4th of July in Berlin

I'm not a huge history buff but after living in Europe for the last 2 years you can quickly come to appreciate the historical events that the United States of America has been a part of over here. We've walked on the mountain where Phillip's grandfather earned a Silver Star during WWII: Mt Lungo here in Italy. Phillip, his dad, and his uncle have had the opportunity to walk the beaches of Salerno, Italy where Phillip's grandfather landed during WWII. Amazing!

So it's strange, I'm sure, to celebrate the 4th of July in Berlin, of all places. But I have to say: it was pretty incredible. An amazing city with so much history! On the 4th we perused the streets of Berlin, visited Check Point Charlie, saw a few remaining sections of the Wall, and read so much about the construction and destruction of it as well. That night as we were leaving an INCREDIBLE dinner around 10pm, a firework display began and lasted longer than the firework displays that take place at the Mall in DC. I was amazed. It gives me chills now just thinking about an amazing city that was celebrating our Independence, as if it were out of gratitude.

The next day we discovered that there was a new US Embassy that had opened in Berlin and the Ambassador was in town. We missed most of the festivites that accompanied the opening of the Embassy, but found out that we had been fortunate enough to view the culmination: the fireworks the night before. We never imagined we would see fireworks this 4th of July, but we were glad we did.

Post-script from Phillip: Maybe the coolest thing we did while in Berlin was visit a park in East Berlin erected by the Soviets in the early 50's. Huge marble slabs with Soviet ramblings and Stalin propoganda culminated in a ginormous statue of big Russian cradling a baby, holding a sword, and crushing a swastika under his boot. I was giggling, impressed, and unnerved, all at one time.


mjc/pac