Hello Berlin

Aug 2 – 4

Our last week in Germany was spent in the bustling city of Berlin. After our arrival and check in to Hotel Alex we went on a bike tour of Berlin. We biked past a neat replica of what the Berlin wall would have been like before it was torn down, the Reichstag (building with big dome), the Jewish memorial site near the US embassy, the place where Hitler ended his life, and many other sites of historical importance. The following day we toured Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial site. The site contained a lot of original pieces from the former camp despite the destruction of the majority of the site. We ate lunch at a nice restaurant called Vapiano *which I plan on starting in the US if my career in medicine doesn’t pan out. We also visited some original pieces of the Berlin wall and toured a museum documenting the SS and major players in the Nazi regime.

On Wednessday August 4 (and my birthday) we visited the Max Delbruck center for molecular medicine. Learned about the history of the center and the current research and technological advancements being made in German/ world medicine. We ended the day with a tour of Otto Bock, a leading developer of prosthetics. The sleek Otto Bock building and exhibit was just one indication of there success in/ impact on the industry of prosthetics. That night the guys went out to a bar/ club with some people we met the night before for my birthday which was blast. We met a lot of interesting people and had another interesting night of wandering the city.