A Pleasant Drive

 Victory Column built by the Prussians. It's in the middle of what used to be the royal hunting grounds and is now a really big park.

 I think this was the prime ministers house... but I'm not entirely sure. It sure looks like an important government building.

 This building was nicknamed the pregnant oyster. I think it's some sort of concert hall.

 Apparently it was also called Jimmy Carter's smile.

 The German Parliament Building

 The Chancellery. It's the equivalent of the White House.

 Parliament Offices

 The front of the Chancellery

 Guardian of a cool old bridge that wasn't destroyed during the war.

 The central train station. We'll be leaving from here next week for Munich.

 A street that shows some of the blending I talked about in my earlier post. Cobblestone street, cement sidewalk. Modern building next to stone, etc. You can also see a canal, which are all over the city.

 The Brandenburg Gate. The last of the gates into the city of Berlin. It was on the east side and every building around it was destroyed during the war. After the wall came down all new buildings were built around the square, including the US embassy.

 Look! Horses!

 The US Embassy. Apparently they had to divert the street behind the building for security purposes. Silly Americans.

 A boulevard. The gate is behind me and ahead is Alexander platz, where there used to be a palace. It is currently being rebuilt as it was destroyed during the war, but the layout reminded me of the Champs-Elysee in Paris with the Arc de Triumph at one end and the Palace at the other.

 The Holocaust memorial. I plan to go back and walk through it.

 The first Catholic church in Berlin was designed after the Parthanon in Rome. I found this really interesting due to the Christianity class I took last term.

 Berlin still has lots of old museums.

 Here are a couple pics of a Lutheran church. Very pretty.

 Another Museum

 And another museum.

 And again. It was an island full of museums but they are really cool old buildings.

 Another old church

 The Berlin City Hall

 I think I just took a picture because we stopped. So I could get a clear one.

 A large section of the Berlin wall.

 More Wall

 And again. That's my classmate Josie. sort of looks like that scene from Schindler's list though with the red jacket.

 A cool bridge. 

 This side of the wall had art instead of graffiti.

 More wall.

 The cool bridge again.

 Look it's me! And the wall.

 OMG! We're crossing the cool bridge!

 You can't really tell, but the German cars and roads are really tiny. Kind of scary even in a small bus.

 Another old church

 Another old church

 A small square with lots of foreign food places.

 The Jewish museum. I plan to go.

 Another section of wall.

 Where the wall was.

 Views of the city.

 My second beer. Berliner Kindel Bock

The Sony Center dome.

Today we went on a driving tour of the city. We stopped at Brandenburg Gate, a
large section of the Berlin Wall, and Checkpoint Charlie. It was very
interesting and I saw a lot of places that I would like to revisit if we have
time. We spent a bit of time at Potsdamerplatz where the tour ended, riding the
fastest elevator in Europe to the top of a 24 floor building to get a panoramic
view of the city. Then we had lunch at a german restaurant where I had a
Berliner Kindel Bock. It did not have much of a head when poured into the glass
and was a very clear, dark brown beer. It's aroma was malty, with perhaps a
touch of caramel, nothing like Brian's beer which smelled and tasted a bit like
burnt bacon. There was no hoppy smell or taste whatsoever. The beer starts sweet
and lingers after as well. Very smooth and clean. The sweetness was probably due
to lack of hops, not to unfermented sugars (as I learned today during the class
activity). It's low carbonation gave it a full-bodied feel but it was not overly
sweet. Overall I really liked this beer.
After lunch we took the Underground to our hotel and had class and tonight we

are hitting the city nightlife! Looking forward to it!