Day 4- Berlin, then Dresden

Long day, but it was very interesting. We started out the with a trip to a town called Kopernick, which was incorporated into the town of Berlin, so it was basically a suburb. Interesting story about a criminal that got a military uniform and robbed the town in the late 1800s and every obeyed him because he was a military man. Check out and see if there's a story about Hauptmann von Kopernick on the Internet. When I search here, everything returns in German, which doesn't help me much! The media officer from the town gave us a tour of city hall, which was 800 years old. That's a picture of city hall there and me with the Hauptmann!

We checked out Kopernick for a while and then it was back to downtown Berlin. We went to the Fridriech Platz (a town square), where the protest to tear down the Berlin Wall reached critical mass in November of 1989. It's hard to exaggerate the effects of the wall, communism and a divided Germany has had on these people and they're still working to overcome it. This is a picture of the TV tower I tried to get into, but the wait was two hours and we ran out of time.

It was time to catch the train to Dresden. I am so envious of the rapid transit system here, they have buses, trains, subways and trolleys. All of which run amazingly on time! This is us trying to get to the train on time through this amazing train station. It's a crazy process because you have to toss all your bags aboard, get on the train, then stow your bags in the luggage rack. All in eight minutes or you miss the train! No problem, unless you're traveling with 19 people like we are, then it gets a bit more complex. We got it done and the trip to Dresden was just over two hours. I was told that's about what a trip through the airport and a plane would take you. Anyways, now we're in Dresden and I can report to you tomorrow what things are like here. I'll leave you with this picture from Dresden that is what creates my first impression.