My twins wanted to go to Japan for their "Senior trip" but places in Asia are still hard to get to because of Corona Virus disruptions. Europe had been open for a while but when the US finally said we didn't need to test negative to fly back home we decided to go to Germany. It was so wonderful to be back in Germany, it really felt like coming home in so many ways. I loved the food, seeing places we had been to so many times as a family, we got to visit some friends. I really hope my next trip to Germany is not in 10 years...I need to get back more often.
July 31:
We flew into Berlin and headed over to a fun market. We wandered around looking at what everyone was selling, some people had some really cool WWII antiques. We enjoyed our first bratwurst of the trip:)
I love these German cheese cakes!
We knew we would be jet lagged from our long flight so we booked a river cruise. This way we got to see some of Berlin but we didn't have to walk around exhausted through the city. It was a pleasant cruise but I didn't get much out of it because the entire tour was in German 😆
Very tired and ready to get to our apartment and have a rest
After a 2 hour nap at our apartment the adults were ready to get out and do some exploring. Oma, Hyrum and I walked around a bit to see some of the city sites (museum island) while the kids stayed at the apartment and vegged on their phones.
August 1:
It's fun to see the "ampelmann" at the crosswalks. I remember them from our first visit to Berlin
Oma at the Berlin wall memorial park.
The boys checking out an old Trabant (East German car)
Exploring more of Berlin. Cool courtyard at Hackesche Hofe...
...and another courtyard at Haus Schwarzenberg
A Berlin favorite...currywurst
My favorite part of the entire trip! So many good gelato places:)
We paid for a walking tour of the city. This was a great way to see the many sites in Berlin as well as get some history of the places we visited. We loved our tour guide, a goofy Brit from Liverpool. This is the boys in the Gendarmenmarkt square.
"Mother with her dead son" statue in the Neue Wache which is now a memorial to the victims of war and tyranny.
Checkpoint Charlie, one of the places you were able to cross from East to West Berlin during the cold war
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The boys remembered this from when we visited Berlin when they were very young. At that time they thought it was super fun to jump from block to block and explore this fun "maze" This time around they were much more respectful and understood the significance of this memorial.
We ended our walking tour at the Brandenburg Gate
Tired boys waiting for a train to take us home
Everyone was tired after our walking tour so after dropping boys (and Oma) off at the apartment Hyrum and I ventured out for some more exploring. We enjoyed walking down along the Eastside Gallery. This section of Berlin wall has been set aside for artists from around the world to create images and share their ideas.
We got to see Brandenburg Gate lit up at night...so pretty
August 2:
Hyrum enjoying breakfast and the view from our apartment
Spent the day at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. I have visited a few other camps that I thought were more informative and better laid out but this was still a good experience for the boys to actually walk through a camp. It was a very hot day and that made it hard to really sit and take in what we were seeing but I hope the boys will remember a bit of what they learned and saw.
After a somber morning walking around the camp we enjoyed a very nice pizza place...and it was cool and shady!!
We spent just a few minutes (the museum was closing) at a museum that talked about what life was like for people living in East Germany during the cold war.
Outside our apartment building in Berlin. We stayed in a great location, right near the Friedrichstrasse Bahnhof
After a bit of a rest at our apartment we took the train to the Zoologistscher station. This is the train station in Berlin where Oma was able to escape from East Germany. She met her family in West Berlin after getting off at this train station. They were living in a refugee camp for a while before being able to immigrate to the US. This was in the 1960's before the wall went up but it was still stressful for her to make this escape from East Germany.
We visited a cool old train station that had been closed during the cold war so people could not escape to the West. It was still decorated in the old style from the 1930's
The beautiful Reichstag building at night. Unfortunately we weren't able to get tickets to go inside, maybe next time. This is such an interesting building with so much history to share.
August 3:
We left Berlin to drive down to the Oberfalz area, where we were stationed for 4 years while Hyrum was in the Army. We stopped at the wonderful Luisenburg Felsenlabryinth. The boys LOVED this place when they were little. So many fun rocks to climb on and little places to explore.
