Berlin

     Berlin was one of my favorite cities to travel to this summer. Unfortunately the group was a bit divided when we went. The girls went to London, Ethan went to Paris with his parents who came to visit, and Heath and I went to Berlin. Between doing a walking tour of the city and going through museums, we got to see a lot of history. Here's the pictures I deemed blog-worthy.

Arrived at the train station around 1 or 2 AM.

The hostel was overbooked, so instead of staying in a room with 20 other people, we got this room to ourselves.

Isn't it Bromantic?

The Fernsehturm or TV Tower.

One of the many museums on Museum Island. I think this is the old art museum.

The Neues (New) Museum. People come to Berlin just to see the bust of Nefertiti in this museum. (It didn't live up to the hype)

The Altes (Old) Museum. The museum itself it's not very old, but it has a lot of old things inside.

I don't remember the name of this church.

A mother holding her son.

Humbolt University Library

This is the hotel where Michael Jackson held his son out the window over the balcony like an idiot. It costs about $13K/night to stay here.

Jewish Holocaust memorial

At about this location in a bunker beneath the ground, Hitler shot himself. How fitting that people now bring there dogs here to do their business.

The Berlin Wall. I know you're thinking "big whoop, I can climb that". Maybe so, but first you would have to make it through "No Man's Land" in between two walls. Soldiers were given a pay raise if they shot and killed someone trying to run to the wall. And the ground was full of land mines.

The Beer Bike. All of the customers had to contribute to the pedaling. Neat contraption.

Checkpoint Charlie. The American checkpoint to and from East Berlin.

I wish we could have gone into the embassy, but it wasn't open to the public.

This was across from our hostel.

The Pergamon Altar

They were ahead of their time with the handrail.

Rockin' the audio-guide.

The Uruk city gate, I believe. I've never seen something to large in a museum.

The Ishtar Gate of Babylon

A model of Babylon. The real city was at least three times this size.

I'm not sure if this means it's the first depiction of a drum ever, or if it's just the first of this type of drum. Either way, drums are cool.

And check out the cymbals.

Why can't we use bricks like these to build houses?

After seeing the Mississippi themed deserts, I read about this restaurant. I've never heard of Bandy Brooks, but apparently it was found by a Mississippian.

These guys walk around all day wearing a grill. Great business idea. Also this may be the cheapest food in Europe.

Egyptian coffin.

Apparently Egypt used to be in Tennessee.

 At first glance this guy is just another human statue, but when someone drops money in his bucket, he does this.

A model of "No Man's Land"

My new ride.

This is where JFK gave his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. Fun fact: He should have said "Ich bin Berliner". What he said basically means "I'm a jelly donut". But the people knew what he meant, so no big deal I guess.

Brandenburg Gate

At the metro station.

Barcelona

     Barcelona is a great city. I got some much needed rest and relaxation this weekend.

Segrada Familia

The front door.

This place is huge. It's my favorite church so far, mostly because of the stained glass windows. They are very colorful here.

The apostles' creed.

Now in Spanish. They also had it in a few other languages.

I believe this says "Give us this day our daily bread" in 50 languages.

Beach time. A lot of people were topless. It was a bit of a culture shock, but I guess it's good that they have no shame. The sand was very hot and the water was very cold. Also, I made some friends and played volleyball.

Paella. Great food.

Not sure what this is for, but there's an eternal flame at the top.

Me and Ethan

On "La Rambla", a large street/marketplace there were quite a few of these human statues. Each one was unique, so they get a one-up over Italy.

He did a very good job of standing still. I'm guessing he had on some kind of brace to hold him in position.

More beach time. I did a good bit of reading this weekend.

     My one regret of the weekend is that we didn't get to see the Picasso museum. Mr. Gardner recommended it, and we tried to go see it on Sunday. It was the first Sunday of the month, so entry was free. Because of this, there was a huge line to get in. We got there 2 hours before closing time, and it would have probably been closed before we got inside. So we tried again the next day, but it was closed all day. And we left Tuesday morning.

     Thanks for reading, folks. I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon for Berlin. I'm very excited about it because for a while I didn't think I'd get to go there this summer.