Last Day in Berlin

On Saturday we went to see the East Side Gallery, a section of the wall that remains intact; it is about a mile long. When the wall was broken down, they decided to save this portion of the wall and call in artists from around the world to paint murals on the wall. While it was a really neat piece of artwork, unfortunately, like most of the city, it was covered in graffiti, so the original paintings on the wall were hard to see. Some people had at least written messages of some value on the wall, but most of them had simply written their name or date.

Next we headed to the famous Berlin Zoo! It really was a great zoo! We watched hippos play underwater, flamingos argue with one another, baby monkeys ride on their mom’s backs and saw lots of birds from around the world! I felt like I got to get up close to many of the animals, of course not touch them, but still up close. The panda bear came right up to the glass where I was and if it were not for the inch thick glass, I would have been petting him! One of the polar bears continually swam underwater and kept coming up at the glass, giving “the people” quite a show, again, if just that glass hadn’t been there! J

My favorite animal to see though was the world famous, Knut. Do you remember a year or two ago when a precious little baby polar bear stole the attention of the media around the world? I can’t remember all the details, I must look them up, but I believe he was abandoned by his mom, or something. There was a lot of debate about this future, but because of support from all around, the little bear is now grown and seems very comfortable in his environment! He is so cute and amazingly does look like the little bear whose picture we were all so familiar with.

After the zoo we walked through the huge garden in the middle of the park. It is the Tiergarten, full of trees, fields and nice pathways. No real manicured gardens, but nevertheless, a huge expansion of green right in the middle of the city.

We walked around later, did some shopping in the cold and drizzle, without any great purchases. Then headed to a pub where we settled in for the next five hours or so. We watched the end of one soccer game and then the next soccer game; then enjoyed a band who sang mainly American “oldies.” It was a lot of fun for our last night in Berlin.

I have enjoyed Berlin, but not nearly as much as Paris. It is so full of fascinating history, and that I have thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated, but as far as the city itself, I do feel like it is big and dirty. I am very glad that I came to Berlin, but I’m not sure I will be returning!

We are headed out in just a couple of hours on a 5-hour train ride to Prague. Hopefully we will have easy access to the internet once again! Thanks for reading!