The Snells: More Berlin

Em and I have been busy the past two days. Yesterday we started our day by getting croissants at the French Bakery just down the street from us. They were delicious. Our first stop of the day was to Platform 17. This was a train station stop that was used to transport people to concentration camps during World War II. It has now been turned into a memorial. Around the platform listed the date, the number of people, and the place where the people went. There was also an artistic memorial at the sight. After our stop at Platform 17, we went to the Olympic Stadium that was used in the 1936 games. This was the Olympics that Jesse Owens won gold in the 100m, 200m, long jump, and the 4x100m. We were able to see the street that was named after him, as well as the Olympic rings. Unfortunately we were not able to get into the stadium because it was under renovation. On our way to the stadium, Em and I were walking along a path right next to some trees. On the very edge of the path, there stood an old man, pants down to his ankles, doing his business! Hello Germany! We pretended like we didn't see, and just kept on our way. Once we were by him, we laughed so hard! After Olympic Stadium, we headed over to the Charlottenburg Palace. This was a palace that Queen Sofia built as a summer retreat. It was very ornate and had a beautiful park in the back. Em and I wondered around here for a while, got some lunch and ice cream, and then headed over to the shopping area again. We met Ryan for dinner and then headed back to the apartment. It was a very busy day filled with lots of really neat sights!

Today, Em and I had a great plan. We were going to buy day passes for all the zones and head to two places. Our first stop was the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. It took us an hour and a half to get there by train and then we had to wait 30 minutes for our other train. We walked around the town for a bit and then headed to the platform. We got on our train and took it one stop. To our surprise, there were not too many signs for the concentration camp. So we just started walking in the direction we thought. After quite some time and no camp, we decided to stop and ask for some directions. To our dismay, we were still quite a ways away. So we continued to walk and finally found some signs pointing to the camp. After following these signs for a while, we realized that the station where we transferred was .2 km away from where we found these signs. We ended up walking 4 extra miles! At least we got exercise and a funny story out of it! So, 4 hours after our departure, we finally made it to the concentration camp. We spent about 2.5 hours there, walking around the buildings that were still standing. It was quite sad to think about the horrific events that had taken place in the same walls that we were standing within. After our time at the camp, we headed back to the station, got some ice cream, and started the hour and a half train ride home. Because of our long route to get to the camp, we had to skip seeing some castles in another little town. Oh well...such is life.

Below are some pictures from yesterday...we didn't take many pictures today. Enjoy!