The plan had originally been to get to Berlin around 8 am Saturday morning and have the whole day-- we ended up getting there at about 7:00 at night after travelling for nearly 24 hours. The pain of that is relatively boring-- but the important thing it meant was that we missed our tour of Charlottenburg Palace because we had bought tickets for early afternoon (as part of our plan for things to stay awake and get on German time). Instead, we arrived at our hotel basically in time to have dinner and end our day.
Arriving at the hotel wasn't the easiest thing either-- though (in what one might consider a cliche) getting out of the Berlin airport was the easiest and most efficient process I have ever gone through. We deplaned, walked just steps to passport control, steps past that to the baggage carousel, another few steps through customs and were outside the airport in minutes standing in line to get a taxi. The unfortunate part of this efficient exit was that there was no ATM between us and the taxi-- but that was ok because we were assured we could use a credit card... which we could have if the machine had been working. But it wasn't-- and so we were sitting in front of our hotel with no cash and no way to pay the taxi. Fortunately, the concierge at Hotel Albrechtshof was able to charge about 30 euro to our room and hand me cash to give to the driver (who I tried to give a large tip to for all his trouble and having to wait forever for me to find a way to pay him, but he wouldn't take it). So, quite tired, we were able to check into our hotel room
and then immediately leave to go find something to eat. It was a long day-- so fortunately, there was a lovely Italian restaurant directly across the street from our hotel: Boccondivino.
It turned out to be absolutely amazing! It's a charming, family owned place.
We were starving by this point, having only had airport and airplane food for the last 24 hours, so we started with the antipasto plate which had cheese, eggplant, red peppers, olives, and salami.
And then followed that with the best homemade pasta...possibly ever. Maybe even better than pasta made in Italy... certainly at least as good.
 |
| This was my bolognese. |
 |
| This was my mother's ravioli. |
And, of course, we have to have tiramisu for dessert.
And then because we didn't want it to be a totally wasted day of having seen nothing in Berlin, we walked about half a mile to see the Brandenburg Gate at night.
Bradenburg Gate was built between 1789 and 1791. It's the only one of 14 gates left; the gates used to be guarded to control passage in and out and to levy taxes on incoming goods. Until 1918, only the royal carriage could pass through the middle section of the gate. In 1961, it became a symbol of division when Berlin Wall was built and the gate itself became in accessible for 28 years as it was located in the "death strip" controlled by guards. The gate reopened in 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down.
Along the sides of the main gate are reliefs and medallions celebrating Greek culture such as the goddess Eirene surrounded by virtues or the five trials of Hercules.
They are all a bit difficult to get good pictures of because they are high up on walls and the structure makes it difficult to get far enough away to do anything but take photos at an extreme upward angle. While that gate stood as a symbol of the military and division for a long time, it is now seen as a symbol of unity.
On our walk to the gate, we also discovered our first Buddy Bear.
Buddy Bears are life-size, fiberglass sculptures serving as unofficial ambassadors of Germany since 2001. There are about 140 bears around Berlin; since they represent many countries recognized by the United Nations, there are also Buddy Bears, given by Germany, located around the world. We didn't come close to finding all 140 (though, there are maps to help find them all if you really wanted to go on an extensive Buddy Bear hunt), but a souvenir shop window near this Buddy Bear gave a demonstration of the variety.
On the walk back to our hotel, along the Spree River, we passed the Berlin Reichstag, or parliament building.
It is possible to visit the dome, though tickets have to be reserved in advance. The Reichstag was built in 1894, though it has been restored and rebuilt many times due to fire and bombings.
Our look at the river and parliament at night was the last event of our very long travel "day," as we headed back to the hotel to go to sleep.
Sunday, March 24
When we were planning our trip to Germany, we had made arrangements to go to Potsdam on Sunday-- so pretty early Sunday morning, we walked about a mile to the Berlin train station to catch our 7:30 am train. This is also where we saw our second Buddy Bear.
Potsdam is the former royal Prussian seat, so there are several castles located there. It's also not particularly far from Berlin (about 25 minutes)-- and nothing really opens until 10 am, at least on a Sunday, so we were a bit early. We had coffee and yogurt in the Potsdam train station before heading out to wander the old town a bit (and wait for the tourist office to open). Fairly close to the train station is Old Market Square (Neuen Market),
 |
| Statue of General Friedrich Wilhelm August von Stuben, who actually served in George Washington's army and served as his Chief of Staff. Also interesting is that although he was married, he seemed to be rather openly gay, though records of those relationships are limited since it was illegal at the time. |
the location of St. Nicholas Church
 |
| St. Nicholas is a Lutheran church built between 1830 and 1837. It was hit during a British raid during WWII and then further damaged by Soviet artillery fire. It was rebuilt and then reconsecrated in 1981. |
and the Potsdam Parliament building, formerly the City Palace which was the winter residence for Prussian kings and emperors.
 |
| These arches are from the original palace gate; it's pretty much the only remaining part of the original palace proper. |
 |
| Interior courtyard |
This is actually a reconstruction, completed in 2013, as the actual palace was bombed in 1945. What remained of the original structure was dismantled in 1960.
Across from the palace building is the current film museum, which used to be the palace stables and the only whole structure left of the original palace,
and the Brandenburg Prussian History Museum,
which was part of the palace until 1918. Most of the original structure was destroyed in 1945.
In the New Market are also signs of the Jewish community that lived there pre-WWII including the site of the Potsdam Synagogue which was defiled and then destroyed in 1939.
There was a project to rebuild it which stalled in 2011, but in 2018 there was a new commitment to finish the reconstruction. Building is scheduled to begin in 2020 and finish in 2022 and cost about 8 million euro.
After getting a map from the tourist office, we headed into the heart of Old Town Potsdam which a largely pedestrian area, which features this musically chiming clock
and gates which once marked the beginnings of the road network to the nearest cities and which currently border several of the side streets and mark the end of the pedestrian areas.
 |
| Jagertor: built in 1733. This is the only original gate. |
 |
| Nauener Tor: built originally in 1720 and then rebuilt on this site in 1733 and then rebuilt again in its current form in 1755. |
At the end of the main pedestrian street, Bradenburger Strasse, is St. Peter und Paul Church,
a Roman Catholic church completed in 1870. While I love church interiors, I got to see very few on this trip, and none on this day as it was Sunday and services were in session, so the public couldn't enter.
