Home

After spending all day flying to Dallas then sleeping at the Hyatt in terminal C for the night so that I could fly home to Shreveport the next morning. I was exhausted but I made my flight and got home around noon. Thankfully all the souvenirs made it home safely too. I was glad to see my family and friends. I hope I will be able to travel back to Berlin again at some point. The trip was very fun and the weather was great. I learned a lot about Germany and about myself. It was fun to come home on July 4th and see the firework shows. I hope everyone has a great summer and had as much fun as I did.

I got this from my friend and her brother when I got home. 

Last day in Berlin

Monday

We final got to go see the Soviet Memorial in the Tiergarten. We were unable to see it until now because of the Euro Cup and other events in the Tiergarten. It was built from the stone from Hitler chancellery. It was not on the Soviet side of the wall when the wall went up. The memorial was beautiful. On one side, it had the main inscription in English. On the other end, it had it in German. I liked the memorial more than I thought I would. After this, I went to mail a postcard then to the apartments to finish packing.  This trip was great and I learned a lot about architecture and German history. I hope this will not be my last trip to Germany!

Final weekend in Germany

Friday Lauren and I went to the other zoo. It had my favorite animal the red panda. We also saw some more giraffes. We got so lost in the zoo because of the lack of maps. It was the only thing we did that day but it was tons of fun.

Saturday we went to the Hard Rock Café and the Harley store. We had lunch at the Hard Rock. It took us a while to find both of them but is was a nice walk to both.  The people at both were very nice. I also tried bubble tea. I did not like it that much.

Sunday I washed clothes and got my stuff together. That night I watched Spain vs. Italy in the Euro Cup final. Spain won 4-0! I watched the firework show that was after the game. It was very loud because it was so close to my apartment. 

Thursday of the Final week

First we went to The Berlin Story Bookshop too see there museum exhibit on Berlin. The exhibit showed the history of Berlin from its start to where it is today.  I enjoyed seeing the old picture of the city next to newer pictures of the same location. I learned about rubble women. Rubble women would go through the rubble of buildings destroyed by bombs. There was a movie on the history of Berlin from its founding to today and then another shorter one on the Berlin Wall.  The museum was small but very well put together.

Then was the Bode – Museum. The museum had a lot of religious works. There were tons of Virgin Mary and Child sculptures. The part of the museum that I enjoyed most was the coin exhibit they had on the second floor. The exhibit has 4,000 coins spread out in four large cabinets. The coins are from the 7^th century BCE up to the present. I liked how varied the size and pictures were on each coin. I took some sheets on some coins I found interesting. The museum had a beautiful staircase that I reminded me more of a palace than a museum. The second floor had to be my favorite because it had the coins and a fireplace from the Husum Castle.

The last thing we did was the New Synagogue Berlin. The museum was smaller than I thought it was going to be. The synagogue had been damaged from a fire in 1938 and then heavily damaged in 1958 by allied bombs. Edward Knoblauch was the architect that designed the synagogue. We were able to climb the dome but we not allowed to take pictures. There was model of the synagogue that showed how big and majestic the whole building is.  They also hold part of the archives on some 400 Jewish communities. I found it very surprising that this single building had so many purposes and did them all very well. The exhibit shows the history of the building and the area but also the story of the Jewish population in the area.

After this, we broke for the day but all of us meet up to go watch the Germany vs. Italy game that was later that night.   Sadly, Germany lost the game so the final Euro Cup match will be Spain vs. Italy. I had a good time. I finally got to wear my Deutschland soccer shirt. I was very tired after the game so I went back to the apartments and went to sleep.