Tuesday, August 31st, 2010: From London’s Stansted Train Station to Berlin

Unfortunately, Kenneth came down with a case of the sniffles (this is one of our new favorite British words that we think is very funny) the day before we were to leave on our big Eastern European tour. Although he was feverish and sluggish on Monday, he has been quite the trooper and has not let his cold slow him down on our trip. When we arrived in Berlin in the afternoon we made our way to Mark Hotel, where we would be staying for three nights. The area around our hotel was a really nice, quiet residential neighborhood adjacent to more bustling wide, clean streets with multiple shops selling clothes and shoes.

After checking in and leaving our back packs in our room, we headed out to explore some of the city before the sun went down. We headed west for Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, which was the site of the 1936 Olympic Games. That competition was interesting because it was supposed to validate Hitler’s thoughts on the supremacy of his Aryan athletes. America’s Jesse Owens had other ideas and won several gold medals. The stadium is still a very impressive building and was a beautiful sight as the sun set.







For dinner, we were anxious to try German food so we decided on a huge, old-fashioned beer house that was recommended by our hotel just down the street. For what looked to be a tourist trap, the food was definitely better than expected. I greatly enjoyed my sliced pork with sauerkraut and dumplings, while Kenneth had a German sausage with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. He was excited to get his sparkling apple juice, apfelschorle. The meal was great and we went back to the hotel to get ready for a big day of touristing.