Night 14: Midnight Monuments

At the same time we were in Germany, there was another group from our fellowship also in Germany.  All groups have a slighty different itinerary, but they all end in Berlin so at this point both groups were in Berlin.  The leader of the other group was organizing a Midnight Monuments Tour of Berlin. He extended the invitation to our group.  About half of our group decided to go.  We arrived at the meeting spot around 10:15, but the other group was running late so it was about 10:45 by the time we got started.  Basically, we walked around Berlin at night and saw some memorials, churches, etc. lit up.  It was cool to see.  The monument for the burned books actually looks better at night because it's hard to see in the day time.  Anyway, we stayed on the tour until around midnight then headed back to our hotel.  We couldn't figure out where the closest subway was so we split up and took two taxis bak to the hotel. One of the other girls and I had a drink before bed.  It was hard to believe tomorrow was our last full day in Berlin.

This is just a portion of the memorial to the burned books.  The empty shelves represent the books the Nazis burned one night in 1933. I believe it was around 20,000.   The empty shelves could hold all the books so it's kind of powerful to see how many books that is when you see all those empty shelves.  

Back at Checkpoint Charlie.  

Brandenburg Gate at night 

Sheila Laguna (Flat Stanley) wanted to visit Brandenburg Gate too.