Berlin: Day 4 - More rain with a mix of history...

Ah, Europe in the fall! You just can't get away from the cold and rain. And so, today on our last full day in Berlin, we again woke to light rain falling for hours on end. So, we headed indoors....to the Berliner Dome (Cathedral).

After reviewing appropriate church behavior with the little people, we headed inside. Inside it was beautiful, but I have seen more spectacular churches. Most of this church was damaged in the war, so it is actually relatively new in comparison to other European churches. Going into churches with small children can be a challenge, but we were lucky in that the organist was practicing and thereby drowning out any comments from our peanut gallery.

With your entry ticket, you can climb to the top of the Dome which provides somewhat of a view of the river Spree and the Museum insel (isle). We climbed up and then ended our tour in the crypt where all the Kurfürsten (electors) and Kaisers and Kings of Germany/Prussia are buried.

I really wanted to go to the Pergammon Museum which contains the Zeus Altar along with the Ishtar gate. And I thought Ishtar was only a bad 80's movie! But, we had a combo ticket from LegoLand for the Sea Life Aquarium and since it was our last full day, we decided to take the kids there for their daily activity.

Sea Life Aquarium is located a block from the Berliner Dom. Like Lego Land, the aquarium was located underground. Nothing phenomenal here although I am glad I didn't pay full price for it. It was simply a 2 hour diversion for the kids. The Zoo has a an aquarium as well, but since we had tickets to Sea Life, we skipped the Zoo Aquarium. Part of the Sea Life ticket is a trip into the Aqua Dome. Berliners like their domes!

The Aqua Dome runs through the Radisson SAS hotel. It is a huge circular fish tank with a double decker elevator in the middle that takes you into the tank and makes you wonder who is really in the fishbowl. Again, not something I would do on my own, but they kids enjoyed being inside a fish tank.

There was an Asian restaurant on site and it was lunch time, so we decided to have lunch. The meal was great with the exception that Thing 1 would not touch his Crispy Chicken with peanut sauce. I make curry chicken with peanut sauce at home and he always eats it. This didn't even have curry! So he didn't eat.

After lunch we hopped on Bus 100 and headed west. We walked towards the Brandenburg gate and went to the Reichstag. On the way there, we came upon a row of crosses with pictures of people who were killed in their attempt to escape East Berlin. The Reichstag is right across the street. It is home to the German Parliament not unlike our US Capitol. You can go inside and watch parliament in session and you can go to the top of their dome as well. We just took pictures and let the kids run amok on the lawn in front of the building.

We walked a bit through the Tiergarten Park, Berlin's version of New York's Central Park. We came upon a Memorial to the Soviets. Soviets? Why, you may ask, is there a memorial to such a repressive regime? Because, if you recall, it was the Red Army that took Berlin from Hitler eventually leading to the end of World War II. In essence, many Soviet soldiers gave their lives to end Hitler's rule. That's before they took over the eastern half of Berlin. The memorial is in Russian and there are some Soviet tanks and cannons that Thing 1took interest in.

So, here we are in a park and Thing 2 tells us she needs to poop. I mention this because this is beauty of traveling with small children. Just before entering the park we all used the bathroom. In fact, we PAID to use the bathroom! Now, the Cat was doing a mad dash to prevent an accident (even though she was in pull ups). There was a Starbucks near the Brandenburg gate so he was heading there when out of nowhere he encounters a city toilet, the kind that stand alone, doors opening when you pay the fee. These are far nicer and cleaner than the Parisian variety. But, you better finish using it during the alloted time or the doors will pop open. Thing 2 used the toilet and an accident was averted.

We usually try to dissect the city in quarters, but since we were also doing things with the kids that were scattered everywhere it was a bit difficult to do. With portions of the Metro under construction, we used the taxi several times to get to wherever Bus 100 did not go. So, we found one on the road adjacent to the Tiergarten and headed to Checkpoint Charlie.

Haus am Checkpoint Charlie was the only museum that we adults took in. This was made easier by the fact that Thing 1 actually took much interest in the Wall history. This museum is rich with information about what it was like to live in East Berlin and the innovative ways people tried to escape: in hollowed engine compartments, hanging from the bottom of trucks/cars, swimming underneath the river Spree, in suitcases, via harnessed pullys from a building in the East to the ground on the West, and by underground tunnels dug by East berliners themselves. There were so many stories documented here that it felt somewhat like the Holocaust Museum in DC. Thing 1 was fascinated with what people will do to be free. It was quite a history lesson.

When you leave the museum, what is left of the actual checkpoint is a recreation. Initially, I was not going to pay to have a picture taken with some fake soldiers, but Thing 1 really wanted one and it was 1 Euro so we caved. There is also a stand where one of the "fake" soldiers will stamp your passport with one or many stamps of your choosing. The guy engaged the children and talked to Thing 1 a great deal about the history of the checkpoint. We bought two fake visas for the kids with the different visa stamps and had our own passports stamped with US and Soviet stamps. My tourist passport expires soon, so now I have a reason to keep it.

We walked around the area and found a marker with a trace of the Berlin Wall on it. Despite this, I was beginning to think that the part of the Berlin Wall that I wanted to see, the East Side Gallery, was becoming more elusive with our time constraints. Again, it was dinner time.

After having dinner at the Champs Elysee of East Berlin (Unter den Linden) the other night, we headed to the Champs Elysee of West Berlin - the Kurfürstendamm or Ku'Damm for short. Like it's Parisian counterpart, this street is lined with shops, restaurants, clubs, the Kaiser Wilhelm (bombed out) Memorial church, some interesting sculptures and lots of curry wurst (a hot dog with curry sauce) and döner Kebabs. It is named after the Kurfürsten or "electors" of the Holy Roman Empire.

We spent the rest of the evening strolling along the Ku'Damm and eventually taking a cab home since the Metro station was closed. No East Side Gallery for me tonight.