At the other end of the pedestrian street is Potsdam's Bradenburger Gate
which was built to commemorate Frederick the Great's 1770 victory in the Seven Year's War. Across from the gate is Luisen Platz with this sculpture
which seems like something of an unofficial marker for the beginning of the walk around Sanssouci Park, royal grounds first dreamed up by Frederick the Great and then finished by his great-great-nephew, King Friedrich Whilheim IV. This park is where we spent most of the day-- it takes pretty much a whole day to see and requires planning as both Sanssouci Palace and the New Palace require timed entry tickets to tour.
When walking from Luisen Platz to Sanssouci Park, you first pass Friedenskirche, the Church of Peace
which was built by Friedrich IV and finished in 1854. You can only wander the grounds around the church.
For some reason, there is also this separate, small gate for children (I think), though I'm not sure why. (The sign on it says to stop and not enter-- it doesn't explain the actual gate or statues.
But, others were both walking through and stopping to take pictures in the gate-- pictures did a pretty good job showing how small the gate actually is.
 |
| Me, standing in the gate. (Also, notice the heavy winter coat I'm holding-- necessary at the beginning of the week. By the time we got to Frankfurt at the end of the week, it was near 80 degrees.) |
From Friedenskirche, you can walk around and enter the park proper through Obeliskportal. On the left is the Peace Garden
which provides a different view of the Church, and to the right is Neptune's Grotto
built between 1751 and 1757 by Frederick the Great.
Further down is the Picture Gallery
built between 1755 and 1764 during the reign of Frederick II. It is the oldest extant museum built for a ruler in Germany.
And, next to the Gallery is Sanssouci Palace.
Sanssouci Palace was the summer palace of Frederick the Great, designed in 1747. It's one of two palaces on the grounds and requires a timed ticket to get in.
 |
| Center of the Palace, up close. |
 |
| Gazebo to the side of the Palace. |
Our entry time was for 12:40, so we still had a little time which we used to go visit the Historic Mill.
he mill itself was used for grinding grain. It processed grain (and then cereal starting in 1858) until 1861 when it became a public museum. It was nearly completely destroyed in WWII and was rebuilt starting in 1983 and in 1993, the "wings" were started again. You can stand on the observation deck while they spin.
There's also a lovely view from the deck.
There is also a rather precarious set of ladders you climb to get to the top 3 levels where you can see the interior mechanisms of the mill at work
as well as view some of the original machinery.
After we toured the mill, it was almost time for our tour of Sanssouci Palace, so we went to the back courtyard to wait.
Tours are led with stereotypical Prussian efficiency, so you can't get into line for your tour until pretty much a couple minutes before it starts.
What I didn't realize before the tour began was that you couldn't take pictures unless you purchased a wristband which allowed for photos-- the wristband is 3 euro. So, I don't have pictures of inside Sanssouci Palace except in the last room, the Voltaire Room (when everyone regardless of having a wristband or not starting taking pictures, so I risked it). All of the relief work on the walls is porcelain.
Fredrick the Great was obsessed with French culture, and actually spoke French better than he spoke German. He often entertained famous French artists and writers, like Voltaire who used this room as his bedroom when he visited.
On the way out of the palace, we did stop to buy a wristband so that we could take photos later at the New Palace.
Before touring the rest of the grounds, we stopped for lunch at Movenpick which is across a small road from the palace. (When we were buying the wristband, we asked if there was somewhere to eat and were told there was a restaurant about 5 minutes walk away-- it's about 45 seconds walk really, though I guess it could take a little longer if you have to wait for a passing car before crossing the small street.)
 |
| Salad with Roast Beef |
 |
| Flammkuchen-- which is basically a thin crust pizza but the German's seem to get upset if you actually call it pizza. |
We had a relatively healthy lunch-- but only because we didn't notice until we were leaving that the back of the restaurant was an ice cream parlor serving elaborate concoctions. Those would have been lunch had we known.
From lunch, we walked down the path to the New Palace to get a timed entry ticket for that site (when you purchase tickets online, you reserve only a time for Sanssouci-- you have to reserve times for the New Palace on the grounds. It wasn't a big deal since we were there in March and it wasn't particularly crowded, but I can imagine in high tourist season, you'd want to head to the New Palace as soon as you entered the grounds to ensure a ticket.)
On the way to the New Palace is the Orangerie Palace
which became a guest house because while Frederick liked to entertain, he didn't like his guests sleeping in the same palace as him.
The New Palace
was the final palace commissioned by Frederick the Great. It took only 6 years to build which is amazing considering the opulence of the inside.
Outside, in the "back" of the palace, are the parade grounds
across from which is this structure which was where the servants lived but is now actually a part of the University of Potsdam. It's directly across from the courtyard of the New Palace where you enter for the tour.
I do have a ton of photos of the inside of the New Palace, which is over-the-top ornate.
 |
| Lower Vestibule Ceiling |
 |
| Lower Vestibule |
 |
| Lower Vestibule |
 |
| Grotto Hall |
 |
| Grotto Hall-- it's all done in shells. The photos don't quite do the intricacy of the work enough justice. |
 |
| Grotto Hall |
 |
| Grotto Hall |
 |
| Marble Gallery |
 |
| Marble Gallery |
 |
| Marble Gallery ceiling |
 |
| Tamerlane Room |
 |
| Tamerlane Room |
 |
| Red Damask Room |
 |
| Red Damask Room ceiling-- also, the chandeliers in every room were amazing. |
 |
| Room with Galloon Decoration |
 |
| Lower Concert Room |
 |
| North Stairs |
 |
| Elevator-- and mechanism for working it-- in case visitors couldn't manage the stairs |
 |
| Tea display |
 |
| Bathtub |
 |
| Large Bedchamber |
 |
| Hunting Chamber |
 |
| Hunting Chamber ceiling and chandelier |
 |
| Music Room |
|
| Great Chamber |
 |
| Great Chamber chandelier |
 |
| Marble Hall (which is different from the earlier Marble Gallery) |
 |
| Marble Hall floor |
 |
| Marble Hall ceiling |
 |
| Upper Vestibule-- last stop on the tour of the New Palace. You can see the Parade Grounds through the window. |
As we were leaving, my mom asked the tour guide if she knew in current money about how much the palace would have cost to build. The tour guide laughed; apparently, Frederick burned all the receipts-- we know he paid all the artisans and builders who worked on the palace, but he didn't actually want anyone to know how much it cost, even in the 18th century and even though he was king (so who could have said no to his spending), so there are no records left of the actual payments. I'm guessing that means it was extraordinarily expensive to build.
