our last day in berlin

So, we're finally coming to the end of our story of Berlin. Initially, we had planned on spending the last day taking a tour out to a concentration camp. But then we decided that it would be, you know, depressing. Something that we definitely want to do before leaving Germany, but something not right for that particular day. We had read about the Victory Column, which can be climbed. We thought that would be a good way to start our last day in Berlin. But first, breakfast was in order. We again enjoyed the breakfast provided at our hotel. Jerry decided to try one of the eggs, assuming it was hard boiled. He was wrong. It was soft boiled and soft egg white spilled out of the egg. Bleh!! But at least now we both know to stay clear of the eggs!

After checking out of the hotel (fairly painlessly), we made our way across town to the Siegessäule (Victory Column). Here is a view of it as we were approaching:

There are no crosswalks to reach it. You have to go into one of four entrances that take you to a tunnel under the road in order to reach it. Looking up from the base, it's pretty impressive:

There are two viewing levels. The first is just a couple of flights up and can be seen in the photo above. It's the area with the columns. The second viewing area is at the very top, directly below the giant statue of Germania.

The way up is by several flights of spiralling stairs. It's quite a workout, but worth it for the view from the top (and the sense of accomplishment). This was taken of the street below, through the ornate decorations at the top:

Here's Jerry, checking out the view:

And here's Jerry coming back down (note all the graffiti!):

From the top of the Victory Column, Jerry observed a lot of activity a few blocks away. As the area is heavily wooded, we couldn't see what it was all about. Back at street level, we decided to investigate. It turned out to be a special family day at a nearby castle. Yep, a nearby castle. It's so strange being in place where castles pop up all over the place! We had seen this large building from the top of the Victory Column, but didn't realize that it was a castle. While we didn't attend the event, we did snap a picture of the Bellevue Castle:

Knowing that our trip was winding down, we made our final stops in Berlin. We passed by Checkpoint Charlie and then went to pick up a few Ampelmann souvenirs at a really cool (and huge!) book/souvenir store, which we had visited in the previous days. We also had some hot beverages and warm foods outside this restaurant:

Though it hadn't seemed very cold when we sat down, by the time we left our teeth were chattering. The restaurant was extremely shortstaffed on that Sunday and we found ourselves waiting a very, very long time to pay. And we weren't being typical impatient Americans....it really was an outrageously long time. Though the wait was not fun, the food was very yummy. We had a bowl of tomato soup. In Germany, we've yet to be disappointed by tomato soups. They tend to be more like tomato sauce than soup in America. This soup was thick and spicy. It also had slice of oranges in it! Jerry wouldn't brave the oranges, but I gave it a try. The taste combination was interesting, but not all bad! We also had some warm apple strudel with vanilla sauce....also very tasty!

We couldn't leave Berlin without making one last stop at our favorite doener stand! Here's Jerry, about to take the first bite!

The ride home was fairly uneventful and we made it back to Schweinfurt in good time.

The next day, we picked Scooter up from his vacation after Jerry got off of work. The days of running around with other dogs was great for Scooter....he was so full of energy and acting more like his puppy self than his lazy self! On the car-ride home, he was much more interested in getting up to the front seat than staying in the back!

And, of course, his Ma was very happy to see him!

Though this isn't really part of the Berlin trip, I'll finish off with Jerry's exciting find at a German beverage store. Often times, you get free gifts with cases of beer at these stores. Sometimes it's free bottles of beer. Sometimes it's steins or dishes. After picking up Scooter, we stopped at our local store for Jerry to purchase a case of beer. The lady at the counter gave Jerry two free beer glasses, one of which lit up:

Jerry's perfect ending to vacation!