Thanks Berlin. I Needed a New Phone Anyway...

Let me explain and get the only negative comment out of the way here in the beginning of my post. Within the first hour of being in Berlin, we lost my US cell phone. We weren't pick-pocketed; it was just pure dumb bad luck and stupidity. We were using WiFi at a hotel in hopes to see a map on where our real hotel was located. We think it fell out of a pocket, and we didn't notice it was missing until about 5 minutes later when we were walking down the street. We quickly went back, but could not find the phone. Not sure if at that point someone found it and took it. On the plus side, it was malfunctioning and you couldn't get past the unlock button easily anymore. I switched all my account passwords, and my pictures automatically update to an online portal. So not much was lost, and I still have my UK phone.

Now onto the good stuff...

Berlin was officially our favorite trip (minus the phone mishap). It was such a beautiful and modern city.  We spent our first afternoon exploring the city, eating street food, and walking until our legs almost fell off. Our trip here in Berlin was definitely filled with street food (sausages, pretzels, and beer). Yum, there is just something about street food that makes me so happy. Can you tell that I go crazy at the State Fair?

After filling out bellies full of currywurst (cut up sausage with a curry sauce) and beer, we headed to the Berlin wall.  Underneath the wall was lined with information about the historical events before/after the wall was torn down.  We really enjoyed reading the facts and seeing all of the photographs.

We also ventured out into the city to see the other historical buildings and monuments. We walked through this beautiful park that was similar to Central Park in NYC. In the middle was the Victory Monument. We headed back through the park to see the Soviet War Monument, Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz, and the Reichstag (Parliament).

 Brandenburg Gate

 Reichstag

 Soviet War Monument

 Victory Monument

Day Two started bright and early with a visit Checkpoint Charlie. We snagged a photo before the crowds were filled and the actors came back to play their part. There isn't much else to see in this area, but a few museums going into more detail about the division.

 

Next was to the Berlin Cathedral. Jeff thoroughly enjoyed it as he had a nifty little audio guide that he listened to as we toured the church.  He loves those audio guides! I, on the other hand, do not have the attention span to get me through my own guided tour. We were both able to tour the building and then climb to to the top to get a great view of the city.

 Outside of the Cathedral 

Beautiful, right? 

 Inside of the the cathedral and Jeff with his audio guide.  

 The views from the top of the dome. One cool fact we learned was that one of the men building the dome filled one of the gold balls on top of the mini-domes with newspapers from that date. 

You can see the TV Tower and how much taller it is from the dome even!

After the church, we grabbed some breakfast on the Spree, which was beautiful. We walked up and down the spree, had a beer at these "beaches" near the river. Then we took an hour-long boat cruise down the Spree, which was one of our favorite things we did.

 Enjoying some "beach" time next to the Spree. 

 Lovin' the boat tour! 

Riding in style down the Spree

Jeff and I headed to the top of the Berlin TV Tower which is 617 feet high and it one of the tallest towers in the world. It only took 40 seconds to get to the top in the elevator. They wouldn't let us walk to the top of this one. haha! We were able to see some great views of the city and pick out some new destinations to try to go and visit. We thought about having dinner at the top, as it rotates just like the Eagles Nest in Indianapolis. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to get some chocolate at a local shop. Although we weren't the best at ordering, we ended up with a few we really liked!

Top of the TV Tower

The amazing chocolate shop. Jeff may have taken a picture, but they recreated some of the monuments, boats, etc. out of chocolate and placed them in the window. Really cool!

Before we hit the 5-hour train ride to Prague we attempted to visit the 2nd Largest Department Store in Europe...unfortunately it was closed because it was Sunday. We took some pictures....of the outside.

 

I pretty much disliked the majority of the train ride to Prague. Although it was beautiful, being in a space like that for 5 hours was not my cup of tea. Jeff, on the other hand, loved the train ride. At least we were smart and bought some extra chocolate to enjoy on the long ride.

Jeff with his 39% milk chocolate...I got 60% dark chocolate. 

Be on the lookout for the Prague post soon! Xx

Dub, Dub, Dub, DUBLIN!

What an amazing long weekend we had in Dublin, Ireland! This is the first of many trips outside of the United Kingdom, and we enjoyed every minute of it. We got up at 3:15 AM on Saturday morning to gather our things, hop on a bus, head to the airport, to make our 6:30 flight to Ireland. It was a quick flight, probably because I slept the entire way...including take-off. Who does that?!?  Forty minutes later we were in Dublin. We took yet another bus to take us to the city centre.

We put our belongings in our hotel room, and headed out to explore. We headed to Trinity College first and walked around a little. We were starving and stopped at a local pub for a great Irish breakfast. It was so relaxing to just sit around drinking coffee and taking it all in. Back to exploring after our bellies were full!

 Trinity College

 Breakfast at O'Neill's Bar & Restaurant. Great Irish breakfast!

We then walked around, popped into a few shops. My mom will understand this, as Jeff and her are bakery buddies. They love their sweets. Every time we went past a chocolate shop or bakery...Jeff stopped and stared. It was pretty funny. We visited a few really cute parks as well.

   St. Stephan's Park and the second one is a mystery, but we're thinking it was Merrion Square.

Street performers (the dog is fake), one of the many bakeries, and beautiful architecture on the way to the Guinness Storehouse. 

Next up on the list was the Guinness Storehouse. We spent quite some time here learning how it is created. Jeff really enjoyed the video portion on how they made barrels. It was definitely some process! Always wanting to know how things are made/work. {#engineerforlife} We also took a class on how to pour the perfect pint! I was volunteered by my wonderful husband to be the demonstrator. I taught the rest of the group how to pour the perfect pint...6 steps to get there!

Outside the Guinness Storehouse.

How the bottles have changed over time. 

 Purifying the water.

 The barrels and me with my perfectly poured pint and certificate to prove it!

Seven stories high...we enjoyed our pints at the Galaxy Bar.

 Clearly hard at work and taking my job seriously!

Jeff was pretty good at pouring his. He asked the teacher, and his was one of the best pours. {#teacherspet}

We finished up our fun in Dublin watching Ireland Vs. England in the 6 Nations match at a local pub where we had some traditional Irish food and beer. It was a fun night. The next day we woke up and went on a long walk to some nearby famous sights and strolled around Phoenix Park and watched a Gaelic Football game. We had no idea what sport was being played because at times it looked like football, then basketball, then soccer, and then rugby!  We finally asked and then we attempted to watch to learn the rules. We ended our night with a few pints and attempting to find/hear some Irish music. The pub we chose was playing music, but it ended up being Johnny Cash and some random 90's music. 

 The Wellington Monument.

 Gaelic Game (match?)

 The Samuel Beckett Bridge. It is the shape of a harp as that is an iconic symbol in Ireland.

Another view, you can see the harp aspect of it better here.

 

 The first photograph is a memorial of the Great Famine in Ireland. The second photograph is dedicated to Daniel O'Connell, who was a famous political leader in Ireland.

 And 15+ miles later...we completed our trip to Dublin, Ireland.