New Year in Berlin

Our quest to see as much as possible of Europe continued post-Christmas with a week in the German capitol of Berlin. The drive was long but we had heat! (Long story, but happy ending for those of you familiar with the chilly details) One of David's colleagues offered us her apartment in the most incredible location--formerly East Berlin within walking distance of Museum Island and Alexanderplatz--we couldn't have asked for a better spot.

DAY ONE: Drive for 9 hours. This begs the question: When does the vacation really begin?
DAY TWO: Five hour walking tour of Berlin in sub-zero temperatures.In keeping with our tradition of mostly benign torture, we started the day with a forced march around the historically significant section of Berlin. It was cold, but we were prepared--I think the most prepared sported seven layers. Fortunately the enthusiasm levels increased as we progressed. Here are before and after pictures:Beginning of the tour (Notice the excitement on our faces...)
At the Berlin Wall (The Australian in the back really wanted to be part of our family)

We finished our tour at the Berlin Dom, a gigantic church just around the corner from our apartment. We actually didn't know at the time that we were just around the corner and ended up walking quite a distance in the opposite direction looking for lunch. Oh well...

We did finally find some fabulous bratwurst at the Christmas Market in Gendarmenmarkt. Great Square, great food!

DAY THREE: A Bit of a Mix-up followed by an Insane New Years Eve.So we had this fabulous suprise planned for today and we drove an hour outside Berlin to the fabulous suprise and we were suprised to find that they were holding a special New Years Eve event and it was not open to the general public. Fabulous suprise postponed until Day Four.We did get to see Berliners completely loose their Germanic reserve and go absolutely crazy. The fireworks started at about 4:30 pm and continuted pretty much non stop until about 5am. Even the big kids were a bit wide-eyed at the display.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story...