Schokolade

"Schokolade" means chocolate in German.  (Read further to find out about that...)

 

After two years of living in Germany, we finally made it to the capitol city of Berlin!

One of the main symbols of Berlin is the Brandenburg Gate.  So it was the first thing we went to see.

 

 

The Brandenburg Gate is a triumphal arch built in the 1700s as a sign of peace.  But after World War II, when Berlin was divided, the gate was sort of isolated and not accessible to people, because it was right along the Berlin Wall.  In 1989 when the Berlin Wall was torn down, the leaders of East and West Berlin met each other through the gate.  Now it's a popular public gathering spot where over a million people can gather.  We were there just a few days after Germany won the World Cup, and they were still taking down scaffolding from a jumbo-tron (and taking away hundreds of porta-potties!)

 

Right along where the Berlin Wall used to stand, they still have pieces of it as a memorial. 

 

 

The pieces of wall are totally covered in graffiti and coated in chewing gum.  Gross!

 

 

Back in the trees, we saw this random weird statue.  We found out it's called the Monument to the Russian Soldier, or Soviet War Memorial.    

 

There sure are a lot of Memorials in Berlin.  I think the coolest was the Holocaust Memorial.

 

It is basically 2,711 concrete stelae of different heights, forming a grid.

 

It was almost like a maze, even though they were all perfectly lined up.

 

It's a memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

 

 Here is some weird architecture at the Sony Center...

 

 

Kieran's favorite thing at the Sony Center was a Dunkin' Donuts.

 

This is the Berlin Fernsehturm.  (Or, you know, Berlin T.V. Tower...but it sounds way cooler in German.)

 

The Fernsehturm is located in Alexanderplatz, which is one of the main squares in Berlin.

 

There is an ugly Neptune fountain there, too.

 

They kind of ruined this building with all the random pipes, cranes, tanks, and tarps...all in different colors!

 

TV Tower + Ugly Neptune = Awesome picture.

 

So here is a guy standing on a pole.  You may not think this is very exciting.  Why did we take a picture of this?  Well...

 

 

We saw this same guy standing on top of a large golden ball in Salzburg a few months ago.  I did not put this picture in the Salzburg blog, because I decided that it was sort of random.  But now that we've seen him in two places, I thought it was worth mentioning.  Apparently they are done by the same artist, Stephan Balkenhol. 

 

 

Like every good city in Europe, Berlin has a big church.  This is the Berliner Dom.

 

 

Here's a pretty detail of the archway.

 

 

FOUNTAIN!

 

And now the BEST part of all of Berlin......

 

THE RITTER SPORT CHOCOLATE FACTORY!!!!!!!!

 

The coolest part (besides the fact that it's a store dedicated to chocolate) is that you can make your own Ritter Sport flavor.  First you choose whether you want milk chocolate or white chocolate.

 

Then you choose up to three different ingredients to put in your chocolate.  There were about thirty different choices - everything from chili peppers to gummi bears! 

 

After they mix in your ingredients, they put the chocolate into the signature square Ritter Sport mold.

 

And after thirty minutes in a chocolate cool-ifyer, it looks like an actual Ritter Sport chocolate!

 

 

Then, they put it into a special packaging...

 

Seal it up...

 

And put it in a fancy box.

 

And then you have your own Ritter Sport flavor!!!!

 

See you next time in Copenhagen!!!

Dia duit!

"Dia duit!" means "Hello!" in Irish!

 

Welcome to the Republic of Ireland!

 

As we drove from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland, it was hard to tell the difference between the two - they were both equally and green and beautiful.

 

But we did spot a few ways you might be able to tell the difference.

 

In Northern Ireland signs are in English, distances and speed limits are posted in miles, and you will pay road tolls in British Pounds.  (You may also spot the Union Jack - like A LOT.)

 

In the Republic of Ireland, signs are in English AND Irish, distances and speed limits are posted in kilometers, and you will pay your road tolls in Euros.  The flag flying here is the Irish flag, orange, white, and green.

 

The first place we visited was Brú na Bóinne, also known as Newgrange.

 

 

It's an ancient passage tomb built over 5000 ago.

