Berlin Day 1: "Life is too short to build walls"

Our first impressions of Berlin are fantastic!  It is interesting to explore and learn about a city recently reunited.  We learned a couple things right off the bat:

- DO NOT walk in the bike lane

- ALWAYS bring your rain jacket

We were up bright and early today to make our 10AM reservations for the Reichstag building. The Reichstag is the German Parliament building, most famous for it's glass dome. The dome at the top of the building is open to visitors and offers 360 degree views of the city.  The main parliament hall where the elected officials work can be seen from inside the dome. It was a great first day activity that allowed us to get oriented with this awesome city.

Next stop was to Brandenburg Gate.  It is a 18th century arch that marks the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg an her Havel.   On 9 November 1989, thousands gathered at Brandenburg Gate which separated east and west Berlin and watched the East German Prime Minister greet the West German chancellor greet each other in peace and not long after the wall came down. The Brandenburg Gate was symbolic because it was such a large gateway between east and west Berlin. 

Next up was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  It is a touching memorial constructed by the country of Germany. They had a museum underneath the memorial which told the stories of the struggles endured by the jewish during WWII.  

After we left the memorial, we walked 2 blocks to Hitler's bunker.  After the end of WWII, Hitler's underground bunker was destroyed.  It is now a parking lot, with almost no acknowledgement or trace that he ever operated there. 

Our last stop was to Mauer Park.  It is a big park in the middle of the city where people can shop, eat and drink.  There were a ton of vendors selling local made art and crafts.  We relaxed, drank beer in Biergartens and watched street performers.  We had a great first day! 

PS

We walked past the Hotel Adlon, which is the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby over the balcony.  It will be a nice thing to tell people at dinner parties. 

PPS

The wi-fi here is touch and go, we'll post more pictures when Berlin gets it's wi-fi act together. 

Bereit.... Satz..... Deutschland!

The day is finally here!  This trip has been a year in the making, and today we jet off to Germany!

Deb, Mick, Jill, Rick and I leave tonight at 19:40 from Phx and land in London tomorrow at 13:25. After a brief layover we jump a quick 2 hour flight to Berlin.  We land at 18:00, enough time to find our apartment, eat and sleep... before we wake up on Sunday ready to explore a new city! Da Hoffs (Ryan and Kim) will join this hooligan crew Monday night.

Here is some of our planned, organized fun we have in store...

Getting our passports stamped at Check Point Charlie with East and West Berlin stamps.

Going to a football game at Olympian Stadium to watch Berlin play Koln.

Visiting Hitler's underground bunker under the city of Berlin.

Going to the Reichstag Building (Germany's "white house").

Going to see an Opera in Prague.

Riding bikes through an Eastern European forest to a 800 year old Czech Republic brewery.

Going to a Nazi concentration camp.

Going to a small beer festival in Munich called Oktoberfest.

Visiting Neuschwanstein Castle (The Cinderella Castle).

After Munich, our crew splits off to divide and conquer:  Jenn and Rick are heading to Garmisch- Partenkirchen, while Deb, Mick, Jill, Kim and Ryan head to Heidelberg and Frankfurt.

We've been waiting months for this moment!  See you all in Berlin!

Cave Tubing and Zip Lining

Today we went cave tubing and zip lining and it was amazing!  

We woke up at 5:30am to chilly cloudy skies and rain.  Which made for an interesting boat ride over to the main land!  We got picked up on the edge of our dock by the tour company for the one hour and fifteen minute commute into Belize City.  We were dressed in swim suits and tank tops, which made riding in a boat in the rain going 35mph a cold, uncomfortable experience.  The rain drops felt like tiny cold daggers.  Once we got closer to the mainland, the rain let up and we were able to relax as our boat cruised up the Belize river.  To everyone’s surprise, a bottle nose dolphin was hanging out in the river doing jumps and flips!  We were lucky to catch him in action:

From the river, we boarded a van to drive an additional 60 minutes into the jungle.  We learned some interesting things on our way:

1. The state animal is the Tapir.
2. We passed Belize’s only prison, housing 3,000 inmates. 
3. It is illegal to cut the mangrove trees in Belize

The zip lining was SO MUCH FUN!  Everyone agrees it was one of the coolest things we have done here.  There were a series of 6 zip lines, which took you across the jungle canopy and rivers.  It was beautiful!!  We caught it all on our GoPro strapped to our helmet.

