Day 18: Walk like an Egyptian

My mom is first generation American, her parents both came from Germany after the 2nd World War. My grandmother lived in the heart of Berlin and at a certain point during the war, the house she and my great grandfather lived in was taken over and turned into a hospital. Unfortunately my mom couldn't remember where the house was located exactly. Even though the house is no longer in the family, it still would have been nice to see. However, we still own land in a small town just outside of Berlin.

My mom had emailed my aunt to get the exact address of our family's land. We were both looking forward to seeing it. So we arrived at the the train station rather early to catch the train. But then after checking and double checking, plus speaking to customer service, we found out it would take us over half the day to see the property. The train would drop us off nearby, but then we'd have to wait around for a bus that runs 3 times a day to take us to our land. Quite a shame. But we hadn't given up hope. We decided to check out how much renting a car would cost,... and then gave up hope.

Since visiting our property was out of the picture we went back to the hostel to eat breakfast and regroup. When we had arrived the day before, I noticed a half bombed church while passing by on the train. Since I had a desire to see it up close, we went there after breakfast. The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was built in the late 1800's and bombed in 1943. Thankfully it was preserved -as is- to serve as a memorial of what happened, since the majority of the city was rebuilt. Although, in the early 60's two other buildings were constructed for worship, which look completely out of place, but have become famous themselves.

Now, I'm sorry to say, I've come to the point where I'm at a loss as to the exact details of our day. My notes ran out on the beginning of day 16, and try as I might, I just can't remember all that we had done... except through pictures.

That being said, at some point after visiting the church we went to the history museum for one purpose only: my dad. There are many things he says that, being completely honest, go in one ear and out the other. But I'm sure he knows that. There are other things he says, though, that I don't forget... because I am a good daughter after all. One of the things that stuck was the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts he spoke of. One of his passions include the Egyptian culture. Knowing the large collection he spoke of was within walking distance, we couldn't not go into the history museum. Granted, I couldn't appreciate the collection like he could, so I took over a hundred pictures which will allow him to admire it second hand. (Merry Christmas Dad!)

At some point after the trip to the museum we stopped at, what we learned the day before to be, one of the best cafe's in all of Berlin. They serve 30 different types of cake daily. (No pictures were needed to remind me of going there). And boy, did they serve THE best hot chocolate. Mmmm....

We didn't end up staying out too much later that night. My mom's arm started to swell and hurt. We had stopped at an ice cream parlor for her to put ice on it for a few minutes before deciding to go back to the hostel early. An early night let us plan for our last two days that way... and allowed us much needed rest, since we really hadn't stopped moving since Venice.