More Touring & Playing With Crazy Ellie

Our original plan was to head to Copenhagen today, but with the cost of train tickets and the limited amount of time we would have had there, we decided to stay and see a few more things in Berlin. We started the day meeting Meera, a friend of Casey's, for breakfast at the Starbucks near Brandenburg Gate.
Brittney, Ellie, Peyton, Emery, and I all went. We had a great time talking to Meera and laughing at Ellie's antics. She was in great form this morning. :)
We took pictures with some of the street performers at the Brandenburg Gate.
The man with the silver face was a little disturbing to Ellie at first -
- frankly, he was a little disturbing to me too - but she warmed right up to the two soldiers.
After having her picture taken with them, she gave them each a high five and a fist pound.


Emery, Meera, and I went to visit the Reichstag after breakfast while Brittney took the girls home to nap.
The building is home to the German parliament and is an interesting combination of old and new architecture. The newest addition to the building is a glass dome that we were able to walk inside of.


There are mirrors down the middle of the dome that create a dizzying effect.
From the top of the dome, we were able to have a great 360º view of the city.

We went to the Jewish memorial once again so Meera could see it.

This time we were able to spend a little time down in the underground museum. We didn't spend too much time since we had already seen so many emotional Hollocaust photos and artifacts this week. The museum has a great architectural design, but the information was quite difficult to read. The photos were some of the more disturbing of all the ones I have seen this week. The floor of the second room displayed actual letters from concentration camp prisoners that somehow made their way to family members. The most difficult to read were those about what happened to children and babies in the concentration camps. Terrible.

Before heading back to the apartment, we had to give Meera the chance to eat a Doner Kebab. So tasty!


When we got home, we played with Ellie for a while. She decided to use her "crab claw" (tongs) to eat her strawberries.
This wasn't always successful.

We also called Nana to wish her a happy birthday.
If you haven't noticed, Ellie really likes to take her clothes off.


Later, Ellie came into the bedroom Emery and I were staying in and started jumping on Emery's bed. Ellie loves to play with phones, particularly iPhones. She knows how to get to the applications to play games like "The Wheels on the Bus" on Britt's phone. My phone is extra enticing because right now it has a purple/pink case with stars on it. So, when she asked to see "the star phone", I pulled it out and told her I would play some music for her. She danced and danced to Beyoncé and Jamiroquai. She cracked me up! She started doing a "CRAZY" dance, and I laughed so hard -- not just one of those you're a cute little girl laughs, but full-on laughing. It was so great.

Emery and I did some final shopping on the Ku Damm for gifts and chocolate to take home with us. I ended the night with dinner and conversation with Meera, Brittney, and Emery. Girl talk is always good. :)