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Around the Tiergarten
We spent most of the day in and around the Tiergarten, a large park on the west side of Berlin’s city center. We started out at the Brandenburger Tor, checked out the exterior of the Reichstag, and walked through part of the park. We saw various monuments and memorials and ultimately ended up at the southwest corner of the park by the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
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Remnants of the Berlin Wall
Today, we mostly visited portions that remain of the Berlin Wall. While doing so, we also saw Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous crossing between East and West Berlin. And we spent some time at the Topography of Terror, a Dokumentationszentrum (Documentation Center) that covers the Nazis’ rise to power and the evils that they committed. There is also some special focus on this particular site as it is where the Gestapo headquarters was located.
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Unter den Linden
After taking the ICE to Berlin, we dropped off our bags at The Westin Grand and started to walk to the east on Unter den Linden (Under the Linden). We walked to the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) before backtracking by U-Bahn. We unexpectedly encountered Christopher Street Day, a large pride event that was going on today. We spent a little bit of time at the event before walking through the nearby Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. We then kept on walking to Potsdamer Platz where we saw our first Berlin Wall segments. We then took another brief U-Bahn ride followed by a short walk back to our hotel to end the day.
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Stumbling upon Christopher Street Day in Berlin
After walking along Unter den Linden near the Museum Island in Berlin, we headed to the Brandenburger Tor (Gate) by U-Bahn. It was extremely crowded with significantly more people compared to when we arrived earlier in the day. Some of the people were dressed in a rainbow of colors. Was this just the usual summer weekend crowd in Berlin?
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Kaiserburg Nürnberg and the Dutzendteich
Yesterday, we visited part of Nürnberg’s Altstadt (Old Town). Today, we started off at Kaiserburg Nürnberg, the Imperial Castle that sits atop a hill on the northern end of the Altstadt. It is quite a large castle and attached to vast remnants of the city wall. Afterwards, we went to the Dutzendteich area where we visited the Documentation Center, a museum that focuses on what the Nazis did here and why this area was important to their rise to power in Germany. We then walked around the area which currently consists of beautiful parkland with huge dilapidated Nazi constructed structures before heading back into the Altstadt to end the day.
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Nürnberg
After taking the ICE from Frankfurt Airport, we arrived in Nürnberg, or Nuremberg in English, before noon. After checking into our hotel, the Le Meridien Grand Hotel, right next to the train station, we headed over to see the courtroom where the Nürnberg trials took place after World War II. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking through part of the Altstadt, or old town, in the middle of the city.
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Niederwald Above the Rhine
After arriving in Frankfurt, we took the train over to Rüdesheim, a town on the Rhine. We then took a small gondola up to the Niederwald, a forested area above the Rhine Valley. We hiked to the west, eventually descending via a small chairlift into Assmannshausen, an even smaller town. Afterwards, we returned to Frankfurt to have a very late lunch and to walk around a bit.
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New Name, Roving Sun
This blog was originally titled Here and There. It was a good name. Sometimes we’re here. Sometimes we’re there. But the name is in use for various blogs and other websites. Its too common of a phrase. It turns out that no one owned the domain rovingsun.com. So, Here and There is now Roving Sun!
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Meadowlark Botanical Gardens
We visited the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens again this morning. It was warm and humid and felt like summer, particularly when the sun was out. There was still some smoky haze from the Canadian fires but luckily we didn’t smell it in the air. Many new flowers seemed to have bloomed since our last visit a week ago. And of course, many birds!
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Meadowlark Botanical Gardens
Our last visit to the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens was two weeks ago. During that visit, we didn’t see any Baltimore Orioles. We were wondering if we would find any today. We unfortunately did not. But we did find an Eastern Kingbird nest with two babies! And, saw them get fed by their parents. We also saw many swallows, possibly the most we’ve ever seen here. And of course, plenty of flowers!
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Here and there but not quite everywhere!