After traveling nearly 5-1/2 hours to Berlin on Friday, we arrived at the stake center (which you saw above, I hope) and decided how to set up the next morning. We couldn't set up that night, as the young adults were having a dance in the church.
We learned that the stake building is located just at the edge of the area known as "The Tiergarten," which could be translated as "zoo," but in this case it means the large natural park set up a few hundred years ago by the nobles so they would have a place to hold hunting parties. It covers many square miles, in which the nobles maintained herds of deer and other animals for their hunting pleasures, but woe be to the non-aristocrat caught poaching. It would probably have led to the death sentence. This is in the very heart of Berlin.
As the town grew up, the Tiergarten was off limits for construction of buldings, and it is absolutely amazing that the Church was able to build a stake center right on the edge and on the side of one of the two roads that have been built across it. There are only two roads going north and south through the Tiergarten, and the church is on one of them, called "Klingelhöfer Strasse," which becomes "Jägers Allee" (Hunters' Alley) as it continues north. The only road going east and west through the garten is known as "The Seventeenth of June" on the West-German side. This street was formerly known as "Unter den Linden" (Under the Lime Trees), and it still carries that name on the Communist side, but the name on the west side was changed to recall the shame of the Communist tanks attacking demonstrators who were on foot on June 17, 1953.
Anyhow, at the intersection of these two roads is a huge monument which is called the "Siegessäule" (Victory Tower or Tower of Triumph), celebrating the German victory over Napoleon's army. We could see it from the church, and that prompted our walk up the road and the clicking of our cameras.
The monument is in the center of a Kreisel (or round-about), where the cars just go in a circle and exit where they want. It is huge.
Dad and Elder Howlett examining some sculpture.
Below you see an entrance to a stairway, which takes you underground in order to cross the intersection. It is a huge tunnel going in all directions, so you can reach whichever direction you need.
Then I saw the radio tower and thought I'd take a picture, when Sis. Howlett said, "Isn't that the Brandenberg Gate?" Well, didn't I feel silly!! I didn't even know what it looked like! So, we decided to walk up to the gate and see what Unter den Linden looked like as we went. It is an absolutely beautiful street, with elegant light posts, flowers, etc., and that was in frosty February.
We passed the famous Russian monument on the left as we walked. It is really beautiful and honors the Russian soldiers who died during the war. It starts with this tank, and you can see new capitol building in the background, dome-shaped and all modern among all the old.
We're getting closer to the gate. Hitler used to march his troops around the open spaces by the gate. These films were used in propaganda films.
The statue above is facing the east, below I am facing the west to see the front of the statue. I'm sorry, but I can't remember who is in the statue. It was stolen by someone once, but apparently it got returned. Someone search their history books for me, okay?
And here is the latest in taxi service! Wish I would have been rich enough. Our walk turned out to be about 5 miles, and we weren't in walking shoes!! Isn't it cute?
This is where John F. Kennedy spoke to the Berliners when he visited. We learned that he said something kind of funny, though. He wanted to speak German, so he said, "Ich bin ein Berliner," which would have been nice, but it literally means, "I am a Berliner," which is a donut. He needed to just say, "Ich bin Berliner," which just means I'm from Berlin. Funny little nuance gone awry. Oh, well. Join the crowd, JFK!! Anyhow, there's a museum to honor the Kennedy's.
And I suckered into the "tourist" mode and had my picture taken with the soldiers representing the U.S. and Russia. They weren't real soldiers and only wanted to practice their English and get your Euro, but oh, well....
This little tree is just outside our apartment, and we love it! We call it a "tulip" tree, but a lot of people call it a magnolia. These trees are sooooo exquisite, and some grow to be huge and just a mass of color. There are light pink to dark purple/maroon, and it makes spring a wonder.
This is a single blossom. One at a time or a whole tree--they're really something!
This is Louisenstrasse in the spring. It turns into the "walking" street just about 3 blocks up, so it's doubly fun to go up. No cars allowed for many blocks. Our street (Frankfurter Landstrasse) turns into Louisenstrasse just one block west of our apartment.
A fun discovery on one of our walks--just a tunnel under a train track--beautiful stream, joggers, walkers, and warm spring weather.
I promised a picture of an Easter egg tree. Wow, are they ever prolific here! Every available bush, tree, sometimes even fences became Easter egg "trees," and it is colorful and fun.
If you've traveled through Idaho, you've seen the miles and miles of fields with these plants. They make oil out of them, and they are just beautiful! The only difference here is that the yellow fields are a little smaller and interspersed with green fields, and the combination can't be beat!!! This doesn't do them justice, but I'll keep trying to catch a good picture before they are harvested. You should see the fields right after a rain--they're almost fluorescent! 
We spent one Saturday afternoon with Wes and Sandra Theurer, and that was sure fun. We first enjoyed a temple session with them, then drove to Frankfurt to see if we could find a park that was supposedly having a pottery sale. Well, the pottery turned out to be mediocre, but the park was really fun. There were Lagoon-type rides and tons of booths selling food and trinkets and such, but when we saw this enormous "spit," Wes really wanted me to take a picture of it to send to his dad, Scott, who is one of the BBQ kings of the world. I think even Scott has yet to try a whole cow! 
And this was a real kick--when the Germans say "No Parking," they mean NO PARKING! There were three cars parked beyond the sign, and each one was individually harnessed, picked up, and transported off to the lock-up! I pity the persons who came out to find they had no way home! There's no such thing as being ticketed--the cars are literally taken away. These companies must really make a haul on a holiday or Saturday, because parking is pretty rare. I believe we had to walk at least a mile to the festivities after we finally found a parking place down the road. I wouldn't think that would bother a German, who seems to be born walking, but I guess the tendency is in all of us to park as close as we can to a place! Anyhow, we were pretty relieved when we got back to the car and found out that we really had parked in a legal place, 'cause these parking "police" were everywhere, just cruising up and down the streets looking for violators. 
And, last but not least, this is the very apartment that Hank lived in 40 years ago in Bensheim when he served there. After we visited Sis. Seidenadder one day, we drove a little off the beaten path (Autobahn) and found his old city, set the GPS for the address (which he still had), and lo, and behold, there it was! A little nostalgia.
That's all for now. But I'm going to do some more tomorrow and try to catch up with some of our activities! Love to you all.
