An evening in Berlin

The next day we took a train back to Berlin in the morning and worked a bit, finally wrapping things up and heading out about 5:30pm.  We were extremely fortunate to be accompanied by someone who had lived in Germany, frequented Berlin, was a war and history buff and spoke fluent German.  He took us on a walking tour yesterday that had us stopping at some of the old Nazi buildings, Checkpoint Charlie, a holocaust memorial, a section of the wall and finally a nice little German pub for dinner.  Awesome.

Overall the evening was shadowed a bit for me due to the events we were reviewing.  While I think we should study history so that we are not doomed to repeat it, that doesn't mean I have to love the topic.  Anyway, I definitely would do it again.  Below are some pictures and comments.

Take a gander at this little gem.  We found it outside of a costume shop for the local theater.  Inside were even more interesting items for sale.

No he's not an actual American, just someone wanting to sell you a picture.  That's the actual guard shack at Checkpoint Charlie behind him.

They sold magnets and shirts of the above sign.  I decided to pick a magnet up for our front door heading outside; I wonder if Rebecca will let me put it up.

This is a little trinket stand we encountered; note the gas mask.  The guy tried to shove a Nazi hat on my head and that's the closest I've ever come to hitting a total stranger (not very close for the record, although I wasn't happy at all).  I did pick up some nesting dolls for the nieces, though.

Section of the wall and a museum build around the foundation of the secret police headquarters.

The holocaust memorial.

A fun way to get around town.

The crosses on the other side of the street were memorials to people who tried to escape and were killed.

Had to end on a lighter note, it's what I do.  Below is a soccer goal in the urinal.  I need one of these for Rowan, when he actually decides to pee inside.