We drove into Weiden and it was wonderful to walk around this old town where we spent so many fun days. Julian was born in this city and the boys remembered a few things that we saw while walking around.
The twins remembered this park in Weiden that had bird cages with lots of birds. I was so happy to see it was still there and still had birds to visit
Emerson and Townsend 2022...
Same boys, same spot 2008!!
Weiden has some of the best gelato!
August 4:
Our cute little farmhouse rental in the Oberfalz...and our giant rental van:)
Visiting the Eremitage garden in Bayreuth. This was another favorite little spot to visit while we lived in Germany.
Beautiful fountains in the garden
When they were little the boys would find leaves or twigs to float down this little fountain and see if their leaf could make it all the way to the bottom
We took a tour at Devil's Cave in Pottenstein. Another favorite thing to do with the kids or with visitors when we lived here.
There were so many stairs but Oma was able to conquer them all. She is a rock star hiker at 86 years old!
Cooling off at the lake near Eschenbach
Finished the day at our favorite little pizza place in Pressath...the actual town we lived in.
Beautiful Pressath in the evening. It was wonderful walking around this town. It really felt like home and made me so happy remembering all the wonderful things we did here.
Our old house!!!!! Unfortunately there was a gate all around the yard so we couldn't get any closer, I was really hoping to walk around a bit more. I love this house!
We brought Julian home from the hospital as a baby to this house. So many fantastic memories of playing in the yard, raking leaves, mowing the lawn, smores at the fire pit, snowman in the winter...so many great memories.
August 5:
Enjoying a wonderful German breakfast outside at our little farmhouse rental. Delicious bread and rolls and meats and yogurt and fresh fruit...mmmmm
Back in Pressath. Julian used to make me take him to this train station everyday so he could wave to the trains as they passed by. We decided to take the train in Bayreuth for the day to do a little more exploring of one of our favorite cities.
We used to call this place the "Dinosaur Museum" and the twins loved coming here.
Then and now at the dinosaur museum
My little baby grew up!!!
Found the playground in Hofgarten. The kids had a fun time climbing around
Best gelato of the trip was this little place in Bayreuth!
Bayreuth's famous son, Wagner!
We got to enjoy a yummy dinner in Grafenwoerh with some old friends. Georgina and Patrick Bradley and Sabrina Ewert. It was wonderful to catch up.
Our favorite gelato in Grafenwoehr
Where we met for church services every Sunday in Germany
August 6:
We dropped Oma off for a visit with her cousin, Erika Baumgart
The rest of us spent the day exploring Nurenberg
We spent some time at the German National Museum
Painting of Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach the Elder
Very old globe that dates back to 1492...there is no North or South America on this globe!
We picked Oma up from her cousins house and then did a fun walking tour of Nurnberg. We stopped in to visit lots of old Cathedrals
The main market square in Nurnberg. This is the location of the best Christmas market in the world!
Can you tell Julian is getting weary of the walking tour??
Nothing beats a little Nurnberger bratwurst!
View from the old castle wall in Nurnberg
It was a ton of walking but walking is the best way to see these old German cities!
August 7:
Hyrum and Oma were up early so took a lovely walk around our little farmhouse rental. This particular section of Bavaria is beautiful, the Oberfalz will always have a place in my heart.
Heading out of Bavaria to Prague we wanted to stop by an old castle ruin to explore around. We located one that was on our way and it just happened to have a very cute German festival happening on the castle grounds that day. What a treat!
The cute Bavarian band...and a giant pretzel:)
View from the top of the castle hill
We made a stop in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic to visit the Sedlec Ossuary. My boys remember this as the "bone church" and requested we stop here even though it was out of the way
The only reason we stopped in Prague is because Townsend and Emerson remembered this super fun hotel we stayed in once, called the Aqua Palace. It's a hotel/water park in one and they had an absolute blast playing on all the waterslides.
August 8:
Stained glass window designed by Mucha, all the windows in this Cathedral are beautiful but this one is definitely amazing!
