German Language Tour

Tag Drei (Day Three)

Hallo von Berlin (again)!

by Charlotte Roberts

What a day With minor jet lag still taking its toll, many of us woke to bright sunshine only to find it was still only 5 am. The rooms however were a fair bit cooler than the first night which hugely improved our overall opinion of this hostel. With an 8 am start for breakfast, another delicious buffet consisting of bread, fruit, cold meats and cheese, we started on our way to the REWE (a type of German supermarket) The plan was to spend five or so minutes there before moving on however the huge variety of German snacks and brands of food held us up an extra 15 minutes.

Continuing from our shopping adventures, we travelled by tram to the Gemäledgalerie where we spent the next few hours There would have been hundreds of paintings on display but it didn’t take too long before we started to notice a few things. 1) these artists, however good most of the painting was, could not draw babies, 2) the dogs were not too much better than the babies and 3) the stereotypical art gallery visitor stance is real Many of the paintings depicted different scenes of Jesus’s life from being a baby in the stable to hanging on the cross The paintings illustrated a range of ideas from heaven and hell to the consequences for traitors. I thought it was interesting to see how much of the paintings from back then have changed into what they are today, one of the biggest differences is that many of the paintings seen in the gallery were based around religion

We added to our already huge number of steps accumulated throughout the trip by walking to our next stop which was the German Spy Museum It was full of information on early-day codes, the inventors, odd places where cameras were hidden and many other interactive activities to do with spies. While it was interesting to learn about the many different ways that a person could spy, and there were many, I think many of us found the activities more stimulating with a laser maze to get through, unlocking a safe with a stethoscope and a secret passage through a fake ventilation tunnel

We spent the afternoon in the Berlin Tiergarten, a park that the royals used to hunt animals in as a pastime, which was just across the street from the Brandenburg Gate and also looking through shops with souvenirs that included miniature versions of the bear statues dotted throughout Berlin Dinner tonight was chicken burgers with gravy, sweet potato gnocchi, potato salad and cake for dessert I am finding it interesting the combinations of food that Germany serves such as the burgers with gnocchi and I hear that schnitzels with noodles are quite popular too.

I am looking forward to what tomorrow will bring and am so glad that I get to go on this trip with some pretty amazing people.

Gute Nacht!