BY RICK ONORATO Berlin was separated literally and culturally by a wall. Running one's fingers along it is like touching history.
An ode to the wall, and to the numerous street performers nearby...
All travel videos can be viewed here.
Berlin, Germany
Berlin is the NYC of Germany. Complete with a hipster 'hood that could battle it out with Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We had no expectations and were happily surprised. There is a definite grungy, cool vibe to Berlin and it is so affordable that we were kicking ourselves for having only planned for a 3 night stay. We even met up with an old coworker of Rick's who currently lives in Berlin for a little friendly NYC face time. It's not necessarily a beautiful city given the history, but there is a lot of quirkiness to it like the random photo booths and did I mention they have Barbie's life size dream house? Enough said. We had to go.
We also went on a walking tour to see the major city sights. Most impressive was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The concrete slabs were "designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason." (see last two photos)
Berlin, WE MISS YOU!!!!
Reinheim, Germany
So our introduction to Germany was bumpy to say the least. Our quick 1.5 hour flight from Venice to Frankfurt via Ryan Air turned into a twice aborted landing (the worst turbulence) only to land in Cologne (WHAT?!?) where they put us all on a bus back to Frankfurt for 3 hours and we got into the airport around 1am. Did I mention that as we landed in Cologne due to bad weather, a full rainbow taunted us as we got shuffled onto shuttle buses. (See below)
Lesson of the day? Never fly Ryan Air.
The next day we made our way to the city center where my cousin picked us up. Dad also made it out from California as we were staying with my aunt (his sister) so it was a lovely family affair.
