Happy 70th!

Last week, my dad celebrated his 70th birthday!   Time sure flies.   To celebrate it, and our other milestone birthdays this year (Ethan-10 and me-40(!)), we decided to take a family trip together.   We picked Berlin and Prague...Dad had been in the divided Berlin back in the 70s when he was in the army, but not back since.   And we had always wanted to check out Eastern Europe.  

We arranged our flight to meet in London, and then fly to Berlin together.   Luckily, all worked out well without delays etc.   We rented a cute apartment in the neighborhood of Prenzlauerberg in former East Berlin.   It was spacious enough for us to all spread out and had a kitchen and laundry.

We spend three full days in Berlin, taking in the sights.   The first day, we followed part of the course of the wall, and learned about the history,  construction and the "no man's land" between it.

We also saw the Brandenburger Tor, and took a picture of my dad to put up alongside his one from almost 50 year ago.  

And we toured the Reichstag building--the home of German parliament.   It was completely rebuilt after reunification, and a really neat building--a melding of old and new.   Super energy efficient too.

 

We celebrated my dad's birthday a day late, on April 7 (too tired when we landed around 8pm on April 6) with a delicious Schnitzel at a restaurant called Schnitzeli Mitte.  We even got to sing him happy birthday!

  

The following day,we checked out the Topography of Terror--a museum about the Nazis--as well as Check Point Charlie--the spot where Dad crossed into East Berlin as an American soldier.   

Also visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews.   In the evening, we headed to a different area and saw the Kaiser Wilem Church--which was a church almost completely destroyed in WWII.   The have left the building as is, in ruin, as a reminder of the horrors of war.   It was poignant, indeed.

Our last day in Berlin, we visited the Palace of Tears, at the site where West Berliners were able o cross into East Berlin to visit their family and friends.   We also visited the DDR museum--which was one of the first placed where we felt overwhelmed by other tourists.  That afternoon, we took a boat ride, and went back tot he Jewish memorial where we were able to enter the museum part (it was closed the day prior.)   Museum was quite moving.

The following day, we hopped on a train to Prague.   Prague was a beautiful city.   Unlike Berlin, most of Prague was not damaged in the second World War, leaving many interesting historic sites and buildings.  After checking into our Air Bnb, we walked around to check out the old city.   Prague was much busier with tourists than Berlin had been.  

Our first full day in Prague, we visited the Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge.   Both beautiful.  

That evening, it was pretty cold, so looked around and decided it would be fun to go to the national theatre and check out an Opera.   Well, we were entertained, but it was not exactly what we were looking for--turned out the 5pm Opera "Excursions of Mr. Broucek" by Leos Janacek was a modernistic one that A. made no sense and B. prominently featured about 6 completely naked women pricing around stage for about 45 minutes.   We were all laughing so hard--I had tears flowing down my face.   It was completely preposterous, and especially Ethan was shocked!

Our second day involved visiting the Prague Jewish museum--which is really more of a neighborhood of old Synagogues and a cemetery.   It was also well-preserved.   In one of the synagogues, they have written the names of every holocaust victim form the Czech republic.   Staggering.    We even found a Greenberg.

   

In the evening we headed to the Petrin Park, where we walked to the top of a miniature Eiffel town and took some photos.   A beautiful view of a beautiful city!

On the last day, we enjoyed the Farmer's market in the morning before catching a flight back to London, for a morning flight the next day.


So, yes, a whirlwind!   But a lot of fun, it was so great to get to hang out with my dad and explore Europe with him!!  And lots of good food--from great cinnamon rolls for breakfast each morning at a nearby Bakery in Berlin--to pretzels, bratwurst--and Jason's new favorite, Pork Knuckle!   The beer was great too.   Cheers to a great trip!