Left: Gunnar pretending to eat the Siegesäule
Middle: Hailey pretending to drive an old car while touring The Story of Berlin
Right: Deborah, Hailey, Sophie, Madelynn, and Hannah exploring the many stories in The Story of Berlin exhibit
We started out Monday morning at our usual time of 10am leaving St. Christopher's Inn. We took the long route to Ku'damm (Kurfürstendamm).
We got off of the S-Bahn at Bellevue and took a walk through the Tiergarten to make our way to the Siegesäule (Victory Column). As we approached the column, everyone started to get out their cameras and take several photos. We made our funny poses and then made our way to Ku'damm. Once we arrived at Ku'damm, we walked over to the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche (Memorial Church). We were stunned to see that we could not actually see the church (it was surrounded by a semi-permanent structure). It was being renovated. We went inside the church and looked at some of the incredible photos and read the stories presented in the small exhibit. One of the difficult things about the renovation is repairing a building that is falling apart that needs to remain "falling apart" (see photos and story on above link). After we left there, students were given an hour and a half of free-time to roam around Ku'damm (go to KaDeWe [Kaufhaus des Westens]), shop, eat, and/or sight see).
At the end of our free-time, we met in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche and walked towards our bus stop. According to the time, we had a couple of moments to stop at the Ampelmann Shop, where several of us purchased gifts with the Ampelmann on it (see links).
We boarded the bus and only traveled about 5 stops and got out to make it to our exhibit reservation at The Story of Berlin. As we walked briskly towards a shopping center (where the address led us), we found the museum/exhibit. After we checked in, I gave the students their scavenger hunt assignments. I printed four different languages for the scavenger hunt (German, Spanish, French, and English). I knew that there were varying abilities of different languages that would guide each group of students through the exhibit in a language other than English. I allowed students about 20 minutes with their chosen language other than English and then decided to allow them to engage more into the exhibits by giving them the scavenger hunt in English. There was so much information, many interesting photos, and hundreds engaging objects to view about the different eras of Berlin (dating all the way back to when Berlin was built). We were in the exhibit for about two hours and still didn't have a chance to see every room! As predicted, at the end of the exhibit was a gift shop and many of us purchased Berlin souvenirs to bring home to our friends and families. We couldn't believe that we will be leaving less than 48 hours!
After we left The Story of Berlin, we got on the bus again and traveled further down Ku'damm to have an early dinner together. It was only 4:30pm, but we were hungry. It was our last dinner together as a large group (Hailey is flying to Amsterdam tomorrow afternoon and Hannah is meeting with her parents tomorrow evening). Tomorrow is also Deborah's 16th birthday. As a result of Deborah's wishes for hummus throughout our travels, I found an amazing Turkish restaurant called Restaurant Tugra. I had called to make reservations yesterday and throughout the day, but nobody at the restaurant had answered. I crossed my fingers (or pushed my thumbs [as you do in Germany]) that they would be able to accommodate 15 of us. As soon as we arrived, to our surprise, they welcomed us enthusiastically. We ordered a couple bottles of white wine for students to experience and made a toast to our trip. We ordered delicious food that made our mouths water and our excitement about our travels come out. The wait staff brought Deborah a small birthday treat and they sang, "Happy Birthday". We asked them to take our photo in front of the restaurant and they asked to join us (which we were excited about). It was an excellent last dinner together!
From dinner, everyone had free-time (about 5:45pm) and all returned to the hostel by 11pm. Today was amazing and tomorrow we take on our last adventures in Berlin.
Group photo with the awesome staff at Tugra, who served us delicious Turkish fare and catered to our wishes. They all even sang "Happy Birthday" to Deborah!
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