OH. what a day, so much to see and we got lost..............Now Mom is mad at me for squealing but I think deep inside she's a little proud to have biked from 9AM this morning to 5.45PM with only one stop for lunch. We had pasta carbonara at this place, very good food but the ambiance wasn't that great

The weather has not been very good, it has been raining off and on all day. Not heavy rain only fine wet stuff, so I've been damp all day but since Mom wasn't complaining neither would I 

What about Berlin? well, First I have to tell you that the every single monument, every single street, every single attraction we wanted to see was either covered with scaffolding or like at the Brandenburg there was tents and a stage put up, getting ready for a party

The Brandenburg Gate is the only remaining gate which people used to enter Berlin. It was built between 1788 and 1791. During the Cold War, the Reichstag was in West Berlin and the Brandenburger in East Berlin

The Brandenburg Gate has twelve columns, six on the entrance side and six on the exit. The columns form five roadways, citizens originally were allowed to use only the outer two.The central roadway is reserved so that royal and important traffic is not delayed. On top of the gate is the Quadriga This is Viktoria, the goddess of victory driving a Quadriga, a type of horse-drawn chariot.

After 1806, when Prussia was defeated, Napoleon stole the Quadriga and took it to Paris. When Napoleon was beaten in 1814 Prussian General  took the Quadriga back to Berlin, the olive wreath was changed to an iron cross. The Goddess Viktoria became Nike goddess of victory

When the Nazis came to power, they used the Gate as their symbol. The Gate was damaged but not destroyed during World War II. The governments of East and West Berlin restored it but it was closed when the wall was built in 1961. The gate was in the middle of the death strip

In 1963, U.S President John F Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate. The Soviets hung large banners across it to prevent him looking into the East. 

In 1986, President Reagan gave his famous speech "Tear down this wall" outside of the gate.

and now here I am  

and just like on Manhattan, here's the poor horses working

We should have one of these bikes, it would keep us dry

Mom is beat,and I can't blame her,  she wants to go to sleep. to be continued tomorrow morning

Good Night