Berlin!

After sleeping in a bit, we went downstairs for breakfast. No scarffing Cheerios here. No sir. We had the traditional German breakfast of hard rolls and cheeses (even Brie!) and jams and spreads. The table was FULL of choices and it was hard to decide what to eat. We took quite a bit of time to eat and talked a lot while we ate. After this, we headed into the city where we took a boat tour of the city as well as a on-off buss tour where you could hop out and take time at the various sites. From the bus we saw part of what is left of the wall, the Bradedburg Gate, museum island, various embassy buildings, the Deutche Bahn (the largest train station in Europe), and lots of other things, including the Berlin Dom. We got off the bus to get a better look at the Berlin Dom and decided it would be worth the money to pay to go inside. I’m so glad we did, especially since it is Lutheran and my guy Marty was perched high in the dom. :) When we walked in the door, we heard the organ. I hadn’t expected to hear it, but someone was practicing. This Sauer organ was beautiful, and I was rather jealous of whoever it was practicing it.

We looked around the main sanctuary. The chancel was amazing.

Then we went to look at the small chapel and then down to the crypt, which was massive and of course full of coffins of all shapes and sizes. It was super cool, but I didn’t take any pictures since that would be disrespectful, even though I REALLY wanted to take pictures. There were tiny coffins of babies and children of kings and queens as well as different German royalty from history. Some of the graves dated from the 1500s and the tops of the coffins were sagging in the middle because they were so old. I just love old graves. It is so cool to be so close to history. After several hours of doing the tourist thing, we found a gelato stand. I was pretty happy with this. We got home about 8, had dinner (a vegetable and potato dish) and went to bed. I must confess, I’m getting rather anxious to get to an organ that I can actually play….

And, Jayme and Megan, feel free to yell at me and tell me what to do different with all those buttons on my camera. . I know you're dying to. :)