There's No Place like (What used to be) Home.....

Welcome to England, blog readers! Our 4-continent journey comes to a stop here. We've cooled down by shopping and relaxing in Windsor and London. We haven't gone on any big expeditions, but here are some highlights.

The "Long Walk" in Windsor is about 2.6 miles long. We all jogged down it together, leaving me quite tired.

Another view.

We rented some bikes in London to explore the parks.

This is the palace where Prince William lives.

As our tradition demands, we visited this sandy playground. My vessel seems to be the victim of a mutiny.

This is humiliating.

It's dangerous to let me get bored.

After a few more days in London, our continental saga will come to a close. I hope you all enjoyed my blog. Thanks for reading!

Next up: More London!

Ich Bin Ein Berliner

Hello - guest blogger Lisa here.  We have spent the past two days in Berlin.  History is not Aidan's favorite subject.  We dragged him all over the city, and he was a good sport, but it certainly has not been his favorite part of vacation.  I think if he has to learn anything else about WWII or the Cold War, his head might explode.

Yesterday we wanted a shorter walk (only two hours instead of half the day like today) so we intentionally avoided the war places and went to some older buildings.  Of course, there is not a lot of old architecture left in Berlin compared to other European cities.

The Reichstag, built in 1894, currently houses the Parliament.  The old dome was destroyed and this new modern glass dome was added.

Brandenburg Gate, 1791, former city gate.

Berliner Dom (church) located on Museum Island.

Today we moved on to the WWII and Cold War sights.  We wanted to walk around the city but didn't want to be stuck with a guided tour group,  so we tried a walking tour app.  It mostly worked but it wasn't 100% current- I think because Berlin is constantly changing, constantly under construction.  We started at an exhibit called the Black Box which gave detailed information about the war and gave us a better understanding of the sights we were about to explore.

This is a replica of Checkpoint Charlie, one of the crossing points from East to West Berlin.

Checkpoint Charlie

Conveniently, a Starbucks was down the street when we needed to escape the rain. 

The longest continuous stretch of the Berlin Wall remaining.

The same stretch of wall with an exhibit in front called the Topography of Terror explaining Poland and the war.

The Berliner Mauer is the Berlin Mile, markers that denote the past location of the Berlin Wall.  In this particular spot, the wall coincided with the old town wall, marked by the brick cobblestones.

Under this parking lot was Hitler's bunker, where he committed suicide.  The government buildings and the bunkers were destroyed, either by bombing or demolished by the Soviets after the war.

After our walk and dinner, we found a small playground, possibly too small for Aidan.

Much of Berlin was bombed during the war and buildings were demolished afterwards.  This is one of few examples where they saved part of a building.  This was the Grand Hotel Esplanade.  They saved the lower floors with ballrooms and other lavish rooms then added a new building on top.  Because the old building could not hold the weight of the new building, they built supports around it so that the new, upper part does not actually rest on the old, lower part.

We have a brief few hours in the morning to visit the park before we fly to London.  I like Berlin - it is pretty, clean, safe, and interesting.  We could easily have spent more time in Berlin seeing other areas of the city, although Aidan might disagree.  

Back to Aidan for Windsor and London next.

Making Praugueress

Greetings, loyal blog readers! I bring tidings of a beautiful city- Prague, in the Czech Republic. We explored the city and the countryside on bike, segway, and e-bike (bikes that cycle for you).

The city is an amazing mix of old and new. Here's a modern building right next to an old one, for instance. Even the cable cars have drastic age differences, and they run side-by-side.

Czech countryside.

A swan with some ducks. The swan didn't seem to enjoy the ducks' company.

Karlstejn castle, just outside of Prague.

The e-bikes.

The city, from a distance, can look like a simple, charming one, but if you venture in you will discover that you can find many modern stores and gadgets. Prague is not an old-fashioned city by any means, but it's not all shiny skyscrapers either.

A row of bridges lined up.

It's not often you get to see a beautiful city with a double rainbow in the background.

The TV tower in Prague has been deemed the second ugliest building in the world, so they decided to decorate it with babies like these ones.

                                             

The tower. This photo was found online, not taken by us.

The famous Charles bridge. I shouldn't have let Dad try the "panorama" function on the phone's camera.

The gateway to Charles bridge. Many people set up small stands there, offering items from caricatures to trinkets.

More Czech countryside, seen from the train out.

Even the amazing pictures that I have here cannot begin to describe how sprawling, fantastic, and diverse the city of Prague is. The roads are cobblestone, and half of the sidewalks have patterns on them. The whole city is nothing short of spectacular. There's always something new around the corner- like a monastery that brews their own beer, supposedly some of the best in the world and only available there.

We could have spent many days exploring, but we left after only two. This morning, we caught a train to Berlin, where we are now. We'll walk around the city tomorrow, and I will report our findings. Thanks for reading!

Next up: Touring Berlin!

Just in the Munich of Time

Hello again blog followers! Today's report is live from the Czech Republic.. about Germany! I'm admittedly a bit behind. Two days ago, we caught a plane to Munich. One day later, we touched down and walked to our hotel room. From there, we went off to lunch, and that's where the fun started.

The restaurant was just downstairs of the room where a young Hitler held meetings with the beginning of the Nazi party (don't judge). It now represents a prominent aspect of German culture- beer.

Germany, the land of beer and giant pretzels. This is the main restaurant area, as opposed to the exhibit upstairs.

Yay, I'm handcuffed!

People really can carry this many beer mugs at once, despite the fact that I could hardly lift the two they had on display. Although I suppose I shouldn't use myself as an example of average strength.

And I do decree that hürbem shlap ïna flínken hëiben!

The beautiful English Garden.

The Glockenspiel, a clock tower that plays a chorus of bells and has the figures in it perform a dance at twelve o' clock.

After we had explored Munich, we took a train to Nuremburg, and explored the grounds of a castle. Beneath the castle is a ventilated shelter, which was used to store art during the Second World War.

Nuremburg is best known for holding the trials against the Nazis after WWII was over, but we enjoyed it simply as a pleasant town with a nice, open feel to it.

The rocks out front were just too tempting to resist climbing on.

This was outside the castle. The architecture is distinctly German.

From Nuremburg, we drove to Prague in the Czech republic, where we are now. Tomorrow's post might be more exciting.

Thanks for reading!

Next up: Czech Biking!