I loved how the sun shining through the stained glass left this beautiful reflection on the wall.
Climbing the 300 steps to the top of the tower at the Prague castle
I got pretty dizzy going around and around all those steps!
What a view from the top of the tower:)
Outside Prague castle. The president of the Czech Republic still lives and works in this castle
St. Rachelle (patron saint of gelato) blesses you as you descend the stairs from Prague castle
One of our favorite European treats...trdelnik. Roasted dough dipped in cinnamon and sugar:)
Walking across the Charles bridge
A gelato treat in the Old Town square
We visited some of the Jewish quarter in Prague. This old synagogue is now a memorial with names of all the Jewish people that died from Prague handwritten on the walls. So many names...
A great view of the Charles bridge
Prague is such a fun old city to walk around. So many neat things to see around every corner
We made a quick stop at the miniature museum. This is a sewing needle with a caravan of camels walking along it.
A mosquito with some cars
After dropping the boys back a the Aqua Palace for some fun swimming Hyrum, Oma and I went to a concert in Prague. There was a little quintet of string musicians, a soprano soloist and some organ pieces. Overall it was a lovely evening of music.
Prague in the evening is so picturesque!
August 9:
We left Prague and drove to the cute little town of Seiffen, Germany. This area was where the original wooden toys and nutcrackers were made. We stopped at a fun outdoor museum and got to see a man using a lathe to create wooden toys. What a neat process.
You can explore all the houses at the museum, each one decorated as if from a different time period.
The twins remembered this little water feature at the museum from when they were little. You turn the water on at the top of the trough and then each of the little wooden toys does something different as the water runs past them.
After a little shopping in Seiffen we made our way to Freiberg, where Oma was born and grew up. This was her apartment as a child (2nd story windows)
Dinner in Freiberg. Oma says she remembers walking past this little restaurant on the lake when she was a little girl
Beautiful Freiberg at night
August 10:
A lovely setting for a breakfast at our hotel
We used to stop at this playground to let the kids get their wiggles out on our drives to Freiberg when we lived in Germany. We happened upon this playground in Stollberg accidentally and it was such a hit the boys requested we drive out to see it while we were in Germany.
Fun playground in Stollberg
We visited the little town of Augustusburg. Cute little town but mostly we wanted to visit for the...
Julian cruising down the rodelbahn
While we were off having adventures, Oma spent the day in Freiberg visiting old friends.
August 11:
We left Freiberg and drove to Potsdam for our final days in Germany. This beautiful little area is known for it's many lakes. We would love to come back here and do a bike tour of all the lakes and towns.
The lovely "New Palace" in Potsdam.
The "Grotto" room inside the New Palace. The walls were all decorated with shells and small rocks, it was a really cool room
After WWII the Russians took over this palace. You can see some Russian graffiti on the wall behind the paintings.
Inside the ballroom at the New Palace
We walked through the gardens from the New Palace to Sanssouci Palace.
Sanssouci Palace. We didn't tour inside this palace but the outside was wonderful to walk around and enjoy.
On a walk after dinner we found a playground with this strange disc...we spent a few minutes just trying to figure out how it was supposed to work:)
An evening stroll along the Glienicke Bridge, or the "Bridge of Spies" where spies were traded between East and West during the Cold War
August 12:
On our final day in Germany we rented a little motor boat to explore around some of the lakes. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water.
The boys had fun jumping in the lake to cool off every once in a while
The kids all took turns driving the boat around
Enjoying a little picnic lunch out on the lake
One last delicious German meal before we leave for home
We found a wonderful gelato shop right near the ferry crossing in the little town of Schwielowsee...what a wonderful way to end our trip to Germany
Such a beautiful evening to enjoy some gelato by the lake
August 13:
Had to get a picture with a "Berlin Bear" at the airport.
What a fantastic trip we had to Germany. We got to see so many things the boys remembered from our time living here but also got to see and do so many new things. There just isn't enough time to see everything...I will definitely NOT wait 10 years again before my next trip to Germany!
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