A very delayed update: Berlin

Happy New Year!
The first morning of 2013 we were allowed to sleep in (with breakfast going all the way to 1pm) until we met up for a city tour at 1:30ish pm. Our guide met us at the hotel and took us around the many sites of Berlin (including the Berliner Dome, site along the Unter den Linden, a variety of churches (the most interesting note I found being that the one had paper machete styled to look like marble), a creative chocolate store, Checkpoint Charli (never knew the guys playing the guards were in fact male strippers), buildings once belonging to certain Nazi group heads, to the street where East Berliners finally marched to freedom, past the Jewish Memorial, back to the Brandenburger Gate). We then all headed to a famous potato restaurant, Der Kartoffelkeller (The Potato Cellar), and ordered a beer and meat/ potato platter. The rest of the night we had to ourselves and in that time I went back to the the Brandenburg Gate and Jewish memorial to snap a few photos and grabbing some hot tea and cappuccino before heading back.
We woke up somewhat early so as to eat breakfast (the hotel had kindly provided us with a packed lunch, though I still made an extra sandwich for the trip) and then headed on our way to Dresden. The train ride was quite fun, for our group got to sit in cool train cars with 6 people to a compartment (though it was awkward having a group of women standing outside all of our doors the entire ride over).
Just by walking out of the station I could tell how new the city of Dresden was compared to that of Bonn or even Berlin. It almost had a shine similar to that of psy-fi futuristic cities, where the buildings were varying colors of silver and windows. The first main square we reached was huge, stretching what seemed the length of a football field in both width in length (or at least to my memory). We continued on to walk across streets, twisting past more modern buildings and construction sites until we stood in front of the Church of Our Lady. There we met our tour guide who interestingly told us that up until 10 to 20 years ago the little square we were standing in had been pasture land for herds of sheep. She went on to tell us how the city was burned in a terrible fire storm, bringing the city to the ground during the end of the WW2 era and how Germans still find the event somewhat sensitive to discuss (especially with those originating from former allied powers).
From there we toured the riverside where we snapped away with our cameras. We walked to the Grünes Gewölbe (or their Museum of Treasury Art) and toured the green room with head sets attached to our bodies. I found in amazing how some of the items (especially the once piece, The Royal Household of Delhi on the Occasion of the Birthday of the Grand Mogul Aureng-Zeb) were never fully paid off by the emperor since he was still paying off for the artist's other item (the fabulous tea set) and in the end would die not paying it off. Another interesting fact I found was that though the signs put a price on the stone, that the famous 41 carat Green Diamond is (like most rare beautiful gems) said to have uncalculated value. But what intrigued me the most was the ship carved all out of ivory and that even still today we do not know how the artist bent the ivory to form the sails/masts. We were then able to eat lunch and head back to take a look inside the church we had originally started in front of. We would walk to the Hygiene Museum where we were sent in pairs to each of the sets of rooms (excluding the last room) so as to at the end present a quick 5 minute presentation on our given body focus (Austin and I toured the mind and even though the game didn't work the way it should I found the alpha and theta wave measuring machine my favorite item in the room). From there we took the train back to Berlin and had the rest of the night off.
Our third real day in Berlin was probably one of the most packed days on the trip. First we went to what seemed the more run-down part of the outskirts of Berlin to tour the Max Delbürck Center for Molecular Medicine, showing us the center's timeline of events, receiving a research textbook, having a number of mini lectures based on research interests of some of the staff there, and getting to check out their lab areas). Afterwards we ate a quick lunch at their cafeteria and rushed to catch the bus heading to the train station. We then headed for the Charitè's museum which I found the most interesting part of the Berlin trip, for the preserved specimens were just stunning/ horrifying for their age and for all the hard times they lasted through. Taking a short walk across the complex, we met up with 2 German medical students who discussed the German system of medicine training and then showed us a few practice skill sets (most people's favorite being the one using electricity current to create the handshaking found in the elderly). From there we set off for the German Reichstag Building where we toured with a variety of people (including 2 New Yorkers who couldn't help but ask a bunch of questions). We walked through the glass dome, symbolizing their parliament being transparent to the people and afterwards heading out with a few of the others to grab something to eat. At the end of the night I had made sure to grab a hotel for my 2 night stay in Hanover and did my last minute packing up for traveling the following day.
The last day of Berlin had us going back to the Charitè for Dr. Wasser to give a presentation on several famous medical influencers before heading to their cafeteria for some German food. When leaving, we were forced to walk in the rain and eventually take a taxi to the Otto Bock Science Center. There we split into 2 small groups and toured what they had to offer (learning that though they made simple car dashboards they specialized in prosthetic limbs, one leg piece costing over 30,000€). From there we all made our way back to the Hotel Alex for the last time to pick up our luggage and head to the train, mine taking only an hour and a half, so as to start our free weekend.