Remembering Germany

Our first trip outside the US was in May 2007. I was away for a week at the University of Bayreuth for research and Nelson came to visit afterwards. We had both been to Germany before but hadn't explored the main cities. So Berlin & Munich were on our agenda. As we were planning out second European trip together I began thinking of our five day adventure.

Berlin: I don't remember where we stayed but the subway system was so easy to navigate and made our trips in and out of the city very convenient.

Pergamon Museum: One of the must see museums in the city. The architectural exhibits were magnificent.


We did hop & hop off tour which made seeing the key sites of the city easy.

The co-existence of the East & the West Germany was apparent and gave this city its unique flavor. On the West side, it was very commercial with the biggest department store int eh world, Ka De We, and H&M stores in each block. The East side had many austere stately buildings. Seeing the 'The Wall" was one of the highlights of the trip. Checkpoint Charlie was another site that fascinated me.

It was about a 5hr train trip to Munchen. We arrived late the at the English Garden Inn. Next day we started our site seeing at the city center with a private walking tour.

We had lunch at the famed Chinese Beer Garden and went for a paddle boat ride at the English Garden. We went to two museums, one a small but unique Spielzeug & Teddy museum, while the other was Alte Pinakothek, a gallery housing paintings before the 19th century.

Travelling in Europe is quite different from all the places we've been to in the last few years, so I'm really looking forward to our upcoming trip.