Henry #2: May 25

Sadly, today was our last day in Berlin. We got up at 9:30 and went to a bakery across the street from our hostel for breakfast. After filling up on delicious pastries, we decided we wanted to go to Potsdam, or as we like to call it, the "Buckhead" of Berlin. We headed to the metro station and bought our new train tickets that would enable us to take the 45 minute ride to Potsdam. Once we arrived, we headed immediately to the tourist office for some guidance on what we should see. The tourist associate told us that the best way to become acquainted with Potsdam was to take a bus tour. The bus touring business is clearly an area of intense competition in Potsdam; the minute we stepped out of the train station we were bombarded by representatives from each of the respective bus touring representatives. Cedric was holding the brochures of each of the companies, and when he pulled out the one we had decided on, a huge smile came across the representative's face while her competitors grumbled in frustration.

While we were waiting for our bus to arrive, we took a quick walk up to the river to pass the time. Unfortunately, we didn't stay at the river for long because it was freezing and windy. Apparently Atlanta's winter weather is equivalent to that of Berlin's late spring. We returned to the bus station and saw our ride pulling up. We got on and went right up to the second floor (it was a double decker). From here, we began our tour of Potsdam. Our tour guide spoke in both German and English, which was particularly helpful. Our first stop was historic Potsdam, and while we did not get off, we flagged it on our mental maps as a great spot to stop for lunch. Our next stop was Potsdam's Brandenburg Gate, which actually predates Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. The bus continued down the streets of Potsdam until we arrived at the historic bridge that had served as the border between Potsdam (East Germany) and West Berlin. The bridge even changed colors discretely to mark the divide. While we were on the bridge, a vast lake stretched out beneath us. There were a few boats out on the lake, but the most noticeable elements were the few grand houses and palaces situated along the shore. After visiting the bridge, we turned around and headed back towards Potsdam. The bus took us down treelined cobblestone streets graced by quaint cottages that house many notable people, including the ambassador of Venezuela. Our tour guide told us that space in a certain apartment building in the area was worth 2,000 euros per square meter, hence the tagging of Potsdam as the "Buckhead" of Berlin. The next stop was Sanssouci, and we decided to get off our tour bus and take a look around. Sanssouci was the summer palace in which Frederick the Great resided during his rule of Prussia. The yellow palace was situated up on a hill, overlooking vast geometrically crafted gardens. Everything about the palace was symmetrical, including the layers of earth that came together to form the hill up to the palace. After we felt satisfied that we had seen all of the palace that we needed to see, we headed back to the bus stop, only to find that we had missed our tour bus. We decided that since it was well past our usual lunch time, we ought to get on a city bus and head back into historic Potsdam.

We got off the bus and headed down the quaint streets of central Potsdam. It did not take us long to find a place to eat as we quickly settled down at a small restaurant that specialized in delicious bagels. Most of us got bagel sandwiches, either salami or ham. While our meals were delicious, they were not particularly filling. Luckily, as we made our way towards the train station, we came across a farmers market where we found a bratwurst stand. All of us got a brat except Sam, and it was not until we finished them that we were completely satisfied and full. We continued towards the train station, eager to return to Berlin to get some last minute photos and gifts.

When we got back to central Berlin, we went straight to the TV tower the see if we could confirm my birthday dinner reservations. However, for some reason the reservation did not go through when we made it online, so we decided we would come back later to go up to the top and get one last look at Berlin before dark. We then headed straight for the Brandenburg Gate to get a picture, having previously forgotten to take one. After we had taken enough pictures, we went to Checkpoint Charlie for a quick re-visit to look for postcards and souvenirs. We then remembered that we had still not seen the Jewish Memorial park that we had driven by on our first day in Berlin. We tried to find by reading street signs and trying to guess which of the phrases meant "Jewish Memorial." Luckily, a very nice Berliner saw that we were lost and came to our aid, guiding us to the metro station that would lead us to the Memorial. The memorial is extremely pleasing to the eye; it is a sloping plaza with giant blocks of cement that all come together to form some sort of optical illusion. After we had had enough time at the Jewish Memorial, we decided to head back to our hostel to freshen up before dinner.

We stayed a the hostel for about an hour and met our new roommate who had just arrived. He and Parker immediately struck up conversation because he was an engineering student at Virginia Tech. Since our original dinner plans failed, we decided to eat at Oranium, a restaurant just around the corner from our hostel. Much to our dismay, Sam, Christian, and I accidentally ordered sparkling water instead of flat water. This error was quickly made up for by the delicious food we got. Sam and I both got Pizzas with toppings ranging from lettuce to salmon. Christian and Parker both got some sort of meat combo-platter that had liver, sausage, and blood sausage. After Cedric had finished his sausage plate, he gladly ate Christian and Parker's blood sausage, to everyone else's disgust.

After dinner, we headed back to the TV Tower, hoping to make it up to the top to see Berlin from above. Finally, this being our third try, we got tickets to ride the elevator to the top! The elevator was extremely fast, moving people up and down the tower at a rate of six meters per second. When we got to the top, we saw Berlin sprawling out in every direction beneath us. We were really glad that we got to do this after touring Berlin because we were able to track everywhere we had been from above. We were lucky enough to see the sun set, and after we felt we had gotten our money's worth of views, we headed back down to tower to make our daily trip to the grocery store for dessert.

When we got to the grocery store, we went directly to the ice cream section to decide which Magnum bars we should get. Cedric, Parker, and I decided on a six pack of bars so that we could each have two. This proved to be a great decision because the bars were amazing. After we were full from all the chocolate and caramel, we returned to our hostel and settled in the lobby area to do some long overdue blogging. After Sam was satisfied with the day's blogging, we went to sleep, excited leave for Prague in the morning.