My first impression of Germany was it was beautiful. It was so green and the landscape went on forever. We made it Polle, the small village that Oma lives in. Polle was a village straight from the movies. It is probably the most peaceful, relaxing place that we have ever been to. Matt's german was great. He communicated very well with everyone and was able to translate for me. Towards the end of the trip I was able to understand some but never did very well speaking it. Oma was very excited to cook for us and we were very excited to eat her cooking. She made us a feast at every meal.
Our first adventure was to Berlin. We rented a car from another town near by and hit the autobahn for Berlin. Our rental cars and the driving were probably Matt's favorite part of our trip. He was able to drive the mercedes 130 mph on the autobahn. He loved it! Berlin was a very neat old city full of history. We had lunch at a great thai place and walked down a street full of huge named shopping stores. All over my price range :) We then got back in the car and tried to find a hotel. We should have booked something at the internet cafe but I thought it wouldn't be a big deal...I was wrong. I thought we were never going to find a place, but it is great how everything always works out. We found a place and when we pulled up and walked in I thought we were in the ghetto of Berlin (not really but it wasn't the nicest looking area). It turned out to be a quaint little one floor hotel with a nice room and a great breakfast.
We then went to look at the Brandemburg Arch. The road was blocked and the traffic was very congested. We parked and headed towards the Arch as we got closer we noticed all the police and police dogs. There was a protest going on and the police were everywhere. It was a little scarey becuase we really didn't know what they were protesting but there were other tourist so we just kept going. The Arch was very impressive. We walked all around and enjoyed exploring. There was a hallicaust memorial that we were able to see as well. We then went to the top of a tower in Berlin. It wasn't the best tower we ever experienced but fun to see all of the city lights at night. We then went to Checkpoint Charley. It closed just a few minutes before we got there but we were still able to see the actual checkpoint. Matt did a great job navigating the subway in Berlin and go us all around without any problems. It was really late and we hadn't had dinner so Matt had us jump on the subway to head to the "newer" part of town. We get off and a few blocks away we found this great Italian place. We had yummy pizza, salad and great beer. It was a great end to a fun day.
We only had a short time in Berlin but we had a great time! We headed back towards Polle for Matt's uncle's daughters confirmation in the church. This was a very big deal there. It actually meant celebrating all weekend with food and family. Oma made all the cakes for the parties. She made I think it was 11 cakes and they were gourmet cakes! We had a very fun weekend and we have never ate so much food in our whole lives...we loved it!
