Day 9 &10

Yesterday, Brycen and I went to the Berlin Wall Memorial. I was curious to see how it differed from the other memorial we saw last week.

This memorial went into more detail about how the wall was created and the measures that were taken to reduce the number of people that tried and succeeded in their escape to West Berlin (versus what the wall represented). With every successful escapee, more modifications took place to ensure that it would not happen again.

For example, over time-the wall (remained just a wall to West Berlin that was protested at, graffiti-ed on and visited often to see if individuals could wave or say "hi" to friends and relatives on the other side) but to East Berlin-there were a series of steps to even get to the wall itself. There was a stone wall with barbed wire on the top, then a barbed wire fenced beyond that, that signaled the guard towers if touched, car barricades, the guard tower, then a section of cleared land (to easily spot any escapees) before the final, 12 foot high Berlin Wall.

The memorial currently sits on a section of land that was once a cemetery that was moved when the wall went up. To help create the section of clear land between the stone wall and Berlin Wall, East Berlin forced people to vacate the homes and buildings near the wall and then the buildings were demolished or blown up (in the case of a church that one also at one point, where the wall stood).

136 people lost their life at the Wall.

Today, I located and visited a ruin I spotted from our tour bus on Saturday.

Dates back to the 1200s. It was used prior to WWII but like a lot of things, was heavily damaged during the war and now, they are trying to turn in into a historical land mark. I love, loved seeing it-always been fascinated with history; especially, when it remains untouched.

While passing an Aquarium today, Brycen spotted this shark mascot and insisted that he give it a hug.

He wouldn't let me put him down so I could get a better picture but hey! Huge improvement from just over 2 months ago when the sight of a frog mascot turned him into hysterical mode and he begged us to take him home.

One of my life goals is to ride one of these sometime:

I find these portable stands kind of fun. And they seem to be pretty popular.

Not sure what they sell but with the number of people that buy from them, has to be good. I'll need to try it sometime before we leave....on one of my more courageous days, of course.

Brycen's mandatory water break outside the beautiful (and huge) Berlin Cathedral. We didn't go inside due to nearing naptime, but I hear it's gorgeous!

Oh and today we rode a bus that we would like to dedicate to Aunt Katie.