 

 

Similar to Stonehenge, the ancient people here were great astronomers.

 

 

The inner passage of the temple/tomb is illuminated at the Winter Solstice through the hole you can see on top of the door.

 

This is a triple spiral.  It's a design you will see often in Ireland.

 

Nobody really knows what it means, but it looks cool! 

 

 

The tomb is made out of rocks, covered in dirt and grass on the top. The amazing thing is, that even after 5000 years, the interior is completely waterproof.

 

 

We got the chance to go inside of the narrow passage to the inner tomb, and they did a demonstration with an electric light to show what the tomb looks like when the sun comes through for just a few minutes at the Winter Solstice.  Pretty cool! 

 

The next place we went was the Hill of Tara.

 

Of course my Mom made us go there...(Here she is on her hill.)

 

The Hill of Tara is where the ancient kings of Ireland were crowned.

 

As a ceremonial center, there were also weird burial mounds all over the top of it.

 

You can kind of see the concentric circles.

 

Apparently, this is also where St. Patrick explained the Holy Trinity to the King of Ireland using a three-leaf clover and gained the right to preach Christianity in Ireland. 

 

We found plenty of clovers on the hill.

It was kind of super windy and mysterious when we were there.

 

We found our church hidden off the main road on Sunday. Everybody there, in typical Irish fashion, was SUPER friendly and talkative.

 

Across the street was this fancy looking McDonalds.  No kidding.  That's a McDonalds.  (I guess McDonald's is an Irish name...maybe they take it really seriously here.)  Or maybe they just converted some old building into a McDonalds...I don't know.

 

We stayed at this cool place called Powerscourt Hotel Resort.

 

They had a really big fancy building with automatic touch lighting and....wait for it....

 

....A T.V. built into the mirror in the bathroom!

 

I guess if you REALLY had to go to the bathroom while watching the World Cup, and you didn't want to miss anything, THIS is the hotel for you.

 

Also, they have funky harp statues in the middle of 2-D labyrinths.  The harp is a national symbol of Ireland.

 

Okay...and funky little gardens by the parking lot...

 

So...Powerscourt Hotel Resort is NOT to be confused with Powerscourt Estate.

 

This is some fancy estate from some fancy Irish guy.

 

It has the third best Victorian Gardens in the world, according to National Geographic.

 

(Number 1 and 2 are Versailles and Kew Gardens in England.)  So what does it take to make the top three gardens you ask?

 

Giant perfect hills...

 

Lots of them!

 

Random, oddly shaped bushes...

 

Grandiose staircases...

 

Pegasus statues...(of course)

 

(Hi!)

 

Lily pads...

 

Miniature castle towers...

 

Weird fountains all over the place...

 

An Italian Rose garden...

 

Perfectly fake-looking panoramic setting....

 

One giant estate to tie it all together...

 

And a statue of a person catching a deer by the horns.  And there you have it!

 

It's always important when you are in Ireland to eat food at a pub with live music.  View our assortment of traditional food...Bangers and Mash, Irish Stew, Fish & Chips...and something from the kids menu.  Too bad you can't hear the guys singing and playing the banjo-like instrument.

 

Lastly, we did spend a day in Dublin.  Here we are at Trinity University.

We went there to see the Book of Kells, which is a super old Bible.

 

I can't show you a picture of it, because they don't let you take pictures of really old Bibles.

 

So here's a bunch of other old books in the library there.  Apparently none of them are Bibles.

 

And goodbye, Trinity University...

 

Passing the time on a fence.

 

Even the buildings in Ireland are green!

 

This is Dublin Castle.  It doesn't really look like a castle.

 

This does, but it's actually a church.

 

Christ Church Cathedral, to be exact.

 

Just across the street is St. Patrick's Cathedral.

 

Finally, I leave you with the Spire of Dublin, or Monument of Light.

 

It's 398 feet tall.  My question is....why didn't they just make it 400?

 

Well, we didn't see any Leprechauns, we didn't get any gold, we didn't find any four leaf clovers, but we did see rainbows.  One out of four ain't bad. ;)  

 

See you next time from Berlin!