We land...it's great, the Berlin Hilton is great, all that we need and a breakfast every morning too! They totally cater to Princess Piper, and that is, indeed, what they called her! Her 'favorite gal' was our waiter in the lobby lounge, and she helped (with Brad's co worker Paul) Piper find a new favorite drink, it's apple juice and sparking water. This was mine:
The manager came over the first night and brought her a Hilton Backpack and bear, and today at the pool, the (super cute) pool boy brought her two Hilton Ducks and a kick board. (Bears will be a theme in this town and during this part of the trip)
Side note: Piper is addicted to The Little Mermaid and today just up and dove in the pool, like Ariel. I would like to take credit but sadly it's from the movie. Nonetheless, the girlie now dives in and thinks she can swim like a mermaid. I am so proud.
First day on our own, Brad is off to work, so Piper and I grab a cab and head to The Kurfurstendam area of the former West Berlin. We are staying in the Former East Berlin, and you can still tell the difference. We go to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche. Which is two very different churches. One is very old (1895)and was hit by bombs on November 23, 1943. Built next to and around it (the church still stands and is amazing, an open empty hole of a church that is still beautiful) is a grey octagonal church that has 33 thousand blue stained glass squares that make the entire church glow in different hues of blue. It has an amazing sounding organ and the two next to each other are like night and day. Something else that was unusual around it was the souviner shops that looked like a bavarian villiage right out the door of both churches along with the currywurst stands. Odd yet totally normal I guess.
Then we head down the street to KaDeWe. This is THE LARGEST DEPARTMENT STORE in all of EUROPE! It was great! We walk in and they are having a private reception for some sort of 300 year old anniversary of china,from China. They have tv cameras and the model whose face is in all the ads is standing there in a long black shimmery dress. They have this huge budda that is nodding it's head and sticking out his tongue, then they have smaller ones you can purchase! We made our way up to the food market on the top floor. It was huge, it was impressive but I have come to the conclusion that nothing tops Harrods in London. I will give the best chocolate selection nod to KaDeWa though, it was impressive and we 'donated' to the store. We also discovered a new Princess, her name is Lillefee, she rocks! We are now the owners of a lot of Princess Lillefee. http://www.lillifee.com/en/ check her out. So this is where we really discover all the bears around town, here is the first one, in front of the Hertz car rental:
We get back and meet up with Brad, and then we walk over to Brandenburg Gate. So much history with this, of the last four gates. It is at Pariser Platz and the US Embassy is there, as is the Russian (which has Aeroflot airlines attached to it) Embassy and of course a Starbucks:
This is also where the wall formerly stood and there is a lot to see and take in there.
Also in that general area is a very moving memorial to all the Jews that were murdered during the Holocaust. It is apparently somewhat controversial and it takes up a whole city block but I found it facinating.
This is about all I am going to post for now. We must hit the road to Madrid, so stay tuned because about the time we are doing all of the above, the volcano in Iceland blew and all flights were cancelled. We were able to enjoy a full week in Berlin so we did quite a bit and could have/should have done more but the last two days of the trip were so warm it was easier to relax, like this, photo by Piper. Brad and me at Alexanderplatz in beach chairs:
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