Today was a beautiful day! Started with some early morning drizzle but cleared up nicely with some mixed clouds, sun and a light breeze. Could not ask for a better day to walk around this old, charming city in Germany! I had been here before so knew all the big sights to see, and places to go. We are staying in a completely different area than before, but with the Cathedral in the skyline, it was easy to find my way around without looking at maps. I was able to get back down to the old town where most of the older buildings are. It was all very familiar from our visit 2.5 years ago, and I was able to find my way to the Rhine river by memory. I went up and walked along the bridge - which is adorned with love locks, did a little antique shopping, browsed the pawn shops, and got some UEFA Adidas soccer fan gear!
 |
| Linden Trees along the walk |
 |
| Cologne Cathedral |
 |
| Remains of the 2 Maggi |
 |
| The Mighty Rhine |
 |
| Love locks along the Hohenzollern Bridge |
 |
| The little rails along the sides are for people to roll their bike tires along them as they climb or descend the stairs. They think of everything here!! |
The original Eau de Cologne is a spirit-citrus perfume launched in Cologne in 1709 by Giovanni Maria Farina, an Italian perfume maker. In 1708, Farina wrote to his brother Jean Baptiste: "I have found a fragrance that reminds me of an Italian spring morning, of mountain daffodils and orange blossoms after the rain". He named his fragrance Eau de Cologne, in honour of his new hometown.
The Eau de Cologne created by Farina was used only as a perfume and delivered to nearly all royal houses in Europe. His ability to produce a constantly homogeneous fragrance consisting of dozens of mono-essences was seen as a sensation at the time.
Unfortunately, the actual 4711 perfume house was closed due to construction in the front, however there was a pop-up shop next door where I was able to get some of the original 4711 cologne.
First day in country, I'm feeling a little sluggish and adjusting to jet lag. I decided to take it easy and hop on the Big Bus that goes around the city. Its the best $30 I ever spend in a new city on my first day! Gives me the lay of the land, allows me to jump on & off when I want, hits all the popular sights to see, and when the weather is nice, its the best tour you can ask for! Also, Vince and I are planning to tour around tomorrow so I usually get the lay of the land, see all the things that I want to see and I know he doesn't, and know where to spend more time with him.
There is a stop right around the corner from our hotel - and since we are a bit from the city center and 2 bus transfers - this was SUPER convenient.
Our drive started around the embassies, and moved on to some of the popular squares (platz's). We drove by Checkpoint Charlie and a portion of the Wall that is still in the middle of the city. So, so much history here in Berlin, however so many of the buildings and original architecture was destroyed in WWII. Most of the city was bombed & completed leveled - so all the buildings now are very new and modern. That surprised me a little, after traveling through so much of the southern part of Germany and the smaller towns where they survived bombings and/or were not directly targeted. I guess I expected more of that here too, but that was not the case. There are not many building over 50 yrs old!
I adjusted and got on another bus taking me through East Berlin. We were staying in West Berlin and most of the city center is in the west. The river divided some of the city where the wall stands - but some of the wall goes right through neighborhoods - dividing families, businesses, church congregations, everything! In 1961, the original wall went up in just 2 weeks, but most said it went up overnight in some neighborhoods. It was to prevent people from leaving East Germany. Again, seemingly impossible in todays world that it could happen in any country like that, but at the time, the country was so divided, the communist side put the wall up to keep the people in.
After a bus ride through the east side of the city, we drove by the part of the wall along the river that has murals painted all over it. This is called the East Side Gallery. It is the longest remaining section of the wall (in tact) and is located along the Spree River. After the wall fell in 1989, 118 artists from 21 countries painted the gallery. The murals are beautiful and such a great expression of protest and celebration! I walked around the river a bit before hopping back on to close out the loop back to the hotel that evening. It was a LOOOONG day, but I got to see most of the city and scope out where we would revisit tomorrow.
Figured I should throw a work post in here before my tourist posts - hence the reason we are in German to begin with!
I opted not to go to this conference (even though I was being pressured to, as I usually attend these with Vince and our colleague friends). BUT I haven't been to Berlin before and needed to get my adventures in.
So, Vince was busy working at the conference today. He met up with a few promising groups, as well as a division of the German Space Agency that he was going to follow up with again at meetings through the week in Cologne.
These shows are always fun, as companies bring their best equipment, planes, guns, missiles, spaceships, etc to demo. This is the biggest aerospace show in Europe.
They also had the very 1st F-35 that was delivered to Germany from the US there. Vince got to sit in it:
You would think our first meal in Germany would be some beer & schnitzel, right? Well, no. A quick Yelp search showed a fabulous Italian restaurant just around the corner from our hotel, and we do not ever say no to a fabulous Italian restaurant. Even in Germany. So, "Tra di Noi" it is.
Super cute small little family run restaurant in a neighborhood. No tourists, all locals. The food was amazing, HUGE wine selection, and of course had a couple limoncello's to round out the meal. Made friends with our waiter and told him we would be back again!
If you are ever in the neighborhood, I highly recommend!!
Welcome to Berlin....
Vince and I flew to Berlin to start off our mini-vacay/work trip in Germany. Vince is attending a conference in Berlin for a day tomorrow, then on Sunday we head to Cologne for a Trade Mission with the German Space Agency for the week.
It was a last minute call on whether I'd get to go or not. I hadn't had my follow-up with my surgeon yet, but was feeling pretty good and hadn't had any swelling in a week or so. Soooo, to me, that means "good to go"!! I mean, they have hospitals in Germany, right?!
Anyways, we were off.
Mom & Dad came to AZ to hang out with Kohi while we were gone, which was a huge relief for us knowing they were there and taking care of not just the pup, but our house too. Very nice piece of mind when you are across the globe.
We landed, took a taxi to our hotel and immediately hit the lounge on the patio for our first Berliner beer of the trip! When in Berlin, you drink Berliner!
