Two chilly days in Berlin
Our first full day in Berlin was met with lots of wind and rain which made it difficult to be outside as much as we wanted. We started the day at the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. The memorial was so vast and sobering- you could easily get disoriented and lost while walking through it.
The information center below the memorial was much heavier than I think Lauren and I were prepared for. The part that really got me was the section dedicated to entire families that were murdered during the Holocaust. Several generations of a family were completely gone and some families didn’t have any remaining photographs to display.
After our lunch (more bratwurst, we’re not complaining!) We went to see the Brandenburg Gate which was so beautiful even in the rain. In desperate need of something to warm us up, we found a little coffee and tea shop. I had an orange ginger tea, which is common in Germany. It was made with fresh ginger and whole orange slices.
We went back to our apartment early to relax and get ready to go to a jazz club that was just down the street from us. The night was sponsored by Vandoren which Lauren and I thought was funny. We had a great time and met some fellow Americans.
We woke up the next day surprised to see the sun (first time since we’ve been in Europe!) Eager to get out and enjoy some decent weather, we went to the Berlin Wall and walked along some of the remaining parts. They rebuilt a lookout that you can climb to the top and see a good majority of the wall. The outlines of the wall are outlined, and it was so interesting to see what was there before and after the wall. We also visited Check Point Charlie which still has signs intact from the wall era.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the Musical Instrument Museum. Which was so much fun for nerds like Lauren and me. We had a good time looking at the period woodwinds and trying to guess how you would even go about playing one.
On a whim, we went to Berliner Dom which is *the* big Catholic Cathedral in Germany. The inside was absolutely breathtaking. We hiked 200+ stairs to the top of the dome where we could see out over all of Berlin. The view was definitely worth all those stairs.
We went back to the apartment to get ready for what Lauren and I have been looking forward to since we booked the trip a year ago: The Berlin Philharmonic. We were absolutely blown away. The orchestra was accompanied by the choir, and they performed Rachmaninov’s Vesna, Borodin’s Prince Igor (our favorite) and Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky. This was not a night we will soon forget and was a major highlight of the trip so far.