This was the last site in Sanssouci Park that we actually got to see because we had a few miles to walk back to the train station to make our 6 pm reservation. We did pass the Chinese House on our way out of the park, but only from a distance. We didn't have time to tour it.
On the way back to the train station, just to remind you that Potsdam is a royal city, was this sculpture.
And that ended our day of tourism. When we got back, we were so tired that we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant, ALvis. We opened with soup appetizers
 |
| Red potato soup |
 |
| Squash soup |
and then had main courses.
 |
| Eggplant and rissoto |
 |
| Potatoes and other spring vegetables |
And, that ended our first full day in Germany.
Monday, March 25
Monday was our day for a food tour in Berlin. It was in what was once East Berlin. While the city is unified, there is still a bit of a difference in the feel of the two parts; East Berlin is still more bohemian and West Berlin, which is a bit more traditionally cosmopolitan.
All of Berlin, however, is really international, especially the eastern part, for may reasons, not the least of which is that after WWII and during the Cold War, there was a lack of a work force, so citizens from all over Europe, especially Turkey, were encouraged to move to Germany to work. One of effects of this is that international influence on the cuisine in Berlin-- and our food tour was representative of that. There was one other couple on the tour with us (who, I have to say, I had a weird sense of deja vu about-- like we had been on a food tour with them before, maybe?), which meant it was a relatively small group which was nice.
Our first stop was a Turkish restaurant, Adena Kebap Grill.
We started with drinks-- it was 11 am, so even though were offered beer, we opted for a different drink, a rhubarb soda.
The soda brand, Fritz Kola, was created in 2003 by two friends from Hamburg who had decided that they could produce better soda, with better ingredients than the major soda companies. So, we sipped on that while we waited for our gyro.
We each got a whole one-- with chicken and vegetables and a few different sauces (one of which was spicy, so my mom got hers without that one). I think I ate about a quarter of it-- it would have been enough food for the whole day, so as someone whose been on food tours before, I knew not to eat too much of it.
After our sandwich, we walked around the city a bit. There is quite a bit of graffiti in the eastern section of Berlin; most of it is gorgeous. Pretty much all of it is political in some way. While what I largely took pictures of was the really elaborate art
 |
| This one is actually multi-media. It's a bit hard to tell from the photo, but it's got foil incorporated in it. |
there are also the more common graffiti tags on a lot of buildings. However, the tags aren't gang affiliated; they are also political comment. In Berlin, landlords can raise rents only if the apartments have been renovated. However, renovation can mean that only the outside of the building has been improved, and so that happens a lot-- landlords and companies refurbish the outside of buildings and then raise the rent. Apparently, these refurbished exteriors rarely last a few days before someone tags them in an attempt to undo the refurbishment and make a statement about the intended rent hike.
A lot of the graffiti I photographed is on buildings which have been repurposed. For example, this one
is on the outside of what was once a train repair shop, but has now been converted to be a swimming pool. Other buildings have also been converted from their wartime purposes to other uses, such as this silo
which is now a rock climbing gym (both inside and out). There are also quirky buildings around Berlin such as this:
the smallest dance club in the world. It's about the size of a phone booth; you pay 2 euro to enter and then choose music. There are lights and fog as well to give it a real club feel. (I really wanted to go in, but felt bad about holding up the tour to do it.)
Pretty much every food establishment on the eastern side of Berlin is independent. In addition to actively protesting rent hikes for superficially refurbished buildings, the residents also protest the attempt to introduce chains, such as McDonald's, into the area. The "trophy" from this is displayed on someone's balcony.
 |
| Last time McDonald's tried to move in, the residents stole the golden arches and now proudly display them. |
Our next stop on the food tour was at Blech Bilder Bar, the oldest restaurant in Simon-Sach-Strasse. It has a pub feel to it-- and was one of the two German places we went to. Here, I had beer
 |
| This is a smaller beer than the couple we were with got; there was an option to pay a little extra to get larger beers at all the stops-- I actually thought this was going to be a real difference in how much alcohol we did or didn't get on the tour, but other than getting a smaller beer in this place, we pretty much had the same options. |
and we split a flammkuchen (the food tour is actually where I learned not to call it pizza as I mentioned earlier).
After our pub time, we walked around the neighborhood a bit. In addition to all of the buildings which have been repurposed, there are other reminders of WWII around the city, including these plaques which are all over the city (not just the east side). They are brass cobblestones located in front of any residence that was occupied by Jews or others taken by the Nazis to commemorate their lives.
 |
| The plaques contain information known about the residents. This one includes name, date of birth, date of death as well is what is known about the death. There are a lot of plaques which contain the phrase "fluch in den tod" which means "escaped into death" or suicide. The first word of the explanation, "Gedemutigt," means humiliated, though I'm not sure what that means terms of what was actually done to Else. |
 |
| There are four plaques here to remember everyone in the family. In this case, the plaques provide the dates of when the family was taken and, in the case of two (I'm guessing the children) where they were sent (in this case, Auschwitz and the Warsaw ghetto). For three of the family members, the date of death is listed. The daughter, who was sent to Auschwitz, is listed as murdered, though the date is unknown. |
The cobblestones are part of an art project started in 1996 by Gunter Demnig. At first, they were installed illegally, but eventually (after the first 51), they were allowed to remain. The project has spread outside of Berlin into other parts of Germany as well as other places such as cities in Spain and the city of Prague.
