Wow, who else feels like they’ve been plunged head-first into the new year? I do, I do. So this weekend I’m hoping to take a few moments to myself to reflect a little and prepare for the upcoming year.

But first, let me continue with my travelogue and share a few stories and pictures from Berlin over New Year’s. Although I’ve been to Berlin three times already, there’s always more to see, like: the Brandenburg Gate, Alexander Platz, Potsdamer Platz, the Berlin Cathedral, and the Reichstag. I was also glad to be able to visit the Holocaust Memorial — probably the best description I’ve read about it is this:

It consists of a 19,000 square meter (4.7 acre) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs…arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The [slabs] are 2.38m (7.8′) long, 0.95m (3′ 1.5″) wide and vary in height from 0.2m to 4.8m (8″ to 15’9″). …the [slabs] are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. (Wikipedia)

We stayed in Berlin for two nights, and enjoyed the crazy amount of fireworks that everyone launches from sidewalks, balconies, and rooftops at midnight on New Year’s Eve. I’m talking everything from sparklers to roman candles to firecrackers to huge showers of fire! It almost reminded me of my childhood 4th of July celebrations, back when it was still legal to launch your own firework displays.

Anyway, it was lots of fun, and we slept appropriately late the next morning and took a late afternoon train back to Hamburg for my last evening in Germany (sniff sniff). Yes, it was another lovely trip to visit mein Schatz — and you can see all the fun details in my photo album by clicking here.