a birthday in Berlin

Guten Nacht! well, it's night for us, anyhow. if you didn't know, today is my (ugh) 35th birthday and i enjoyed celebrating it in Berlin with Lorri. we decided to rent bikes this morning even though we knew it was going to be very hot (which it certainly was). i'm glad we did as we were able to see so much of this very large city quite easily. of course there is much to see in Berlin given the 750+ year history of this city. as you would expect many of the tourist points of interest concern the years leading up to and including WWII. while such things are very far from light hearted typical vacation fare, one would certainly be remiss to avoid taking them in while in this area. one such site we visited is the recently opened Stiftung Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europa (The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe). While the field of concrete slabs does plenty to set you to thinking about the horrors of what the memorial represents, the underground museum exhibits are much more thought provoking. I can't readily go into more detail here but it was certainly a very moving experience.
















anyone who knows me well is well aware that i like to document vacations through lots of pictures, and that generally includes shots of us taken at arm's length in front of "important things". there's lots in that category to choose from in Berlin but here's one example - the Brandenberg Gate, one of the most well known symbols of the city. ok, the gate is a little blurry but otherwise it isn't bad. in any case it should look ok at the shrunken picture size that i use to lessen the pain for those of you that are still on dialup!
















of course we saw much during our day but i think i'll quit here for now. Auf Wiedersehen for now and we'll "talk" to you again soon!

PS - should you ever need one, Lorri does a nice job as a bike tour guide. i don't think you'll mistake her for Magellan but otherwise i wholeheartedly recommend her for the job. :)