We visited the site of the 1952 workers uprising at the last standing of the 3 rd Reich buildings. Being practical the Germans did not tear down this massive building, but repurposed it as a Government office, but of course all insignias have all been removed. The side walls still hold the propaganda painting from the Socialist era.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5772/...ba0ea412_c.jpgberlin 75 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/761/2...020fae24_c.jpgberlin 76 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

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We walked by one of the 3 remaining sections of the Berlin wall. The wall was erected in 3 stages. The first was razor wire and wood, then bricks. The last phase was concrete in an L shape so you could not drive a car thru them. Here there is a memorial to those persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime. The red brick walls are the remains of the basement of the SS prison cells.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/635/2...e85b52d5_c.jpgberlin 93 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr






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The memorial is located beside an empty lot, which was once the site of the SS and Gestapo offices. It has been left just covered with rocks and nothing will ever be built here.





https://farm1.staticflickr.com/708/2...8861338f_c.jpgberlin 80 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

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The wall surrounded West Berlin, but there were a number of checkpoints. The only one that could be used by military personnel and tourists was the checkpoint “C” or “Charlie”. It is now a tourist attraction manned by German actors in USA uniforms.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5725/...49487eca_c.jpgberlin 92 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr


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For our last day here we decided to visit the Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. There is a very moving and informative center under ground. The displays are very centered around the individual stories of people and families. Above ground the memorial consists of several thousand stellae of various heights.



https://farm1.staticflickr.com/617/2...0a39fa39_c.jpgberlin 103 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

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The afternoon was spent at the Pergamon Museum where some of the treasures from the Middle East can be found. Some of the large facades were heavily damaged in WW2.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5654/...627a5b20_c.jpgberlin 108 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

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Leaving Berlin we were now in search of liability insurance. We had 6 months worth from Mootocamp in Bulgaria. We had a list of ADAC offices that do sell green card insurance. We headed south and west 129 km to Dressau-Roblau. Here we managed to get the last 2 months we needed. It was however much more that from Motocamp in Bulgaria and we will go back to them next year.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/741/2...75d9ed46_c.jpgScreen Shot 2015-09-06 at 10.23.05 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

From here we continued west towards the mountainous Hartz region. Here we found camping at Brocken. One of the towns we passed thru had celebrated its 1000 th anniversary 25 years ago!


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/778/2...4b45975d_c.jpgMRT 1 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/715/2...dcb80742_c.jpgMRT 3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We had 58 km to get to Gieboldenhausen where we were going to the MRT rally, but we spent most of the day getting there by going up and down the Hartz region on the curvy narrow mountain roads.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/642/2...53e206279a.jpgScreen Shot 2015-09-06 at 10.23.42 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/736/2...c64817b7_c.jpgMRT 2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5699/...4c6b8695_c.jpgMRT 24 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Arriving at the MRT rally late in the afternoon there were already several hundred bikes there. Our friend Torsten, who we met on the Dempster Highway and again in Valdez in 2012, had invited us here.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/709/2...99f5f5e2_c.jpgMRT 8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/777/2...14caeed2_c.jpgMRT 4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

A living legend! Ted Simon was certainly an inspiration to us with Jupiter's Travels.



https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5742/...e1e9effd_c.jpgMRT 9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

This was a travelers meeting and most of the 400 people here have been to as many places or more than we have. The talks were in German, but the pictures and videos were still great.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/738/2...ac9d9b67_c.jpgMRT 25 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5808/...f971d57b_c.jpgMRT 26 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/633/2...04b09cbf_c.jpgMRT 27 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr



The venue had tons of camping spots and all the facilities.


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5835/...0332a76a_c.jpgMRT 5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/734/2...eb34b27b_c.jpgMRT 7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/775/2...86747ba4_c.jpgMRT 10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/571/2...4fb09a4d_c.jpgMRT 12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/695/2...8c0fbe6c_c.jpgMRT 13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5799/...cc23e207_c.jpgMRT 14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/717/2...625f09ac_c.jpgMRT 15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5684/...f89f89ca_c.jpgMRT 17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

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The Saturday night there were 2 great bands.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5704/...9242a213_c.jpgMRT 29 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5830/...0413de77_c.jpgMRT 32 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Get Dan one of those stick on beards, it would suit him........
Gino

Leaving on Sunday morning we had drizzle on and off on our way towards Belgium. We tried to stick to the “small yellow roads on the map with the green shadow” since they are the most scenic. You pass thru dozens of towns that look like they are out of a Fairy tale story. We have encountered quite a few of the secondary roads here in Germany that are closed off and this was not much of a problem until today when we had to do a 20 km back track to get where we were going.

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We switched to the highway for the last 200 km since it had really started to pour. We actually ended up by accident in the Netherlands since there is a little tongue of this country that slips between Germany and Belgium.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5694/...468b288e_c.jpgScreen Shot 2015-09-06 at 10.25.18 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Getting up the next day we still had rain, but it did abate for a few hours and we could stay on the small roads until near Brussels where the density of traffic lights made our progress very slow. From here we hoped onto the highway for the last 180 km to Bruges.


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5724/...09e1268f_c.jpgScreen Shot 2015-09-20 at 9.23.10 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/595/2...13fb2660_c.jpgluxemburgh 26 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We had last been here almost 20 years ago, but thanks to UNESCO not much has changed. This is a lovely town where you can hear Flemish spoken and can appreciate the Flemish architecture. You can also enjoy some amazing Frits and Mayonnaise. We got a bus pass for the city so we could come and go to town without worrying about parking. The first afternoon we did a bit of walking around the city center, ate some Belgian chocolate, and drank some Belgian beer. Life is good.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/588/2...7e628766_c.jpgbruges 1 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

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https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5720/...8422098a_c.jpgbruges 8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr