Berlin

This morning, it was breakfast and a little sightseeing before we needed to meet up with James' team at the international school for their cross-country meet.

Becca getting an eyeful.

Every time Becca spied these banners which were hanging all over Berlin, she would call out: Guck mal! (Look!) Barbie!

"Berlin Sculpture" marks Berlin's 750th anniversary in 1987, two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The chain links, twisted and pulled apart, represent the turmoil of the city with its 4 sectors (American, British, French and Russian), separate but somewhat linked together.

What a forlorn golden man....until.....

Em cheered him up with a Euro.

The Emperor Wilhelm Memorial Church was constructed in 1891-1895. The broken tower was kept as a reminder of the destruction from a bombing raid in 1943 during WWII. A new octagonal church (not shown) and a freestanding hexagonal bell tower (right) were constructed in 1962 with blue-colored glass bricks.

Painted bears are found all over Berlin and visitors are welcome to climb all over them. This bear was covered with constellations.

James and his bud Fernando

Just before the race, dealing with some nerves

And they're off!

James finishing his first cross-country race in the middle of the pack.

Proud of their second place trophy.

After the race, James joined us for the rest of the weekend. We intended to go to the zoo, but it was closing early. We took this picture at the entrance anyway and we'll try again tomorrow.

We decided to take a bus tour of the city, but first had time to watch some street performers and...

....curl up with a fußball bear, and ...

....pose with a cool fountain (Emilie is always up for a photo), and...

....grab a bite to eat. Now, don't laugh. There are a handful of KFCs in the Frankfurt area, but we have yet to eat at one. In fact, the only American fast-food place near us is a McDonald's, and it's a pain to eat there (parking issues). So, we don't eat American very much at all. KFC, a distant second to Chik-fil-A I know, was a big treat for us.

By the time the bus tour got underway, the sun was setting. We couldn't get good views of the many sites due to the tarp covering the top of the double-decker bus, but the tour probably was the best use of our time. Here is Emilie in front of the Brandenburg Gate, one of the main symbols of Berlin. Berlin was celebrating their annual "Festival of Lights" and many of its sites were beautifully lit.

David was especially interested to tour through the former East Berlin. He had been in East Berlin the day before the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989 and described it as very desolate. The next night, word spread that the Wall had fallen, and David, his good friend Jim and hundreds of thousands of other people converged all along the wall to celebrate. David himself sat on the Berlin Wall that very night, right near Checkpoint Charlie.

As he drove through the area tonight, he marveled at the transformation. You can still see plenty of typical uniform East German apartment buildings, but now there is also plenty of shining new construction.