We had a visitor!

My friend from college Joe came to Berlin for a long weekend and Arran and I got to show him Berlin! Unfortunately there were record low temperatures the past few days, so we got to see Berlin while being extremely cold. Well, I take that back. I was extremely cold. The boys seemed to be mostly just cold.

Arran and I have actually done very little sight seeing, so this was an opportunity for us to go around and see things, too.

On Friday Joe and I went to the Brandenburg Gate and Check Point Charlie. Here we are in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Fun fact, Napoleon apparently stole the statue at the top of the gate in 1806 and took it back to Paris. Obviously the Germans got it back.


And Checkpoint Charlie, which was one of the wall crossing between East and West Germany.


Oh, look! Another picture! Joe came without a hat, gloves, or scarf, so we hooked him up with some Berlin ones.



On Saturday we went to the Charlottenburg Palace, which was pretty awesome. Here is arran and me standing in front of the palace, which was originally built as a summer home in the late 1600's. Because, who doesn't need a palace as a summer home?


We took a tour and got to see a lot of original furniture and art, and then some that was just from the time period. There was one room which had over 700 pieces of China decorating the room, which was quite neat.

Aside from being awesome inside, there were also grounds outside. During the spring and summer I'm sure it's a lot more beautiful, but everything at least looked pretty with the snow. Here is Joe and me around the back of the palace.


The view looking out from the palace.


The back view of palace with Arran and I.



So, this was just a few of the pictures and things that we did. It was a great weekend and I'm glad I got to see Joe!