Berlin

After Venice our spring break started so we flew up to Berlin for two nights. I must admit, Berlin was a bit of an afterthought on the trip list, but boy am I glad we went.

The first night we went to a restaurant that was recommended to me by our hotel clerk. It was called Brauhaus Mitte, and it knocked the socks of any of the Italian food I've had all semester. I had a giant plate full of potatoes, Vienna sausages, and sauerkraut (and a monstrous stein of beer). After the next two days of sightseeing and more delicious German food, I thought to myself, it must be in my blood to like this place.

I had to use two hands to drink this until it got about halfway down haha.

The Brandenburg Gate

The famous TV Tower.

Picture from the top of the tower... it was rainy so the view isn't very good

Bugatti Veyron (fastest production car in the world)

The Sony Center

Video of the lights changing colors in the sony center

River walk. It was so nice to see some modern architecture again haha

Julie posing with the lego giraffe

Largest remaining section of the wall.

 Down the street from this section of the wall is Checkpoint Charlie. Here there is a large wall-like installation that has an amazing timeline of the history of the Berlin Wall. It is always very strange to think that the wall was still standing in my lifetime. It is unbelievable how far the city has come since then.

Memorial to the Jews killed in the Holocaust.
These "extrusions"  cover an entire city block

Venice

Venice, as you probably know, is a very unique island. Here streets are replaced by canals and cars are replaced by boats. Sounds pretty cool in theory but in real life I think its a pain in the, well, I don't think I really need to finish that thought. Don't get me wrong it was very interesting to see how the city functioned without roads, but thats about it... interesting. Sadly, I think my favorite part about Venice was walking into St. Marks plaza or up on a bridge over a large canal and realizing, oh hey this was were they filmed that one scene from the Italian Job haha. Sorry, but Venice was just not for me.

If I could've rented a kayak for the day it probably would've been the greatest day ever. I didn't see a single one on that entire island.

Yes, that bell tower is leaning. Your eyes did not deceive you.
There seemed to be very straight buildings on the island
because everything is sinking into the ocean.

St. Marks... Unfortunately with scaffolding 

The inside. First church I've been in here that doesn't allow you to
take pictures. (once again I did not obey that rule)

The shore

More locks on a bridge.

Dome of another church

Julie made two pigeon friends with the crumbs from my sandwich

Verona and Vicenza

Verona and Vicenza are two cities in northern Italy that we spent a few days in. They are quite similar in many ways so forgive me if I mix them up.

Verona is home to both ancient roman ruins, medieval ruins. You may know it as the town where the story of Romeo and Juliet took place (we went to "Juliet's home" and saw the famous balcony but I think its a hoax).

Stitch from atop the castle.

Courtyard of the Castle

one of the walkways

The somewhat shady structure holding up one of the floors haha

weapons

helmets

Three musketeers?

Giant sword that was about 6ft long

The supposed balcony of Juliet

Statue of Juliet

Another church 

locks on a bridge (apparently this type of thing can be seen all over Europe. One person puts a lock around something metal and then others follow. 

Vicenza is a very similar city with many beautiful buildings including the Teatro Olimpico.

Statue looking up to the giant bell tower we climbed

One of the panoramas from above

The last stairwell at the top

Giant lemons from the market below

Stage at the teatro olimpico (only remaining renaissance theater in europe)
Made entirely of wood (no stone as i may look)

The street you see through the arch is actually a false perspective made to look like a city street.
The floor slopes up and the ceiling slopes down to help with the effect.

I found this pretty funny...

Andy in my picture again

Brion Cemetery

The Brion Cemetery is a Carlo Scarpa project which he spent most of his life on. This is what Scarpa himself had to say about his desgin:

"I would like to explain the Tomba Brion...I consider this work, if you permit me, to be rather good and which will get better over time. I have tried to put some poetic imagination into it, though not in order to create poetic architecture but to make a certain kind of architecture that could emanate a sense of formal poetry....The place for the dead is a garden....I wanted to show some ways in which you could approach death in a social and civic way; and further what meaning there was in death, in the ephemerality of life—other than these shoe-boxes."


The cemetery is full of beautiful detail work and metaphors on life. After his death, Scarpa was buried here in a standing position, wrapped in linens in the same fashion as a knight.

Water troughs

Andys  multiplying again

Part of the sanctuary

Sanctuary Ceiling

Island in the reflecting pool that is not accessible to visitors of the cemetery. It is said to be a metaphor for the afterlife. 

Wall corner detail
The outer walls all leaned in toward the courtyard. If you walked along next to them it sounded as though someone was walking along with you because of how the sound bounced off the concrete.

Raising Peter from the dead haha