The next couple stops on our food tour were to smaller shops to pick up sweets for the end of tour. The first was a Turkish candy and nut store called Kuruyemis
where we got a traditional nut mix which, in addition to peanuts and a couple other nuts also contained sesame and some candy pieces.
The next sweet stop was at a German bakery called Morgenduft
where our guide picked up cake for later.
The next place we stopped to actually eat was a "hot dog" stand, What a Wurst by Curry Fritz,
where we got German sausage called currywurst.
It's basically hot dog with different kinds of sauces on them (in this case, one spicy and one not). There was also one with skin and one without. The not spicy sauce was a bit too much like ketchup, so I liked the spicy one better.
Across the street from What a Wurst, we found the next buddy bear
which is located on top of a building, proving they will put them anywhere. There was also this very cool graffiti/art piece.
Our final stop was at Scheers Schnitzel
to get, of course, schnitzel sandwiches.
There was also German pilsner, Schultheiss.
Here, we also had the dessert from the bakery we stopped at earlier, a German version of cheesecake.
This was the end of our food tour. This was also the one day when it rained and so it wasn't a great day to go see sights, but we did wander down the street to see the one section of the Berlin wall which is still standing and intact.
Nearby, is also this bridge
which is oddly medieval and out of place. It was a city fortification at one point, though hasn't been preserved as any sort of historic site. But, the clues to what it once was are there-- one example is this door
which dates back to 1895.
After the food tour, we headed back to our hotel neighborhood to go back to a souvenir shop near the Bradenburg Gate that sold Buddy Bears, large and small. We each bought a small one.
I also got a picture of the gate in the day.
We headed back to the hotel for a bit to escape the rain (which isn't evident from what looks like a sunny picture above) and because I had some work to do. But later, we headed out to see Checkpoint Charlie-- though the walk to Checkpoint Charlie became more of a Buddy Bear hunt.
 |
| The one is actually inside a bank. |
 |
| These are the two above shown together-- they sit in front of a hotel. |
Checkpoint Charlie was the third checkpoint built between East and West Germany, but became the most famous crossing point for members of the Allied forces. It was also the site, in October 1961, of a tank confrontation between the Americans and the Soviets.
Checkpoint Charlie now is more of a museum. You can see the actual "checkpoint,"
 |
| There are a couple "soldiers" at the checkpoint, which really is at a median in the road. The picture is of an unknown Russian soldier. |
 |
| The picture on this side is of an American soldier. |
but it's not the original booth, flag, or sandbags. The original was destroyed in a formal ceremony on June 22, 1990. What is there, in addition to the replica, is a wall with an historical timeline
and the "black box"
which is an exhibit about Cold War confrontations (and which was closed by the time we got there). There is also a museum which stays open until late and contains artifacts like pieces of the Wall
an original border pile,
 |
| Behind the border pile, to the right, is another segment of the Berlin Wall. |
a plaque which was originally intended to honor Leonid Breshnev, the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
 |
| This tablet was fixed to the outside of Breshnev's house after his death in 1983 in order to honor him. In 1993, it was moved to the entrance of a house which honors the people prosecuted by Breshnev. |
and a symbol of the Communist Party.
These are all located outside the museum proper that you need tickets for-- you can actually get quite a lot of information about Checkpoint Charlie and the Cold War without actually going into the museum.
After visiting Checkpoint Charlie, we headed back to our hotel neighborhood for dinner where we ate in a different Italian restaurant, Muckracker's, caddy-corner to the one we ate at two night's before. This was a more rustic, casual restaurant
where we both had pasta dishes.
 |
| The top dish is a bolognese I ordered. The lower dish is the lasagna my mom ordered. |
And, that ended our day-- we had to be up early again the next day to catch our train for our day trip to Dresden.
Tuesday, March 26
We were up and back at the train station to catch a 6:59 am train to Dresden, which, on the fast train, is about 2 hours from Berlin. (It can take up to 5 hours to get to Dresden if you don't take the express train, so we didn't have many options.) We arrived in Dresden about 9 am, which was about an hour before anything opened, so we walked from the train station to a small coffee and had coffee and pastries.
a Lutheran church which dates back to the early 1300s. However, the original church, and other reconstructions, have been destroyed by war and fire, most recently in 1945 during the bombing of Dresden. The current church was reconstructed in 1955.
We waited for that to open so that we could climb the 232 tower stairs (to which you are innocently welcomed by this statue).
Along the climb up the sometimes quite steep stairs
 |
| The stairs start off quite modern; the higher you climb, the steeper and more narrow they become. This is me-- not quite on the steepest, narrowest part of the climb (and in a very bulky coat as this was the coldest day of the trip). |
are medieval looking doors
and the bell tower.
The point of climbing the tower is to get to the observation deck from which you can see most of Dresden.
 |
 |
| This is looking down into the Dresden Town Hall. |
 |
| Here you can see the tops of the two other major churches in Dresden: the Cathedral and Church of Our Lady. |
After our aerial view of the city, we headed towards the palaces. There are multiple palaces in Dresden including Zwinger Palace, The Royal Palace, and Taschenberg Palace.
Unfortunately, the Royal Palace wasn't open the day we were there,
 |
| The Royal Palace was originally built in the 15th century. However, it was destroyed in WWII. It was reconstructed in the 1980s to serve as a museum complex. |
but Zwinger Palace was.
Zwinger Palace was built between 1710 and 1728 for Augustus the Strong, who wanted something similar to Versailles. Hence, the ornate decorations adorning all of the palace.
It's free to walk around the grounds,
but the palace also houses three exhibitions: The Old Masters Gallery, the Porcelain Collection, and an exhibition of scientific instruments. We opted to just get tickets to the Porcelain Collection which is housed in the Bottger Room, named for Johann Friedrich Bottger who created Europe's first porcelain. Augustus the Strong assembled the largest collection of East Asian and Saxon porcelain in Europe.
"Room" is a bit deceiving. It's more of a pavilion filled with porcelain vases and dishware.
 |
| Chinese Porcelain from Dehua (pure white porcelain), |
 |
| Japanese Imari Porcelain c. 1700 |
 |
| Kangxi Era Chinese Porcelain (1662-1722 in the pictorial style of famille verte decorations. |
When we entered, it looked like this pavilion was the whole of the display, but there are many rooms off of this one in which there are varying porcelain sculptures. There was even a whole room dedicated to only porcelain animals.
