Berlin or Bust

Berlin was a very AWESOME trip, we were very concerned in the beginning but it turned out GREAT!! I highly recommend a visit to this wonderful, unique, historical, and FRIENDLY city!!

Berlin is BY FAR, the MOST FRIENDLY European city we have visited!! Everyone is so very helpful and it is a good cultural experience. I was just amazed by how diverse people and area's were, yet they all just MESH quite well. From artsy, goth, punk, emo, to Upper class; everyone just smiled and functioned, sorry but SMILING is a HUGE plus for me!!! I have walked around so much here that I forget how nice it is to smile at someone and they actually smile back and not look at you like you are crazy!!! Don't get me wrong, Kaiserslautern is not unfriendly to Americans but they don't smile a lot lol...

Some of the highlights for me personally, the East Gallery Wall, WOW!!! Just to actually see how tall and how HUGE this wall actually was....Going on top of the Reichstag and seeing that Berlin just goes on forever (tour guide said over 3 million Berliners), over all atmosphere in Berlin (HUGE but places felt SAFE for the most part), again the freindly atmosphere threw me off too b/c I was expecting BIG CITY RUDE but they were very hospitable :-)...All the history just hit me on the way home and how thankful I am that this BEAUTIFUL city can still be so very diverse but that now it gets to function as ONE....to be FREE is a beautiful thing :-)

Some NON historical highlights for me....Tropical Island Resorts, about 50 min from Berlin, I HIGHLY recommend to families of all ages!!! My children LOVED LOVED LOVED this place, and so did Shane and I. On the website it says you cannot bring your own food in but we saw MANY bring in coolers!! I would suggest doing so because the prices of food is VERY HIGH...We have a family of 5 and it cost 50 Euros to eat and 20 euros to drink, the food however is DELICIOUS!! So either bring a big cooler or BIG EURO :-)...This place is open 24/7 and you can literally swim anytime and as long as you like!! GREAT FUN!!! We are already planning our xmas trip to there!!

Another NON Historical exhibit that we really enjoyed was BODY WORLD. It was very interesting, real human bodies and parts on display. If you do not believe in God you SOOOO have to check out this exhibit, and if you do believe in God you just stand in awe of how we truly our weaved together!!! WOW!!! If you support abortion, this is a MUST for you to see, it might make you reconsider the little life forming inside of you...They have every week of pregnancy in vials, and that whole "blob" looking thing everyone talks about is so NOT true....You can see that it is a baby VERY EARLY, w/in a few weeks!!! WOW....I did get a little teary through that section b/c the reality of them being REAL hits...they are not just "molds" they are actual little infants that did not make it full term and then there are several who made it full term but passed away....Just a VERY INTERESTING walk through...Paige and Hayden were asking all kinds of questions, that of course Shane and I could not answer lol...WARNING though, EVERYTHING is visible and my boys pointed out certain VERY VISIBLE anatomy. If I had this one to do over, I would probably ONLY take Paige, she is 11, probably not the smartest spot for really YOUNG kids. You have the option to "donate" your body to this man to put on display, I told Shane I would give mine up but I would ask for their phone # and addy to have someone contact them...I told Shane if they get desperate I don't want them to come hunting down my body and claim it before my time lol....Yes I am CAUTIOUS about people, there be some crazies out there lol....The location of this exibit did not help my "concerns", if you have ever seen Hostel (and NO I do not recommend seeing it HORRIBLE movie) but the building we went into looks like the area they were slaying people in the movie!!!

So overall, a WONDERFUL WONDERFUL trip to Berlin that we plan on doing again, hopefully soon!!! Enjoy the pics!!!

Waiting for Steph to feed baby Isaac so we can go to Body World
Waiting at the train station, on our way to Body World

Poor Charlie, I don't think he enjoys traveling with us, sorry!!

My little man Kemp da pimp

Hayden, Kempton, Lillie, and Paige standing by the Body World car

The outside of Tropical Island Resort

Shane and the kids inside Tropical Island Resort

Just more view of the inside

Garcia and Shugart fam swimming

The 3 BIG slides inside, they ROCKED!! Paige, Charlie, and Shane were the only ones brave enough for the blue slide...major WEDGIE that slide gives and I sooo didn't want one!!

Shane loved this bike and HAD to have a pic!!

Heading to the Berlin Wall East Side Gallery

Lillie and Charlie at the East side Gallery

Shugart Family at the East Side Gallery. The gallery is an international memorial for freedom. It is a 1.3 km long section of the Berlin Wall and consists of approximately 106 paintings by artists from all over the world. It is possibly the largest and everlasting open air gallery in the world. The first paintings began in 1989 right after the fall of the wall.

Hayden piece of the Berlin Wall

Kempton at the wall

Paige and she was not too happy about having to wear her head gear :-(

A tag on the wall

I LOVED this quote and believe it to be true!!!

Kempi and his little Trabi car

Waiting on our subway...It was neat using the public transportation but I felt very DIRTY afterwards...I could not get a hold of sanitizer quick enough!!!

Playing around waiting on our subway

RAISE YOUR HAND, RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOUR SURE!! Steph is sure heading to our stop!!

Brandenburg Gate

Issac trying to eat Steph's bread

Shane chowing at Tony Roma's in Berlin. I felt like I was back in America for a couple of hours, YUMMY food!!

The Jewish Memorial to the holocaust victims

Our tour guide said the designer was trying to make it "feel" like the jews did; isolated, desperation, a loneness, and seperated and as you wonder through this maze like memorial you get a sense of how they must have felt.

Charlie, Alex, and Lillie...they all look a little BORED, sorry

I LOVED the street entertainers and statues, AWESOME!! We had to get Hayden' s pic with these guys b/c they were AWESOME statues!!!

The fam in front of the Brandenburg gate

Antother great "statue" these people are AWESOME!!

I so wanted this car!!!

At the top of the dome at Reichstag

Berlin just goes on and on

Does this give you a sense of how HUGE this city is?!

Center of the dome, shane said it looked like the "computer" on the movie ROBOT

On top of the Reichstag

Getting ready for our open air train tour

Reichtag Building

This bridge connects East and west Germany

Royal Porcelain from Berlin

Humboldt Univerysity of Berlin

Church around Museum Island

Berliner Dom known as the "Protestant St. Peter's"

St. Mary's Church

Red Town Hall

Spree River

Friedrichswerder Church

This is either the French or German Cathedral but I cannot remember which :-)

Gendarme Market the Concert Hall
Christmas market set up outside here is suppose to be wonderful!!

Chocolate Museum with a CHOCOLATE RESTAURANT UPSTAIRS!!!

Checkpoint Charlie

Hi-Flyer Berlin

We wanted to go on this but it was too windy on sunday :-(

I am a little "tiffed" about these pics...Shane LOVED these silly little Trabbie cars that he totally MISSED the "important" pictures!!! Gestapo headquarters and more of the Berlin wall were across the street and down a bit from this location, silly boy!!!

Another shot of the Jewish memorial

and the tour is Done....great 40 minute tour for ONLY 5 euro's each!!!

Hayden and Paige BEGGED to ride this COOL BIKE...we were going to but it started raining pretty good so we needed to get back to our car!!

This is Berlin's walk and don't walk light....too cute!!!

Shane and a BELOVED Trabbie car!!!

Paige standing in East and West Germany :-)

Not really b/c according to the guide the wall was located more on the East side so they could climb the wall and "technically" still be in the East

Well I hope you enjoyed your tourn of Berlin....I have tons more pics to go through!!!