ellisfamilyabroad: July 12 & 13, Buchenwald, & Berlin

Billy's all-star baseball team won their tournament here in Stuttgart in June. The regional tournament is held in Kutno, Poland about 12 hours away from here. At first we weren't going to go because we had a trip planned for the next week, but we decided to go for it!! Since the drive is long, we divided it up and drove to Berlin for our first stop. On the way we stopped at the site of Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany. It was a moving experience. Then on to a whirlwind day and a half in Berlin......amazing!!

The gate that separates the prisoners and the guards, translated: "Each to his own".

Two powerful symbols of the concentration camp/ The pole represents the punishment the prisoners endured, and the cart signifies the forced manual labor.

This area was named the "little camp". In the next picture you can read about the significance of the site we were standing on.

A kilometer down the road there is a memorial site for Buchenwald. The view from this area was spectacular.

This sculpture was enormous and really moving.

ON TO BERLIN!! We arrived in the early evening, found our hotel, and drove into the center of Berlin. We parked just a few blocks from the Brandenburg Gates. We were in awe...this place is such a historic symbol of the entire cold war and it was amazing to stand where President Reagan gave his historic speech.

And yes, we do the silly touristy photo op. things too.

On the Spree river next to the Reichstag building.

The Reichstag building dedicated to the German people. This building is quite a work of architecture. The top of the building is a glass dome which you can walk up to the top of and get a beautiful view of the whole city.

In the center of the dome is a tower of mirrors that reflect the light from outside to light the inside of the building. The very top of the dome is open to let the hot air from inside of the building out.

Looking out of the top.

These slabs of marble in front of the Reichstag building have the names of the 96 members of the Reichstag who were murdered by the Nazis.

The next day we decided to get up and wander around the city looking at anything we found interesting. There were only a few things on our must do list. This beautiful fountain was the first thing we stumbled upon. It is called Neptunbrunnen.