Berlin: Day 3

Kim and Ryan made it to Berlin!

Today we woke up bright and early for our last day of sight seeing in Berlin.  We walked down to museum island and looked at the amazing architecture of the buildings. The Berlin Cathedral was really impressive with it’s large, turquoise dome.  

Then we went into the Berlin History museum.  The museum detailed life from 1500- present day.  It was cool to see how European lifestyles evolved throughout the centuries;  as compared to American history museums which focus on American settlement.  

Then we went to Checkpoint Charlie.  This was one of the main border crossings between east and west Berlin.  

And they have a mock up of a soldier station complete with actor solders.  They take cheesy pictures with tourists for 10 Euro and you can get your passport stamped with the old East and West Berlin stamps.....

This had been an activity we were looking forward to, until we read an important piece of information in one of our guide books: Getting your passport stamped with these stamps, invalidates your passport, as they are not official stamps.  

So now this checkpoint charlie just seems like a tourist trap.  We took some pictures, spent 10 minutes looking around and left to see better things!  We took Kim and Ryan back to Brandenburg gate and to see the remaining stretch of the Berlin wall and then we headed back to our apartment to get ready for the soccer game.

It took us 50 minutes by train to get to Olympion stadium.  This was the site of the 193% olympics.  The German’s version of “tail gating” before a game is to stand outside the stadium and drink beer bought from vendors.  Once inside the game you buy beer in thick, plastic steins with handles.  You pay a 2 Euro deposit on each stein that you get back at the end of the game.  The game itself was incredible!  The fans cheer and chant and wave flags for the entire game.  They stomp their feet and sings songs in unison.  They have special chants for different parts of the game.  Everyone wears scarfs with their teams colors and they either eave them around or hold them up depending on whats happening in the game.  The most impressive thing is that NO ONE leaves their seat during game time.  And everyone stays until the very end of the game.  Berlin beat Koln 2-0, and the team paraded around the stadium after the game and waved at the fans.  After the game, people return to the parking lot to drink more beer from vendors. We walked around the stadium to see the olympic facility: swimming pool and diving pool along with the track and field facility.  It was a great way to end our time in Berlin!  Tomorrow we head to Prague! 

PS. WiFi in Europe is terrible.  I'll try and upload pictures when the WiFi is more better.