Barcelona: Day 46 : Returning 'Home' .

Today was an early and rushed breakfast for all of us. It was difficult to drag myself out of bed and get all my things packed up. I had been dreading the day we left Germany, because not only was I really enjoying the country and the cities in Germany, but loving the opportunity to use and listen to the German language. Although I know less German than Spanish, for some reason I feel more comfortable and open to using it and trying to get better. I'd really love to be fluent in German.

Barcelona: Day 45 : Köln .

Well it was basically our last full day of the trip and we were headed to Köln. Düsseldorf had basically been a place for us to stay at night, and since they are right next to each other we could just go from city to city seamlessly. There were also some serious conferences going on and so all of the places in Köln were either booked or super expensive. Not to worry though, everything worked quite smoothly.

Barcelona: Day 44 : Rapid-Fire Frankfurt .

Already it is the last day that we have in Frankfurt, not to mention that it's only a partial day in Frankfurt as it is. We met back up with our tour guide, Petra, who is just a friend of Kathrin's. We started by heading to the Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität.

Before we headed in, she added something interesting about the way German cities are settled. In almost every city, the rich people live in the west, and the poor in the east. The reason is that the industry from the winds blow from the west, so all of the smoke and industrial fumes will not blow into the richer areas. I found this to be quite entertaining... but honestly, someone was really thinking when they placed the pricier homes!

Barcelona: Day 43 : Frankfurt-Bound .

So today we got up super early to hop on a high speed train to Frankfurt, leaving Berlin behind. I was sad to see Berlin go, but was excited about being able to visit other parts of Germany. We'll get to the day in time, but first a little disclaimer... My memory card was being really weird today and just randomly decided to stop working. The card was unreadable and I couldn't take any more pics for the rest of the day. I had hoped that I would be able to salvage the ones I had already taken, but they had to be erased in order to reformat the card. Therefore, any pictures here posted are thanks to Brittany who sent me her pics for the day.

Barcelona: Day 42 : Last Day in Berlin

Today we were allotted time for whatever we wanted to do, and after sleeping in for a bit and eating breakfast, a small group of us hit the streets. The goal was to find a library that had a lot of interesting architecture books. We did indeed find it, and it had some really interesting things, and I got a little bit of a taste of the sorts of architectural books that are out there.

Barcelona: Day 41 : Kaiserwilhemgedächtniskirche .

So, if you're wondering about the title, yes, it is indeed a real name of a small church that was destroyed in the war, and this is where we begin our day. The ruins that were there after the war were kept, and a new structure was built around the tower, which was virtually the only thing that remained after the war. Kathrin said that this is because the church is no longer meant to be seen. Next to it, in the footprint of the old church, is a new octagonal-shaped church, which has services and is used today. The old cathedral dwarfs this new church, but I have to say it's still really cool.

Barcelona: Day 40 : More of Berlin .

Well it's Sunday and there is tons more of Berlin to see, so we were out the door relatively early today. We were going to see the Berlin Wall Park, which is not so much a memorial as it is a park. In German, it is called Der Mauerpark, and it was designed by Gustav Lange. There are parts of the wall left all over the city, and what they did here was take the Death Strip and turn it into a great green space. It's interesting how this space went from being a border to a freely accessible area. What's also interesting is that there literally has never been anything in that space prior to this park -- even before WWII.

Barcelona: Day 39 : Berlin Unwrapped .

After waking up pretty early in order to get out on the streets of Berlin early, we headed first to the Berlin Philharmonic. This consists of 2 buildings, which house 2 concert halls, with the main one being actually quite a bit bigger than the second one. These are connected by a lobby/foyer, and even though we came in some weird back entrance, the resulting view of the inside was pretty striking.

Barcelona: Day 38 : Deutschland!

Today, I was so stoked because we were flying from Berlin. After being here for a bit, one thing I know for certain is that I loveeee hearing German so much more than Spanish. We had to be up and at 'em early, and everyone was definitely yawning as we hopped on the metro and then the train to get to El Prat de Llobregat airport. I was doing my best to keep track of everything so that I would know how to get there on my own when the Dublin trip happens. We got on airberlin and had a lovely flight over the Pyrenees into the Berlin airport.