And, there were intricate porcelain sculpture of flowers
 |
| Sent by Maria Jospeha, consort to Louis XVI, to her father in 1749 |
as well as creepy busts
 |
| Bust of court jester Gottfried Schmiedel |
 |
| Bust of court jester Joeseph Froehlich (1694-1757) |
and incredibly elaborate table centerpieces which were my favorite.
 |
| Centerpiece shaped in the form of a temple of honour c. 1750 (the two following pictures are close-ups of this centerpiece) |
 |
| Centerpiece of the dinner service of General Marshal Count Burchard Christoph von Muennich c. 1738 |
 |
| Central part of a centerpiece of a dinner service for Fredrik Augustus III |
There were also these creepy baby heads.
Almost all of the porcelain displayed outside of the Bottger Room is Meissen, which was the first hard-paste porcelain in Europe. It was developed in 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus and then continued by Bottger after von Tschirnhaus' death. The porcelain gets its name from the city in which it's produced, Meissen which is just outside of Dresden, and so Dresden is a place known for its porcelain. After touring the exhibit, we visited a small shop outside the palace that sold pieces and bought some earrings and a necklace which were authenticated Dresden Porcelain.
Next to Zwinger Palace is the Semper Opera House
which was originally built between 1838 and 1841 by Gottfried Semper though, like much of everything in Dresden, was destroyed in 1944 during the bombing.
The Altstadt (Old Town) area of Dresden isn't particularly big and all the buildings are located fairly close to one another. You can see the "famous" Dresden skyline from Augustusbrucke Bridge, a pedestrian bridge, though the view is fairly obstructed at the moment due to the all the construction and renovation.
 |
| This is what makes it relatively difficult to get a good picture of the river walk view of Dresden. |
 |
| I managed to get some of the view without construction, though this is missing the iconic Cathedral in addition to a couple other sites. |
 |
| This is the other side of the Elbe River, which we didn't visit. The large building is the Ministry of France. |
Next to the Opera House and across from the bridge is the Cathedral, "Sanctissimae Trinitatis."
The Cathedral was built between 1738 and 1754 and is the largest church in Saxony. Augustus the Strong is buried here along with 49 other members of the Wettin family. Pictures showing the scope of the interior make it look quite simple, though up close photos reveal all the intricate details along the columns.
A bit behind and to the side of the Cathedral is the Procession of Princes
 |
| It's hard to get a picture of the whole procession in one because the walkway where this is located is fairly narrow, so it's hard to get far enough away from it. |
originally painted between 1871 and 1876, but then redone between 1904 and 1907 after the original deteriorated. It's the largest porcelain mural in the world, made up of more approximately 23,000 Meissen porcelain tiles depicting the rulers of the House of Wettin from the 12th century to the beginning of the 20th century; this mural survived the bombing in 1945, so it is the original tiles from the early 20th century. It connects the Georgentor Gate, which is part of the Royal Palace, to the Johanneum
a Renaissance building dating from 1586. It was originally a stable for the electoral prince. Today, it's the Transport Museum.
Continuing around the Johanneum and back along the river walk, there is Bruhlsche Terrasse (Bruhl's Terrace), which was laid out between 1739 and 1748.
It was Count Heinrich von Bruhl's private "pleasure garden" given to him as a gift for his introduction of a betterment tax. Bruhl also had a palace which was destroyed in 1900. The original terrace itself was destroyed in 1945-- what is here is a restoration, probably of what was mostly here (though no one seems to know for sure).
To the side of Bruhl's Terrace, you can get to the Academy of Fine Arts
built in 1894. Near the Academy of Fine Arts are also side streets, leading a bit away from the buildings, are some side streets with restaurants.
We were quite hungry by this point-- and they drawn into Ayers Rock
Restaurant, an Australian themed restaurant
by the advertisement for ice cream sundaes which were in this menu
but were also pictured outside the restaurant. It's not beyond my mom and I to have ice cream for lunch, though we hadn't really eaten anything all day, so we had real food first.
 |
| My salad with poached egg, bacon, and mango. |
 |
| Crab and seafood soup |
And then ice cream.
In a moment of great self-control, we even shared just the one.
After lunch, we went to the Church of Our Lady, the most famous church in Dresden.
The Church of Our Lady is a Protestant church originally built between 1726 and 1743-- and, of course, destroyed in 1945. It was rebuilt in the 1990s and reconsecrated in 2005.
The back of the church faces Neumarkt
which is sometimes considered the heart of the Old Town. It's filled with baroque buildings
which are being reconstructed quarter by quarter. It's not completely reconstructed, but it's close.
There are also statues of important Germans in the Neumarkt.
 |
| Martin Luther |
 |
| Fredrich August II, King of Saxony |
Neumarkt also has a few shops which we wandered into before heading back towards the train station. We had a little bit of extra time, though not enough to really wander to sites of the old town, so we went into the mall near the train station and wandered around a bit before our 4 pm train back to Berlin.
When we got back to Berlin, even though we were cold and tired, we headed back to the souvenir shop near Bradenburg Gate to get my dad a key chain we had told him about and which he seemed to really want. It does demonstrate how the German's feel about our president.
 |
| Pooping Trump keychain |
And then, we went to dinner at a Vietnamese place, Minh San
because Pho seemed like a good idea.
 |
| Green tea |
 |
| Spring Rolls |
 |
| Beef Pho |
And then we headed back to our hotel for our last night.
Wednesday, March 27
On Wednesday, we had to head to Hannover for my conference. It's about a 2 hour ride from Berlin to Hannover. We got to Hannover around lunch time and checked into our hotel, Loccumerhof, which was only a couple blocks away. Our room wasn't quite ready, so we left our bags and headed off to find the Old Town and lunch.
The Old Town is bordered by water,
where the Nana Sculptures are.
 |
| Charlotte |
 |
| Caroline |
The Nana Sculptures were created by Niki de Saint Phalle, a French-American artist, in 1974.
