1st Day of Berlin

After showering and setting out, we decided that if we could conquer the Metro in Paris, surely we could figure out how to do it here! We stood and stared at the map for quite sometime, and a nice local even offered his assistance, but we basically figured it out on our own, despite the incredibly long names of all the destinations.

We went first to the giant department store, Ka De We, comparable to Herrod’s in London. Eight floors of shopping and dining! We barely touched the surface of this place, but enjoyed a nice German meal and treated ourselves to a couple of pieces of Godiva chocolate.

We wandered down the street, enjoying some performances by the locals. There was a group of about ten guys, some looked a little to old to be doing the skateboarding and gymnastic tricks that they were doing, but never the less it was entertaining.

Our goal for walking down the street was to visit a church, Kaiser Wilhelm, nicknamed the “open tooth.” This church was one of the few that withstood the bombs of World War II, and only part of it survived. The bell tower was almost cut in half, leaving it to look like an open tooth. The mosaics on the ceiling of the main floor though are amazingly still in good shape. We were rushed out, for we did not know the church closed at 4, only moments after arriving, but we were still thankful to see it. It also made me think, and I’m ashamed I didn’t realize it earlier, but for the age of this city, there are not many buildings that are very old because it was the center of so many great battles and most buildings were destroyed.

Next door to the old church though, there are actually two buildings, similar in their octagon, simple shape. One is very tall and is a bell tower. The other is a church that was constructed after the older one was partially destroyed. It looks simple on the outside, but on the inside, all eight of the walls of this modern-architecture church, are covered with deep blue stained glass. In the center of it all, a gold statue of Jesus is framed by the bright colors, truly beautiful.

Our first impressions of Berlin have not been great. There is graffiti everywhere which takes away so much of the beauty of a place. It is a large city, and seems rather dirty. But, we are all eager to get to the old town, to visit the historical monuments and great museums, perhaps even the famous zoo!

We’ve called it a very early night, because we all needed it! We are excited to see the more beautiful sections of Berlin tomorrow!