After a quick lunch of chicken, rice and beans, veggies and potato salad we hit the river for tubing.  We were given a tube, head lamp and life vest that we had to haul through the jungle for a 20 minute hike.  Our guide took us through dry caves where we saw stalagmites and stalactites.  She explained the jungle plants and how the Mayans used them, and how most locals today still use them for medicinal purposes.  The cave tubing took us through extensive cave systems which took 20 minutes to float through.  Without the head lamps, it was pitch black.  It was spooky to turn them off and float in the dark with the bats!  

It was a looooong day, but a really fun day!  (We didn't take many pictures because of the rain)

Belize Day 2

Day 2 had a lot to live up to... but it was just as amazing as day one!  We went snorkeling today on the Belize barrier reef, which is the second largest barrier reef after Australia.  The first stop was a reef called Hol Chan, a protected marine reserve, where we saw sea turtles, spotted stingy rays, tons of fish and nurse sharks.  Rick wore the GoPro and as soon as we figure out how to upload the video to the blog, you can see our snorkeling adventure!  Our second stop was to Shark Ray Alley, which is a spot on the most south end of the island where the fishermen clean their fish and throw the chum into the water.  This attracts nurse sharks and sting rays to feed on the chum... and snorkelers who want to swim with them!  It was amazing to swim with 8-9 foot nurse sharks and sting rays with a 6-7 foot wing span.  There was an abundant sea life, with beautiful coral.  Some of the best snorkeling we have ever done!

We had lunch at a beach side bar called Aji.  They had a picturesque dock that we could not resist taking pictures on!  The breeze and clouds made for a great photo shoot!

Jenn and Rick

Lindsay and Adam

Debbie and Kyle

This afternoon we took a sunset cruise on a catamaran around the island.  The buttery light made for some great picture taking!  We had dinner at a great local place in town, and we made it an early night since we have to be up at 5:30 tomorrow morning for zip lining and cave tubing! 

Belize Day 1

We had a great first day in Belize! 

We started with bloody mary’s and breakfast burritos.  Then we went down to the beach to sit in lawn chairs on the ocean and check out the MILLIONS of conch shells.  We can’t BELIZE how many tiny little shells, conch shells with crabs and tiny fish hang out right along the shore line.  

Then we decided to walk down the beach and bar hop with a view.  Our first stop was to a weird yoga retreat right on the beach where we drank Dirty Monkey’s and Panty Rippers.  We had a quick bite to eat of local cuisine, and we moved onto the Palapa Bar.  The Palapa Bar sits at the end of a dock overlooking the water.  Beers are US$2.50 and they are cold!  Palapa Bar is exactly what you think of when you imagine a Belize Bar... Turquoise blue water, flips flops and people from all over the world.  

After the Palapa Bar we needed to head to to grocery store and decided that since we were already half way there (and we had a good buzz) that we would walk the rest of the way.  Well, this was a great idea while we walked along the beach... but once we hit the road it turned ugly.  The inland roads on the island are terrible.  Every 2 feet there are gigantic pot holes filled with rain water.  We arrived at the grocery store (that was farther away than we estimated) with muddy feet.  The plus side is that the grocery store agreed to give us a free ride back to our hotel if we shopped there... amazing!  Because a taxi would have cost us US$20.  After we picked up beer, water and snacks for the week, we packed US$180.00 is groceries and 6 people PLUS the driver into a 4 person golf cart.  Within 30 seconds our golf cart had a flat tire... we then transferred everything into a second 4 person golf cart and the grocery store owner asked Kyle, Rick’s Dad, to drive.  The grocery store owner wanted to stand on the back of the cart to balance the weight through the pot holes for the one mile ride home.  It was the scariest/ funnest golf cart ride we ever took!  We almost tipped over twice but luckily we all made it one piece! And our groceries made it too!

Tonight we had an amazing dinner on the beach at a place called Mangos.  We had grouper, pulled pork tacos, and ceviche.  We had after dinner drinks at Fiods, with a band that played everything from the 60’s through the 80’s!  Tomorrow we go snorkeling with the sharks! 

We Made It!!

We had some great luck today, and made it to San Pedro, Ambergris Caye without any hang ups!  No delays or lost luggage! Can't ask for any more than that!

In the Houston airport we met Santa Clause:

Kinda creepy that Debbie and I sat on this strange man's lap.... but moving on!

After we landed in Belize City, we took a taxi to the ferry station and caught the last ferry out to the islands.  We met some great people on the boat and shared some fabulous local rum with new friends.  

We can't wait to see this amazing place in the daylight!

I Can't BELIZE it!!!

We were up at 4:30 this morning to start our next adventure!!  This time it's tropical, to Belize!!!

Here we go!!!!!