Europe Part 3- Germany

     On our third part of our journey we rented a car and drove from Denmark to Germany. Our time in Germany was shorter so we jammed as much as we could into the few days we were there! Arni's coworker and friend Alonzo, from Peru, was also in Denmark for some work so we invited him along on our road trip. The trip there was half the fun as we rented a super fast BMW and drove on the Autobahn. What an experience that was! Even though my husband is a good driver I had to close my eyes on parts of that trip. Imagine, a two lane highway where there is no speed limit and you MUST get out of the way if you are slower or you will get honked and repeatedly flashed until you move. Oddly enough this is the most efficient highway I have ever been on. Traffic moved extremely well and the slower traffic automatically moved if they saw in their rear view mirror you were approaching behind. I think we topped off our speed at 135 mph and multiple times we had to move into the "slow" lane as a Ferrari or Mercedes blew past us. I am not exaggerating this, I mean BLEW past us, we figured some cars passed us at the speed of 160-170mph. We stopped in Hamburg  for some dinner at the harbor, but unfortunately didn't get to spend too much time there as Jón Garðar, Árni´s brother was waiting for us in Berlin, where he and his family live. Árni was a little disappointed we didn´t get more time in Hamburg because this is where his maternal grandmother grew up.

   Funny side note.... Árni grew up thinking his grandmother was a German who immigrated to Iceland during the War, which of course she was, BUT, recently his mother told us that her grandparents were actually from Denmark and Sweden and they immigrated to Germany. In order to assimilate they dropped their native languages and adopted German, thus Árni´s grandmother never speaking anything but German, until later of course when she learned Icelandic. So poor Árni, who was so extremely proud of his German blood, had to admit he is like 1000% Scandinavian!

driving on the Autobahn

Árni and Alonzo on the Hamburg Harbor

Fish N Chips

     We actually arrived in Berlin pretty late and not to disturb our nephew, who is just a little guy, we decided to get some rest at out hotel and catch up with our family the next day. Berlin was a fascinating city with so much history. My brother in law gave us an amazing tour, hitting all the major sights without actually looking like lost tourists, and my husband had so much fun chasing his little nephew all over the place. After our outing, we road the train back to their lovely apartment where Jón had an assortment of German beers for us to sample and an enjoyable meal.

This is what it looks like when you haven´t seen your brother in 3 years!

My heart just melted a little

Pieces of the Berlin wall

Holocaust memorial

Where the Berlin wall stood

Check Point Charlie

     The following day we all took a trip to Potsdam. This was the site of some marvelous palaces, where Prussian kings resided. The structures were stunning and very lavish. We very much enjoyed this day! In the end we had to regretfully say goodbye not only to our family, but to this lovely country. We agreed that Germany was our favorite part of our travels and we would love to visit again!

On a last note I´d like to thank Jón Garðar and Ingibjörg for an outstanding time in their city, we hope we can repay the favor in Denver very soon!