. Now imagine that the wall has come down and you are able to freely enter (even run!) into the significantly more exciting, entertaining, stimulating West Germany. You can shop at a beautiful store if you want to! You can go to a grocery store, have options, and buy what and how much you want! You and your friends can go to a movie, choose what you see, and listen to all kinds of music! Etc, etc, etc. So imagine walking into a beautiful store like this for the first time - what a wonderfully exciting and special experience for so many.

KaDeWe stands for "Kaufhaus Des Westens", or "retail/department store of the west". In 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down KaDeWe Berlin was absolutely flooded with massive amounts of people - packed wall to wall. You can probably guess why, but if you want a reminder, read the above caption again.  :)

Brandenburg Gate during the day - very immense and impressive.

Darby presenting on the May 10, 1933 Book Burning. All of the students are doing great jobs presenting on their prepared topic!

Some of the gals posing for a pic outside the Berlin Cathedral.

Group lunch on Museum Island before we head out to the Berlin airport to fly to Vienna. Parents, you'll be glad to know that everyone on the trip is healthy, eating well, and really enjoying this CFE experience that we've been blessed with.

By the way... I'm posting this on Tuesday night, Vienna time. We've had some long days and late nights, so not a ton of time to blog - so, sorry for the delay. Tomorrow I'll blog all about our great Tuesday in Vienna, which culminated in an amazing trip to the world famous Vienna Opera House to see the ballet Swan Lake! 

FYI, tomorrow night we spend the night on an overnight train to Venice, Italy, and then are spending our remaining trip evenings at two different convents in Florence and then Rome. So I'm assuming that we won't have internet access at the convents.  If I can find wifi access elsewhere, I'll do my best to post updates, but no promises on consistency or timing. So, until next time...!