Finally, the last post of Spring Break!

I love that paper chains are being made in my honor :) I would start one if I wasn’t going to be travelling most of rest of my time here. I’m so excited to get home!! I just finished my last exam today, which went really well! I take off for Ireland and Scotland tomorrow so I thought I’d get another post in before leaving. Then I can blog about that trip right away!

One of the last three cities of my Spring Break was Berlin, Germany. What I loved about Berlin was the amount of history the city has. Of course the recent nature of the history makes it a bit more exciting than some. We did a walking tour of the city our first day, here’s what we saw:

Brandenburg Gate – It is a monument of victory and it’s on Pariser Platz (Paris Square) to mark the victory when the Allies captured Paris after the overthrow of Napoleon in 1814 - "Victory over Paris"

Also found on Pariser Platz: Pretzel stand! Very tasty

Hotel Adlon – Michael Jackson dangled his baby from one of those balconies

Holocaust Memorial for the Jewish victims – takes up a whole block in a busy part of town so people had to think about it when they passed. This monument was incredible.

Hitler’s bunker was underground right here, it is now a carpark

Berlin Wall

Checkpoint Charlie - best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War

Museum Island – pictures of Hitler show him giving a speech from the steps of the Berlin Cathedral on the right

Later that night we went on a tour of the Reichstag, which now houses the German parliament.

Inside Reichstag, It has a glass dome roof similar to the city hall in London that I pictured in one of my first posts, they were designed by the same architect, Norman Foster.

Next was Scandinavia – we visited Copenhagen, Denmark and Stockholm, Sweden. My favorite part of Copenhagen was The Little Mermaid statue. The guys didn’t get it, so I had to explain that there is a statue similar in a fountain in Kimballton, Iowa, which has a Danish history. Near the mermaid statue, Copenhagen has a star shaped island, which used to serve as a citadel. The next day we just walked around and enjoyed the city. We went to the top of the Round Tower to get a view of the city and saw Christianborg Palace and Nyhavn, a well known canal, possibly more "Copenhagen" than the mermaid statue to everyone who's not from Audubon County.

The Little Mermaid

A Danish Windmill!

Copenhagen from The Round Tower

Nyhavn

Last city of our trip: Stockholm. We stayed with a guy who is in Alex and Kyle’s fraternity named Colton. He showed us around a bit and saw the Nobel museum, though it was about to close so we didn’t get to see it. The next day we got a tour of City Hall. The Blue Hall of City Hall is where the Nobel Prize banquet is held, so that was cool to see. We had to catch a plane in the middle of the day so we didn’t get a ton of time in Stockholm. It was still a fun stop and very pretty!

Sergel’s Square, where a lot of stuff happens according to Colton

Pretty blue water everywhere

City Hall

Nobel Prize banquet hall

PHEW, feels good to get that all blogged about! Perfect timing because I will have more to talk about when I get back from Ireland and Scotland!