Germany

We were in bed by 10:30pm, but our jet lag resulted in sleeping in until 11am. Luckily we are entering the longest days of the year so it would be easy to recuperate time in Berlin.

We started our day nerding out by visiting the filming set of Mary’s favorite TV show Dark, which was filmed in the Berlin country side. It was a 40 minute walk to the bridge where Marta told Jonas she was having deja vu and the kids returned after losing Mikkel (no spoilers, it’s the first episode). The forest surrounding the location was also cool.

We trained back into the city to visit the Berlin Story Bunker, a museum dedicated to explaining how the Third Reich and Hitler could rise to power. It’s also where Hitler committed suicide and they burned his body. There was an excellent exhibit within the museum on the current war in Ukraine and the parallels between Putin and Hitler on state propaganda as well as a panel on memes being used in psychological war against Russia. Check out the picture of Ukrainian soldier patches that have been traded with the museum owner (yes they are real meme patches)! The museum has also sent filming drones and other helpful technology to support Ukraine.

We walked to Checkpoint Charlie which was the US Army station between West and East Berlin. While grabbing food a huge storm hit and we waited it out by watching the Turkey vs Georgia Eurocup football game (hosted in Germany). Once the clouds cleared, we power walked to a section of the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, and finally the Reichstag before more rain fell.

There is a 100% discernible difference between East and West Berlin, and it’s most notable in the buildings and street lamps. It’s clear the West had money to repair and modernize while the East remained the same. Either way, everyone agrees the East side is best side because it has the culture and traditional architecture.

Hostel: Meininger East Gallery

Spots:
Königsweg bridge
Berlin Story Bunker
Berlin Wall
Anhalter Bahnhof
Checkpoint Charlie
Brandenburg Gate
ReichstagRead more

The Black Forest spans across southwest Germany and parts of France. Tobias taught us that the region has been under the hands of the French so many times that there are several local dishes and towns with French heritage.

For Wednesday, we decided to go hiking in Liegewiese Fünf Bäume. To access the park, we rode a funicular that first opened in 1908. The view of Bad Wildbad was stunning as we climbed the hill. We explored the park trails for two hours which included soldier huts, freshly cut logs, and lots of moss. The pines were so thick in some areas it smelled like Christmas. We enjoyed lounging and eating some Korean food for the rest of the day.

On Thursday, we visited the thermal mineral springs in town. While one of the bath houses had architecture from 1700-1800, it was under renovation and still charging full price for only two open baths. We instead visited Vital Therme which is more like an excerise wellness center with the spring water pumped into its facilities. We swam in the 34 degrees Celsius pool water and narrowly missed a water aerobics class (we escaped to the outside pool before it started).

We wanted to use the sauna, but the only open sauna was in the textile free naturalist section of the wellness center. While we’ve done Korean spas separate genders, this would be our first mixed gender spa. Kieran got brave and we went full nakey. It was a fun and interesting experience, and we liked sitting out in the garden fully exposed in the sun 🚫👙

After spending 3 hours in the center, we grabbed dinner at Wildbader Hof and watched Godzilla King of the Monsters.

Restaurants:
Suni Cafe
Wildbader Hof

Food:
Bulgogi Kim Bap
Bulgogi Dumplings
Bulgogi Ramen
Schnitzel Mit Bratensobe - Pork Schnitzel with fries
Spargelcremesuppe - Cream of asparagus soup
Fleischbällchen mit Spätzle - Meat balls with spatzel

Spots:
Summerberg
Vital ThermeRead more