Day 3 of our Germany Trip, Thursday the 7th

By late morning we were on our way for some touring around the city of Berlin. Ute and Norom bought us a five day transit pass that also gives discounts to many sites. We took the train to the other side of town and started our site seeing.

 

We were in an area with many older large buildings. Some are museums, some government buildings. There is also at least two rivers running through the city.








We went to the DDR museum. You can check out their web site here: http://www.ddr-museum.de/en/ . The DDR Museum is the only museum which concentrates on everyday life in the GDR. We don't only show the crimes of the State Security or the border defences at the Berlin Wall but we display the life of the people in the dictatorship: Maybe you know the spreewald pickles, nudism beaches and the Trabi - the rest of the life in this socialist state is unfamiliar to most of the people in the world. 
Here’s a photo of Bina in a Trabant car. The Trabant /trəˈbɑːnt/ is a car that was produced by former East German auto maker VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau in Zwickau, Sachsen. It was the most common vehicle in East Germany, and was also exported to countries both inside and outside the communist bloc. The main selling points was that it had room for four adults and luggage in a compact, light and durable shell; it was fast (when introduced); and it was durable.


We went to see the Brandenburg Gate but it was being setup for a massive crowd to watch an upcoming soccer match. The Brandenburg Gate (German: Brandenburger Tor) is a former city gate, rebuilt in the late 18th century as a neoclassical triumphal arch, and now one of the most well-known landmarks of Berlin and Germany. It is located west of the city centre at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which Berlin was once entered. One block to the north stands the Reichstag building. The gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees which formerly led directly to the city palace of the Prussian monarchs. It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace and built by Carl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791. Having suffered considerable damage in World War II, the Brandenburg Gate was fully restored from 2000 to 2002 by the Stiftung Denkmalschutz Berlin (Berlin Monument Conservation Foundation).[1] During the post-war Partition of Germany the gate was isolated and inaccessible immediately next to the Berlin Wall, and the area around the gate featured most prominently in the media coverage of the opening of the wall in 1989.


Then we were off the Reichstag Building (the German parliament building) As part of that we got to go up in the dome. Check out some of the details on this amazing structure at: http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/visits/kupp.html . Or some more info on it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_dome 
The Reichstag dome is a large glass dome with a 360 degree view of the surrounding Berlin cityscape. The debating chamber of the Bundestag, the German parliament, can be seen down below. A mirrored cone in the center of the dome directs sunlight into the building, and so that visitors can see the working of the chamber.[1] The dome is open to the public and can be reached by climbing two steel, spiraling ramps that are reminiscent of a double-helix.[2] The Dome symbolizes that the people are above the government, as was not the case during national socialism.
The glass dome was also designed by Foster to be environmentally friendly. Energy efficient features involving the use of the daylight shining through the mirrored cone were applied, effectively decreasing the carbon emissions of the building. [3]
The futuristic and transparent design of the Reichstag dome makes it a unique landmark, and symbolizes Berlin's attempt to move away from a past of Nazism and instead towards a future with a heavier emphasis on a united, democratic Germany.[4]

We came across a hotel named Hotel BB, so Bina could not resist getting her photo taken in from of her hotel. LOL






We finished out the day with dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant. It was in the nollendorfplatz area of town and called  muntagnola trattoria.
If you look close on the menu, there’s a bit of translation humor. No, they were not serving bison balls. It was meant to be meat balls.

Their water was purified and energized by having quartz and other crystals in the bottle.






Out side the restaurant was a tiny 3 wheeled bread delivery truck. So cute!


And this ended our 3rd day of our trip.