Linden "Marathoner" Mueller

The Mildrens would like to give a hearty congratulations to

Linden Mueller
Marathoner Extraordinaire!

Linden completed her first-ever marathon in Berlin, Germany in under 5 hours!


We are so proud of her!

If you'd like to congratulate Linden yourself, go to her blog and post a comment.

Sidenote: We'd also like to thank Rob for being there and running most of Linden's training runs with her, for giving her daily emotional support, and for believing in all of Linden's goals and dreams. We love you, and we are proud of you, too!!!

I am a Jelly Doughnut

For those of you true Berliners you already know that this blog post title is from JFK's infamous attempt at German, declaring "Ich bin ein Berliner" instead of "Ich bin Berliner." Well, Team Mildren-Mueller would like to think of itself as a hybrid jelly doughnut (Mildren)-Berlin citizen (Mueller).

Since Rob is from Berlin (the former Eastern part), we stayed with his family while visiting, which was fantastic. Even though we couldn't understand any German, they took hospitality to a whole new level! Not only did his family offer us a comfortable and friendly stay, but Rob himself acted as an extremely knowledgeable, patient, and interested city ambassador. He answered our million+ questions about the city and its history, took us to see all the attractions, took us to the best authentic döner kebab restaurant in a Turkish neighborhood, and he offered a unique perspective of what politics and city life is like these days. We cannot thank him enough for being so fun and helpful! What a great friend and fun travel partner! Thank you, Rob!!

Rob Mueller
Our beloved best buddy & Berliner :)

Of our entire stay in Europe, Berlin was the most exciting, exhillarating, and eye-catching city of the trip. I am officially claiming it as my favorite city in the world, earning the title after only a short, touristy visit. We also got to visit several museums, which is always a treat in Europe, especially with such giant and profound collections found in Berlin. We saw some amazing collections of classic, modern, and post-modern art!

Rodin's original sculpture of The Thinker

Picasso piece from the Berggruen museum

Berlin gives off the feel of a well designed, cosmopolitan community looking forward to the next big movement in culture and design, while its physical and psychological reminders keep it constantly grounded to its past of opulence, injustice, divisiveness, and war. For those of you jelly doughnuts, there is more to Berlin than the wall that divided it from 1961-1989. [Info mainly from Berlin.de and other sites]

A perfect example of Berlin architecture:
A building that is past and posh!

Berlin was established as a trading center and was ruled for more than 500 years by the Hohenzollern family. Starting in 1740, Berlin became a center for the Enlightenment movement in Europe, and this was when many of Berlin's more eloquent and lasting pieces of architecture were constructed, under Friedrich the Great.

During the 1800s the city flourished as the nation's political, economic, and scientific capital, leading the way in industry, arts, science, business, and research, encouraged by Kaiser Wilhelm I. The first parts of the 20th century were dominated by WWI and WWII.


Hitler's rise to power ended the democratic Weimar Republic and brought the National Socialist takeover and all its horrors: war, concentration camps, massive destruction and occupation of Western Europe, genocide, and totalitarian rule. In 1943, large-scale bombing of Berlin occurred, followed in 1945 by the ravaging Battle for Berlin.

After the war ends on 8 May 1945, much of Berlin is nothing but rubble: 600,000 apartments have been destroyed, and only 2.8 million of the city’s original population of 4.3 million still live in the city. In accordance with an agreement signed by the Allies, the city is divided into four sectors and administered jointly by the occupying powers, the United States of America, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union.

An old map of Berlin boundaries, divided by the Wall

Although the intent was for the occupying powers to govern Germany together inside the agreed-upon borders, the advent of Cold War tension caused the French, British and American zones to be formed into the Federal Republic of Germany (and West Berlin) in 1949, excluding the Soviet zone, which then formed the German Democratic Republic (GDR; including East Berlin).

A Trabant ("Trabi"), the standard East German car
Supposedly green Trabants bring good luck!

West Germany developed into a western capitalist country with a social market economy and a democratic government. On the other side, East Germany established an authoritarian government with a Soviet-style planned economy. While West Germany became rich, many East Germans wanted to move to West Germany, so the East German government constructed the Berlin Wall to stop East Germans from fleeing, and the wall remained until 1989.

Red Town Hall
Served as East Berlin's town hall during the Cold War era

During the Wall's time, many East German monuments and buildings were constructed as symbols of the GDR's power and dominance, regardless of its citizens' poor living conditions and access to resources. However, the economic, political, and moral decline of the Soviet Union caused the Velvet (peaceful) Revolution in '89, and soon the Wall came down.

The Berlin Wall's old physical boundaries are still marked throughout the city
It was interesting to see that people lived completely
different lives depending on what side of the city they lived in!

Following the destruction of the Wall, construction in Berlin exploded, and a multitude of new architectural styles and building designs were tested and proliferated throughout the city. Our favorite modern buildings were the innovative designs surrounding Potsdamer Platz. In the 90s Berlin was given back to Germany from the Allied Powers, it regained the seat of the government, began holding congressional sessions at the newly re-designed Bundestag (formerly known as the Reichstag), and the Bradenburg gate was restored.

