She was active and played up to the crowd. We saw her being fed fish and bagels which she ate very delicately off of the back of her paw.
The treetop bird walk was disappointing, but the kids playground and all the landscaping was beautiful.
As you see, we got a good view of the lions being lazy just like our cats at home.
The zoo had beautiful landscaping and fun statues.
We left around 1 and had lunch at Wok to Walk again. This is the area with the Christmas shop. Dave and Catherine went back to the Amplemann store, while I went to oogle the Christmas shop one last time. They joined me and I did buy one of the beautiful woodcuts, with Dave smiling, but rolling his eyes.
This has been given a place of honor on our fireplace mantel. I like it better every time I see it.
Since we were in the area, we went back to Kaiser Wilhelm church, and finally got to see the inside. I believe this is officially the klunkiest touring we've ever done--we literally went to this church 5 times. Like Sir. Edmund Hillary with Mt. Everest---we went because it was there.
This floor mural was empty for one nano-second so I could take this picture.
A major, not-to-be missed Berlin sight is museum island with five different museums. But even more amazing to me was this drinking fountain. Possibly the only one in Germany--maybe all of Europe.
On museum island, the Pergammon museum looked to be the best.
Impressive grounds
It was full of ancient things. We saw the gates of Babylon
a replica of the tower of Babel and other things from the old-testament. We also saw the palace gates of the Grand Califf.
Model of the tower of Babel
I liked this pottery shard. It looked like something the makers of Scooby-Doo would have drawn.
There was a very good audio guide. I was disappointed that Nefertiti was in one of the other museums, but the Babylonian gates were enough wonder for one person in one day.
Next stop was the Berlin Cathedral.
We considered skipping the paid portions as we had been to so many Cathedrals, but I'm glad we didn't. The Cathedral is HUGE and breathtaking.
We climbed all the way to the top there were neat things to see on the way up, such as this model of the Cathedral.
Even cooler was this model that is inside the wall. That is not a picture below, you could look into the wall itself.
The model inside the wall.
There were beautiful statues
And this weathervane.
At the top at last we saw the bells and the city.
Also on the roof are bees.
From the heights, we went to the depths--all the way down into the crypts. There was quite a collection.
Several were in gold. I think this might be Kurfursten Friedrich Wilhelm (1620-1688) and his wife.
This one for sure is Konig Friedrich 1 (1657-1713)
I don't know who this poor coffin belonged to.
Children's coffins were mixed in with the others.
Most poignant was a little room all in white which contained the coffin of the unnamed princess. I guess all of us were touched because none of us thought to take a picture. I left the crypts to rest. Turns out Dave and Catherine were also resting on the other side. But it didn't take long to find each other. By now it was about 7 and we were all hot, hungry and tired.
The Ampelmann restaurant was close and we walked there by way of the river. It was a beautiful evening with boats going up and down the river and people in the park.
Dave wanted a street brat, but we didn't see one and he kindly gave up the idea in favor of the restaurant. We had giant schintzel and good potato salad while an oomp-pah-bah band played outside.
And the red chairs for "Stop"
After dinner we strolled slowly toward the train station. Catherine wanted a last giant Hard Rock Cafe sundae and Dave wanted some last minute souvenirs. We got the souvenirs, and then found this weird little french shop, Pylones, that sold weird kitchen gadgets.
We bought a new refidgerator pen and went to the Hard Rock Ugh. 40 minute wait. We settled for Haggen Daz next store to Pylones. We got the best table, meant for little kids, but away from the smokers that are everywhere in Europe.
Darn. We were at that table for about two minutes and then the store closed and our table went away. No matter, we took our ice-cream to the island in the middle of the street and sat (which at the end of a trip in and of itself, is an amazing experience). Eventually, we got up to go back the hotel, we took a slightly different was and found a great bear statue fountain.
Back by 10:00 to finish packing. We were taking a LOT of Catherine's stuff, plus a surprising amount of chocolate back home.
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