On the other side of the water is a strip of restaurants. By this point, I was quite hungry and didn't really care where we ate as long as there was food, so we walked into the first place, Aresto-- which turned out to be a really good choice.
Aresto is Greek restaurant in a really lovely building.
 |
| My mom's salmon au gratin |
 |
| My radicchio and beet salad with chicken |
After lunch, we wandered around the old town, which is really small-- only a couple blocks-- and is mostly restaurants and shops.
 |
| This building turned out to be where the conference I was attending was being held-- the next day, it actually had signs announcing it, but they weren't there when I first arrived. |
 |
| This Niki de Saint Phalle imitation statue was outside a souvenir shop which sold various replicas of her work in a many sizes (this being the biggest). |
The real tourist site in the old town is the Marktkirche, a brick Gothic Lutheran church
which was first built between 1340 and 1360. The roof and vaults of the naves were destroyed in 1945 and reconstructed in 1953, but much of this is the original church.
There are somewhat macabre sculptures adorning the outside.
 |
| Notice the skeleton face |
The doors to the church are really ornately decorated
and, open automatically when you get close (if the church is open for visitors).
The most amazing part of the interior is how much brick there is.
and crossed to the other side of the street to wander around what is something of a residential area with remnants of Hannover's history throughout. There are sculptures like this one
 |
| Um Schauende (Looking Around) |
by Kurt Lehmann, a German sculptor and painter, done in 1967. It's near the St. Clement's Basilica, Propsteikirche,
 |
| Door of Propsteikirche |
Down the street from the basilica are the remnants of the Neue Synagoge.
These walls are what remain of the much larger building which was on the site from 1870 until November 9, 1938 when it was destroyed by arson during the pogroms. There is an historical sign commemorating the building
as well as detailing the arson not only with information but with actual pictures of it burning.
Next to the site of the synagogue is a church, Nuestadter Kirche,
a Lutheran church which was built between 1666 and 1670. Between the church and the site of the synagogue is this statue
called Zwillenge, or Twins, created in 2017 by Johan Tahon, is dedicated to the relationship between the church and Judaism.Both are on a relatively residential street with older buildings
as well as apartments and a tiny house.
It was relatively late in the afternoon, so we headed back to our hotel to get our room. Many of the rooms in the hotel are themed-- and ours was no exception. We had a sea theme.
 |
| That is netting with fake fish and crabs caught it hanging from the ceiling. |
 |
| The room is fully dedicated to its water theme-- that's a water bed. |
where we all had our complimentary welcome drink.
 |
| My complimentary welcome German beer. Even more important, the table it is sitting on is stunning-- wood with a raw edge . If I could have figured out how to get it home, I would have. |
For dinner, we went to Jack the Ripper's Tavern,
a British pub located down some steep stairs in the cellar of a building.
It may also be one of the only places left in the western world where you can smoke; it has its own separate smoking lounge closed off by doors
which do little to actual contain the cigarette smoke. We sat about as far away as possible, but my clothes still smelled of smoke when we left. (I just can't actually remember the last time that happened.)
For dinner, we both had fish and chips with peas.
And then we headed back to our sea themed room, passing this strange sculpture on our way back.
 |
| It's a little hard to see in the dark-- but it's a man in a button-down shirt balanced on the antlers of a deer. There's no sign to explain it. |
The zoo is organized by themed areas representing parts of the world- and they do commit to the themes. Even the bathrooms are decorated (and also, the cleanest zoo bathrooms I have ever been in). My mom took photos of all of them; these are just a few.
One of the first "attractions" you come to at the zoo is the Zambezi boat cruise, which does take you by boat through several of the animal habitats
 |
| It was a really wonderfully sunny day for a boat ride. |
 |
| Video of boat ride |
rhinos
and antelope and zebras.
The boat ride was a nice way to start our day at the zoo. The weather was starting to get warmer it wasn't particularly crowded, so it was a nice morning for wandering around and looking at animals.
 |
| Chimpanzee |
 |
| Black-cheeked lovebird |
 |
| Female lion |
 |
| Male lion |
 |
| Bison |
 |
| Polar bear swimming |
 |
| Polar bear in water |
 |
| Polar bear |
 |
| Penguins |
 |
| Elephants |
 |
| Video of elephants being productive... or playing. It's a little unclear. |
It was certainly the most elaborate of decorations. Around the corner from the elephants was a sleeping tiger.
And a cheetah who was more awake.
 |
| Pacing cheetah |
 |
| Exit of the elephant habitat |
And then you got to Australia.
 |
| Wallabies-- this isn't zoomed in. You can walk into their area and walk along a path that is a few feet from the wallabies and they just hop around you. |
 |
| Emu |
 |
| There were no real cows-- but you could pretend to milk one of several plastic ones. |
 |
| Pigs |
 |
| Mama and baby sheep. There were quite a few babies that had just been born in the past couple weeks. |
 |
| The gelato stand is the building behind the elephant. |
 |
| Massimo's Eiscafe |
 |
| Two cups of double scoops of gelato |
 |
| My colleagues Cara and Holly presenting (my presentation was the next day) |
 |
| Break snacks. It's hard to tell here, but this conference did provide some of the best break snacks and reception food of any conference I've been to. |
and where we ordered way too much food.
 |
| Sausages, potatoes and kraut. |
 |
| Goat cheese and strawberry salad |
 |
| Cheese board |
 |
| The whole table of food-- in the basket is traditional brown bread which was really good. |
 |
| Dark German beer |
Friday, March 29
My presentation was scheduled for fairly late in the day-- and all of the presentations in the morning were going to be in German (which I don't speak), so my mom, Holly, and I decided to spend the morning at Herrenhausen Gardens and the Aquarium.
The baroque gardens were part of the Herrenhausen Palace.