***

Okay, enough history! But the city's history is so important to its desire to be continually attempting to recreate a new name for itself as a sophisticated and forward-thinking international city capital. While on one hand it does not shy away from its past and publicly acknowledges Germany's past mistakes and struggles, it is also intent on recognition for its current progressive achievements in society. A fascinating city to say the least!

So what were our favorite parts of the city? Well, we walked most of it, and it seems impossible to narrow it down to only a few sightings! But for the sake of brevity....here are our Top 10 favorite attractions. We could have spent an entire day at each one!

Brandenburg Gate
For its simple beauty and political role


Potsdamer Platz
for its architecture and modern feel

Neptune's Fountain
for its awesome sculptures!

Neptune sits atop the fountain,
praised by animals and sirens beneath


The Bundestag (Reichstag)
for its old-meets-new/East-meets-West symbolism


You could walk up to the top of the glass dome,
which sits inside of the old Reichstag building


Berliner Dome
for its symmetrical and spiritual beauty


Pergamom Museum
for Ishtar Gate and its relief collection

Part of Ishtar Gate


Schloss Charlottenburg
for its astounding, sprawling palace gardens



Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche
for its representation of Berlin's bombing and subsequent recovery

The church did not get restored as a reminder of the bombing
The tower looks so incomplete!

Unter den Linden
for its vibrancy and historical buildings along the promenade
Equestrian Statue of Frederick the Great

The Berlin Bear never looked so frightening (or fun!)

James found a Bugatti store along the Unter de Linden

Checkpoint Charlie * Berlin Wall * East Side Gallery
For its (almost) unbelievable history of a separated city

Parts of the wall are displayed throughout the city

Checkpoint Charlie

A famous graffiti part of the East Side Gallery,
thee longest standing stretch of the Berlin Wall

Post-Four Germany

Where to start when you only have a few moments to blog? We have not even had time to go into the details of our trips to Berlin, Prague, Munich Brussels, and the city of Giessen. For another day with pictures, perhaps! Needless to say, each trip consisted of endless comments like, ''Wow!'' and ''That looks delicious!'' and ''Maybe just one more...'' and ''Which one of us smells'' and "'Who's the boss?" (Angela or Tony?.....or Mona?.....)

After saying goodbye to Rob and Linden in Germany, the fearless foursome was split up, and James and I were down to just us two for the next week. While we were sad to say goodbye, we were also looking forward to a week of meeting new people, seeing different countries, and experiencing more of the good life of Euro-culture (aka: Belgian fries, beers, and waffles!)

We spent two days in Brussels, which was suprisingly quaint with lots to do! The people were incredibly friendly and laid back, and it certainly didn't feel like a capital city of1.2 million. We loved the giant parks the best, I think. People will sometimes tell you to skip Brussels and head for Brugges or Ghent (smaller, more picturesque towns) but Brussels was worth the visit.

Next, we went to Ghent and fell into great luck because right now the town is in the middle of an annual 10-day festival in which the entire town (500,000) turns out to jam out, indulge, socialize, and shop. It is customary to stay out the entire night, and the city does not close down until about 8am or so...we lasted until a little before 2am before fighting our way through the thongs of people (pretty much all locals!) to turn in for the night.

Tomorrow morning we head off for the last leg of our trip, Amsterdam. We'll spend 2 days there before heading back to good ole' Guate.

Blog Easter Egg: A short, gentle mohawk combined with a short, gentle mullet is a dapper 'do these days, and in German they call the mohawk `Euro Cheese`! We prefer the combo-terms "Mulhawk" or ''Mollet." Post comments on other suggested terms for this weirdly popular hairstyle!

An Ironically Slow Trip on the Autobahn: Weekend in Berlin, part 1

July 10
It's been a goal and dream of mine for some time now to drive on the Autobahn, preferably in a BMW. Thankfully Linden shared this dream. So, the four of us rented a car to drive over to Berlin as it was actually cheaper than taking a train. Rob made a reservation for a sporty little BMW 1-series, but unfortunately when we went to pick it up, they were out (typical car rental experience, right?), but they did have an Audi A3, which is an equally fine example of German auto engineering...for the first couple hours of the trip.

Icey Hot Stuntin'

Before we had troubles with the car, it was really fun to drive, having a six-speed transmission and a diesel engine offering lots of power and great handling. I won't go into the details of how fast we drove for the sake of my mother!

Linden taking a turn at the wheel

With the help of the navigation system, we took an hour+ scenic detour around some backed up traffic and really enjoyed the German countryside. There are so many small, charming towns scattered throughout the country, many featuring a castle overlooking the town, that it was really fun to drive through.


At about three hours into the drive, the dash suddenly displayed a warning and the acceleration was moderated. The car could no longer accelerate as before, so passing slower cars and quickly getting out of the way of the really fast cars was problematic. We called the rental agency and they instructed us to pull over and wait for someone to come out and take care of the situation. Long story short, the four of us became caught up in battle between Audi, the rental agency, and the towers that lasted from 10:30-2:30 a.m.! We were stuck waiting forever for the companies to agree on the arrangements before we could take our new rental car, which was ready and waiting for us the whole time; we just couldn't drive off with it until the paperwork was correct. We finally arrived at Rob's mom's house around 4 a.m.--nine hours after we left.

Thankfully the rest of the weekend went great, and we'll write more on that soon...