November 26th

Hello Berlin!!  

We made it in yesterday evening and had a really good dinner close to the hotel at a restaurant called Umomi. 

This morning we had passes to get into the German parliament or Reichstag. The closest subway stop was at Brandenburg    Gate, which that alone is such an iconic entrance, but today it was full of protesters. There were huge farm tractors everywhere and angry farmers on a PA shouting words that we couldn’t understand. We found out later that they were wanting subsidies so smaller farmers could keep their farms and not have to sell out to the big farms. 

The Reichstag was built in 1895 and it nearly burned completely in 1933. After the wall came down it was renovated and the glass dome was added. It was officially reopened in 1999. The dome has a walkway ramp that lets you view the entire city. We were glad we took the audio guide, it pointed out all of the sights as you walked, the embassy’s, churches, museums, Jewish synagogue, checkpoint Charlie and many more. 

We had read that the restaurant had good food and of course the amazing views. So even though we didn’t have a reservation we thought we’d try. Surprisingly there was one table left!  This wasn’t the only bit of luck and surprise today.  As we started to eat we looked up to see Victor at our table. It was just crazy, he flew to Berlin and got a pass at the same time and luckily found us! He said he had looked through the crowd and came into the restaurant as a last resort hoping we might be there. Such a fun surprise that we will never forget!

We all went by the American Embassy, not a biggie, just a regular office building with our flag. 

Then we walked through the Jewish Memorial, 2,711 cold, gray pillars of stone. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the German History Museum. They organized all of the art and artifacts by date. We saw from 800 - 1945, it really let you see how time changed within the arts, cultural and religious. Also changes in rulers, types of rulers, war times and not. 

We ended our evening with dinner back near the Brandenburg Gate. Then we walked with Victor and saw him off at the train station. He had a flight back to Frankfurt and we will see him and his family on Friday. 😊