Europe 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0

Back @ SeaTac

mattkeith74 — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 05:48:43 +0000

Remind me not to fly internationaly again.

10:49 PM PST @ SeaTac

Back at JFK

mattkeith74 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:17:35 +0000

3:15 PM EST

we are back on USA soil.

Nächste Haltestelle – JFK

mattkeith74 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 05:31:30 +0000

Our time here in Germany has come to an end. The alarms went off at 6:00 AM and we are getting ready for our 7:00 AM shuttle to the airport.

Next update will be for state side.

Last full day in Germany

mattkeith74 — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:38:09 +0000

Well, today is our last full day in Germany. We got up around 8 AM today and made our way over to a shopping center, within walking distance of the hotel, to find some packing tissue for some coffee mugs Arena has bought. After dropping it off at the hotel we will take our last day trip in to Berlin. I believe we are going to see a cathedral…..I would have to verify that with my personal activities director.

UPDATE: well it turns out that with the rain we decided just to get on one of the double decker buses and ride it around town. The first part of the route was good for sight seeing, but after awhile it became residential and away from the main area of town. We ended up getting off the bus at the end of the line and taking the subway back to central Berlin station and then headed back to our hotel.

KaDeWe

mattkeith74 — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:19:27 +0000

Today’s trip into Berlin was to a trip to KaDeWe (google this place to get more info), the largest department store in Europe. Yes ….. We still have our life savings. Besides 4 euro of Goji berries, 1 euro of a stick of landjeager and 21 euro for dinner we did not purchase anything else.

After looking around a bit we went for a short walk near by and saw the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (the church’s bombed out ruins have been left standing as a memorial to the destruction of Berlin in WWII.

Once again… I an surprised by all the history that is found in Germany and the lack of respect from some of the locals that seem to think it is cool to deface these sites with grafitti.

Biosphere

mattkeith74 — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:56:17 +0000

Today we are took Mateo to a Biosphere located in Potsdam. It is about a 30 minute tram ride away from our hotel with no transfers. I thought it would be sometimg fun for Mateo, but it turned out to be a little to scary for the guy.

There was a special exhibit going on that included dinosuars into the normal displays. These large displays along with the strange noises over the loud speaker got him a little spooked. Both Arena and I enjoyed the display.

That was all we really did today. Right now Arena is back at the hotel with Mateo and I am at the central station sorting out things with mastercard (should have called them prior to leaving the country). Now that I have that all sorted out, I am off to pick up some items for dinner and head back to the hotel.

Todays photos

mattkeith74 — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:05:17 +0000

Details to follow latter.

Waschen

mattkeith74 — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 06:32:16 +0000

Monday morning, about 7:32 AM.

I found a place to wash our clothing. I had to take tram 92 outside of our hotel to the central station (about 15 minutes) and then transfer to the S7 and get off after 30 minutes at the Savignyplatz stop, according to Rick Steves the Waschsalon (www.waschsalon.de) is located 4 blocks to the west of this location.

But the location that was given in Rick steves book was not correct. After asking some peolpe on the streets I found someone that pointed me about 4 blocks north. That is were I am at right now.

It is 3 euro to wash and probably gonna take close to 3.50 to Dry. Hopefully I have enough money on hand.

Okay ….. It is now 10:15AM. About six loads and 35 euros later, I am back on the S7 heading back to Potsdam. With luck I will be back at the hotel by 11:00 or 11:30 depending on the time of the transfer.

Mateo at the zoo in Berlin

mattkeith74 — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:37:06 +0000

Today’s trip to Berlin was for Mateo. We took him to the zoo they have there. It was a wet day in Berlin. It wasn’t raining heavily, but was a light drizzle that was enough for us to break the seal on our ponchos. The highlight for our family was the lions (it was more of a boxes in cage exhibit…. not the best setup for the lions) because we were up close and could get a really good feeling how big those cats are. We also saw polar bears, zebras, elephants, seals, asianic black bears and various other animals.

We are starting to get a better feel for the tram/train/u-bahn/s-bahn in the Berlin area. It is just so much bigger than Potsdam that it can be overwhelming at first.

Monday morning I will take the train early in the morning to wash our clothing.

Still find it strange seeing people drinking anywhere they want. Saw at least 3 extermly drunk people today. One of which was passed out on a bench in station and his bottle sipped from his hands as we were walking by sending gas shards everywhere.

Berlin wall

mattkeith74 — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 10:23:05 +0000

Saturday we made a trip to Berlin and went to the “Check Point Charile” Museum and the a section of still standing wall.

Some of the exhibits in the museum were actual signs from the east/west border crossing point. They also had various examples of methods that people used to escape or sneek across the border including a set of hollowed out surf boards.

I did pick up a piece of the wall from a near by gift shop.