The Capital of Germany: Berlin

We arrived in our hotel room in Berlin at 11:00 PM. The drive was, of course, beautiful and also full of staus (traffic jams). We passed a couple a fields that had over 20 big windmills that were spinning and spinning. I imagine they get a lot of energy from them. It was quite the site to see.

Saturday morning we met the Hunters and found a hop-on hop-off bus to help us tour the city. It helped us see basically everything a tourist wants to see in Berlin. We walked down the Unter den Linden, the most famous street in Berlin. This lead us to the Brandenburger Tor. This is the main gate to the city. It once was part of the wall. The statue on top represents victory in Germany's many wars. To the right of the gate is the Reichstag. This is Germany's parliament building. In it there is a big glass dome with a huge pillar made of mirrors. You can walk around the pillar to get to the top of the dome and see a view of the whole city. When we go to the Reichstag there was a huge line to get in. We decided to just take pictures and come back later to get in to the building and walk to the top. Then a man came over and told us there was a family entrance to use to get in with a stroller. We follows him to the entrance and were very happy to see the line was basically walk right in. It finally paid off to have that huge stroller with us! The inside was really cool. The mirror pillar was amazing. We had headsets that were programed to show us all the main sites in Berlin. Berlin had some very old buildings along with new buildings. They had to rebuild from all of the bombings. It was interesting to compare the different buildings and see the differences between the centuries.

After the Reichstag, we saw that a storm was coming. We hopped on the bus and circled the city. We were so glad that we didn't have to stand in the rain! We past different waterfalls and statues that had different meanings. Most were very cool, some were a little different. We hopped off and found a place to eat, right as the storm stopped. Yay for hop on hop off buses!

After lunch, we headed to Check Point Charlie. This was a checkpoint that the US military police opened to let people cross the border from East to West Germany. There was a very high priced museum that we could have gone into that had different stories of the people who used this checkpoint. But like I said, it was high priced and, with kids, don't last long in museums. I was talking to the lady at our home hotel and she was telling me her stories from crossing the border and wall. She said that she grew up in West Germany and her grandparents were in East Germany. She would visit them for 2 weeks a year because that is all West Germans were allowed in East Germany. She said the checkpoints for crossing were horrible experiences. She said the East side would check all the luggage and everything you were wearing. They didn't want anything brought into the East that wasn't from the East. They didn't want the East Germans to know what they were missing. The East Germans weren't allowed to watch TV that wasn't from East Germany. They weren't allowed to wear anything that wasn't from East Germany. They weren't allowed to leave. They could only leave if there was some huge event, but even then it was up to the guard that day. She said that when her mom died, her sisters weren't allowed to come over. She said the guards were just in a bad mood that day and that is how it was a lot. She also remember that once her mom had a ring on that was given to her by her mom, so from the East, and the guards took it from her on her way back to the West because she didn't have a record that she bought it. She said her grandma died soon after and her mom really wished she had that ring. It was amazing to hear her how she remembered the separation.

After the Checkpoint, we walked down the street to the remaining wall. It was left up as a reminder (and I'm sure a tourist trap). It was interesting to see the wall. It was basically a concrete wall with barbed wire on top. Behind the wall was rubble that they said they wouldn't touch because of all the evils things that we decided on in that spot. They had a wall set up with pictures and stories to read all about some of the horrible things that Hitler did. It was very humbling to see. It reminded me of how glad I am to be an American.

We hopped back on the bus and got to our starting point. We went to Alexandraplarz and had dinner. This also had the Berlin Town Hall and a couple of Cathedrals on in. It had a huge fountain (that someone had left a shopping cart in, Berlin wasn't the cleanest place we have been). We let the kids run around for a while. Then we walked down the street and found the Holocaust Memorial. It had huge rectangular blocks set up. It is called the place of no name. Zack liked running through the blocks. Steve and I enjoyed relaxing on the blocks after the long walk to get there.

Sunday, we woke up and went to church. We were a little nervous because we wouldn't find an English speaking ward. Last time we went to a German speaking ward, we didn't last very long. We weren't getting anything out of it because we couldn't understand it and our boys were out of control. So we left early. We showed up at a church in Berlin, hoping for an English ward. But it was German. But they had missionaries standing in front, I'm sure trying to get someone to come in. We talked to them in and they offered to translate for us. It was an amazing sacrament meeting. During the sacrament song, the Spirit was so strong. We could understand a word of the hymn or the prayer, but we could understand the Spirit of it. There were only about 30 people there (the Hunters and us included). It definitely testified to us once again that this is a world wide church and that Heavenly Father cares about every ward, even the ones with less than 30 people. The rest of the meeting, I felt like we were the American side show. The missionaries translated for us as we tried to control our boys. It is different to get them to sit still when there is a whole empty bench to your side and in front of you. Steve and I took turns taking boys in the hall along with the Hunters. By the end of the meeting, the missionary that translated for us said “Boy, family life is hard!” But we must not have been that bad, because the Bishop came over and invited us to a ward lunch after the block. We told him we would try to make it.

After sacrament, we walked down the street to the Victoria. It was a huge pillar with a statue of Victoria on top (I can't remember if Victoria was some goddess or a queen or what). The missionaries told us the call her Moroni's wife. Then we walked around the corner to a church that had been bombed but they left what remained. It was really cool to see the church. Inside was amazing! There were pictures in tile on the ceilings and walls. Of course pictures of Christ everywhere. Zack started singing “I Belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” after he saw a picture of Jesus. Good thing people can't understand him, we might have gotten some weird looks. There was also a water fountain next to the church. On our way back to the LDS church, we past the zoo. Zack say a big cement elephant and got really excited. I think that was his favorite thing in Berlin.

We arrived at the church a little late, but all the people were so kind and asked us to come and eat. There wasn't enough of the lunch to feed us. But they were just bringing out dessert. A member of the Bishopric told us to go grab some. We were kind of taking our time to make sure the ward member got what they needed. Then the Bishopric member was like “Come on. Grab some. We're not polite. It's Germany!” This made me laugh. I think this is their country motto: “We're not polite. It's Germany!” But, hey, at least they know it.

After eating desserts, which were quite tasty-but I couldn't tell you what they were, we headed out. We stopped on our way home at the Frieberg Temple. It was a little temple. I think our chapel at home is bigger. But the Brother in the visitor's center was a little offended that I called in little. Opps. It had hostels behind it to house the people that drive days to get to the temple and then stay for a week or so. It was a very beautiful temple!

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