The Palace itself was built in 1640, enlarged in 1676, destroyed by bombing in 1943, and rebuilt between 2009 and 2013. The gardens themselves are in three sections: the Great Garden, Berggarten, and Georgengarten. When you enter, you enter the Museum and then the Orangerie garden
before getting to the gardens proper. When you get into the garden, there is the Kaskade
which you can climb to get panoramic views of the garden.
 |
| Part of the palace is in the picture on the right side. |
 |
| There are statues on top. |
We were actually probably a few weeks early for the garden to be in full bloom, but some of the flower beds were starting to come up.
 |
| There are also statues all over the garden, at least at the beginning of it. |
 |
| Glockenfontane |
 |
| Sondergarten: even in the middle of the garden, there are square sections which make up a larger garden. Sondergarten is actually 8 garden squares, of which this is one. |
 |
| Sondergarten |
 |
| Fragment of the outer staircase of the former palace: this is a part of the former palace of Herrenhausen that was destroyed in 1943. |
 |
| Memorial of Electress Sophie: made of Carrara marble, it depicts Sophie reclining in her chair. She was very fond of the garden. She had a heart attack in the garden on June 8, 1714 during her daily stroll. |
 |
| Great Fountain: This is part of the Nouveau Jardin built near the end of the 17th century. The fountain can reach a maximum height of approximately 236 feet (though it wasn't on the day we were there). |
 |
| Lots of these kinds of gates lead to smaller, "private" gardens off center. Private in a secret rendezvous sense... not owned by someone. |
At the end of the garden is the mausoleum
 |
| Temple Remy de la Fosse-- it's actually two buildings set on opposite corners of the garden. |
 |
| There is, sadly graffiti, all over the walls. It's hard to see in the picture (which is a bit intentional on my part), but you can see some of it on the wall in the alcove above the bust. |
which sits next to the small "moat" that runs around the property.
We walked back to the front of the gardens where, to the left of the palace, if you're facing it, is the Grotte von Niki de Saint Phalle (the same artist who did the Nana Sculptures we had seen the day before). The grotto, made up of 3 rooms, is whimsical and incredible.
The Grotto was once artificial caves with water jets and spring water and was decorated with shells, bronze and crystals which were removed more than 250 years ago. The modernization of it by the artist was her last major work before she died in 2002.
 |
| The Blue Room is called "Night and Cosmos". It has shooting starts leading to dancing female forms in the cosmos. |
 |
| Some of the figures were on the ceiling. |
 |
| This is the central room, named "Spirituality." |
 |
| The silver mirror room is named "Day and Life" |
 |
| My artsy picture of myself in the glass fragments. |
 |
| The figure in the fountain (the green one) is "Nana of Herrenhausen." |
I may have felt differently if the whole garden had been in bloom, but the grotto was, by far, my favorite part.
We were quite hungry by now, but the restaurant wasn't open yet, so we went across the street to the aquarium,
where the eatery was open. It wasn't great food-- but it did have a popcorn machine
which popped popcorn fresh when you put money in it.
 |
| I recorded it making popcorn because I was so tickled by it. |
and then paid to get into the aquarium. This was a relatively strange experience because the woman who took our money spoke no English and it was quite clear that we didn't speak German, but she kept trying to explain something about the layout or the shows or something... we really have no idea. We sort of walked away nodding and smiling as she kept talking.
The Hannover Aquarium is relatively small compared to a lot of other aquariums I've been to. But it has some lovely, vibrant displays of fish and coral.
The "big" attraction is the shark tunnel, which has more than just sharks-- it also has other fish, stingrays,
an octopus
 |
| Video of sea turtle feeding. It was all in German, so I'm not really sure what was being explained. |
birds
seahorses,
jellyfish,
and other pretty fish.
 |
| This was my favorite fish of the day. |
There were also creepy water bugs and spider-like insects.
Next to the aquarium is the second part of the Herrenhauser Gardens: the Berggarten. Berrgarten was once a mulberry tree plantation for silkwarm farms. Now, this is where the orchids and other hot house flowers are-- there was a lot more in bloom in this garden including a lot of the trees.
 |
| There were also a lot of bees around pollinating-- the sound was quite amazing. I tried to capture it here-- the buzzing you hear is all of the bees. |
 |
| The Paradise Garden |
 |
| The Paradise Garden |
 |
| The Mausoleum with multiple gravestones outside of it. |
The hothouses, which began being built as early as the 1700s, include a cactus house, tropical house, orchid house, and dessert plants.
 |
| Cacao |
And then other themed gardens outside, like the Steppe Garden.
There was a bit more to see, but I needed to head back to the Old Town in order to get to the conference for my presentation. We did, however, stop outside the metro at the gelato stand from the day before where were greeted by the proprietor who remembered us from the day before and loudly exclaimed, "You're back! I love you!" when we came in. It made me want to move to Hannover-- just to be greeted like that and get to eat good gelato everyday.
 |
| Me presenting at the symposium |
 |
| Restaurant Stadtmauer |
before heading back to hotel to meet my mom for dinner. My idea had been to eat at the Markethall
a large food market with a variety of food stalls that serve prepared food.
 |
| This is the part where there are produce stands which were mostly closed. But it gives a sense of the inside. The side with small restaurants was so crowded that pictures were just jumbles of people. |
But that seemed to be all of Hannover's idea as well-- it was really crowded with nowhere to sit. It was really difficult to even make your way up to a counter to order. And, the live music and chatter made it hard to hear anything (like translations of menus), so we decided to go elsewhere for dinner and wound up at Sissi Franz, a burger place with nice outdoor seating
and very red lighting that made the food look a bit strange in pictures.
 |
| Holly's burger and fries |
 |
| My burger |
 |
| Mom's burger which came on rye bread |
 |
| Chocolate brownie with ice cream. |
 |
| Mom's dessert waffle and fruit |
Saturday, March 30
On Saturday, we had to catch a train to Frankfurt, where we flying out of the next day. It was a bit of a long day-- our train was both delayed and a different train which meant that we no longer had reserved seats, though we did find seats for most of the journey. In Frankfurt, we walked the less than a mile to our hotel, a Motel One, a chain all over Europe which we had also stayed in in Basel.
 |
| One of the signatures of Motel One is that all the TVs have a fake fire (with sound) that come on when you enter the room. |
There is a distinct change in the look of the buildings as you enter the Old Town
before you get to the main attraction, Romerberg Square.
The first thing we did when we got to square was find a place to eat. We chose a place in the corner of the square serving traditional food from Frankfurt, Restaurant Zum Schwarzen Stern.
