Sunday, May 17, 2009

A Wonderfull Hands on History Lesson

Today was a beautiful day here in Berlin. The sun was shining and the people were out and about drinking coffee at cafes and just enjoying their Sunday. We were no exception either. This morning we had a private tour of the German Parliament. It is one of the most visited parliaments in the world. People just hang out around there and go in to go to the top and receive a gorgeous view of the entire city. It was amazing to look out and see a city so full of life that was once nearly destroyed. At the top there is also a dome structure that you can walk up even higher. The architecture here in Germany is just amazing. Which leads me to what we did after the Reichstag tour.

Our bike tour really topped off the day. I hadn't rode a bike since I was like 12, so rightfully I was a little scared to ride a bike through such a big city. Our tour guide was amazing! She was from Scotland and was like a walking encyclopedia on Berlin. I learned more about history in 3 hours than I learned in years of history classes in high school. It probably also helped to actually be here and see the famous buildings and places in person. We visited places like the Brandenburg Tor, the Holocaust Memorial, a synagogue, the Berlin Wall and so much more. I believe that I took about 200 pictures today. : ) A really surprising fact that the tour guide told us was that although the buildings the we saw looked really old they were in fact built not that long ago. They were just designed to look like the originals. Many of the buildings have been destroyed so they had to be redone. But they really looked like they were old. She also said that nearly 90 percent of the city of Berlin was actually destroyed during the second world war.

Aside from learning so much about Berlin on our bike tour I would just like to add a few side comments. Fortunately, there were no fatalities or bad wrecks : ). In fact, we all looked like pros today on our bikes, weaving in and out of people. Speaking of people we ran into a really interesting fellow while riding our bikes to the Brandenburg Tor. Or tour guide told us that is perfectly legal to ride our bikes on the sidewalk and that was exactly what we were doing when this older gentleman with a cigar in hand began to yell at us to not ride there and he literally approached each one of us as we went by. We didn't know what to do. Our guide said that a lot of people get upset about people riding on the sidewalk but not to worry about it and just continue to ride on. It was quite the surprise. What a great day overall. On to tomorrow.

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