We decided to go for the traditional fare on the menu
 |
| Eggs with green sauce and boiled potatoes |
 |
| Roast pork in apple wine sauce with potato dumplings and red cabbage |
The apple wine is also relatively unique to Frankfurt-- I ordered one.
 |
| Apfelwein |
Traditionally, it's served in a pitcher,
| Not my picture-- someone else posted this on Trip Adviser. The pitchers vary in design a bit, but they are all this sort of color scheme. |
though I ordered a pretty small one since I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, so they just brought the glass. It's quite a bit like cider, slightly tart. I think the small glass was enough to try it. (We bought mini-pitchers in the gift shop nearby.)
The restaurant is located right next to a small church, Alte Nikolaikirche
or, Old St, Nicholas Church. It's a Lutheran church which was first built in the mid-12th century and was added onto in the 15th century. The current church was reconstructed in 1951-- only the portal sculpture from the 13th century is original.
From the church, we walked down to the waterfront where there are several museums.
 |
| Historisches Museum-- this is the relatively new location where it was moved in 1955. |
By now, however, it was way after 5, so most things were closed. So, to get a better look at Frankfurt, we decided to take a river cruise.
 |
| View from the boat dock. |
There are two route options-- basically a full cruise and a half one. We were late in the day, taking the last option which was the half cruise. The full cruise goes under 7 bridges. We only went under 3.
 |
| View of Kaiserdom from the boat.This is Frankfurt's Cathedral. Construction of it began in the 13th century, but it was rebuilt in 1867 after a fire and again after the bombings in 1944. You can climb the bell tower; however, we were too late on this day and the next day was Sunday, so we never got to go in. |
 |
| Bridge graffiti |
You can tell from the photos that the sun is setting as the cruise goes on.
The dock itself is at one of the two pedestrian bridges, Einserner Steg
 |
| There are brick entries on either side, but the bridge itself is iron. |
or the Iron Bridge.
where people do the usual things, like bring love locks.
The bridge was first built in 1868 and was then replaced by a slightly larger cantilever bridge around 1911.
There are lovely views from the bridge.
 |
| This is looking towards the Cathedral. |
Across the bridge is a somewhat more residential area with lovely buildings.
 |
| There are also these strange and interesting trees. |
The pictures actually makes it look lighter out than it was. It was actually getting quite dark, so we headed back to the Romerberg to go to a dessert place, Eiscafe Da Vinci, across the square from where we had lunch/dinner earlier. It serves really elaborate ice cream concoctions.
 |
| Chocolate mint-- it's meant to taste like an Andes mint. |
 |
| Tiramisu-like ice cream. |
And coffee.
It became completely dark while we were sitting there.
What we hadn't realized when we sat down was that the ice cream place only took cash, which we were out of (having been making an effort to spend all of it before we left the next day). So, I wander off a bit to find an ATM so that we could pay-- there are no ATMs in the actual Romerberg, but across the street from it is a relatively modern shopping area with a couple banks, so it wasn't too hard to find one.
And then, we headed back past some of the older buildings, which can look a little creepy at night,
 |
| The Ratskeller looked from the outside like it should be some very important club or sight, but it's just a restaurant. |
to the hotel to go to sleep.
Sunday, March 31
We had about half a day to spend in Frankfurt before we had to head to the airport. Our day started at the Motel One breakfast buffet which had a wide variety of choice, including hard-boiled eggs you feel a little bad about eating because they all had different faces drawn on them.
 |
| My egg-- I did eventually get over it to eat it. |
 |
| Breakfast |
There isn't much open on Sunday, especially not early. But, we set out to go to the Main Tower
which provides the highest vantage point of they city. The tower itself is hard to get a good picture of because it's so tall and the streets below are rather narrow--it's difficult to get far enough away. But, the views from the observation deck are expansive.
And, around the observation deck are signs which tell you what you're looking at.
 |
| This is looking towards the Main River. At the edge is the Iron Bridge. |
 |
| Actual picture of the Iron Bridge from the Observation Deck-- on high zoom. |
We spent much of the rest of the day wandering around the more modern section of Frankfurt, which still has character, mostly looking at the outside of buildings and historical markers since shops weren't open.
 |
| This is a restaurant. |
 |
| There aren't as many markers commemorating those who were taken and/or murdered during WWII, but there are some in Frankfurt. |
 |
| Eschenheimer Turm: built from 1400-1428. It is a northern fortified tower of the Gothic town wall around the free Imperial town of Frankfurt am Main. There were once 60 towers-- this is considered the most magnificent of them. As far as I can tell, you can't go in it. The bottom of it houses a cafe which plays a bit on the medieval theme. |
|
| This knight sits outside the entry to the restaurant. |
There is a cute church in the city center, which I could go in because there weren't services going on.
There is an older town section "behind" the Romerberg, which is where the Pfarrkirche St. Bartholomaus is located.
 |
| This is the Cathedral's tower. Around this area are narrow, cobblestone streets and lots of tourists, so it's hard to get good pictures of the exterior. |
 |
| This is basically the lobby. I don't have pictures of the interior of the Cathedral because there was a mass going on at the time. |
Outside a modern art museum is this installation
called Die Schonheit, which roughly translates to the beauty or the beautiful person. It inspires attempting to take selfies like this (I made several attempts, but this was the best).
 |
| This also has a nice shot of the Cathedral in the back. |
We did wander back through the Romerberg and over the bridge
to try to see the Kaiserdom
but there were signs saying there was no entry for tourists due to services. Outside the church, there is this boat "sculpture" and/or planter.
There was no explanation for it.
Our last stop in Frankfurt was a small bakery, Naschmarkt, we had passed earlier to get a snack before heading to the airport.
It was really warm in Frankfurt-- warm enough that I wished I had packed a day's worth of summer clothes-- so we sat outside at a little bistro table to have cake and tea and coffee.
 |
| I didn't realize this had chocolate layers in it when I ordered it-- I thought it was a raspberry cake. My mom is allergic to chocolate, though she ate some it because it was really good. |
And then we went back to the hotel to collect our luggage and get a taxi to the airport-- where there is a statue of Einstein at the top of the terminal--
for a less eventful flight home.
