Celebrating the Reunification - 20 Years Later

View of the festival

Today is a national holiday in Germany: Happy Unity Day! (Tag der Deutschen Einheit) So, we did our duty and got to "downtown" for some celebrating, eating and people-watching. Yup, it was tough but someone had to do it.

We're not much of street festival people, so we were pretty impressed by the turn-out. The main part, which we saw, was centered around the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate -- as Leah, Alice and I saw on Friday. There were several stages set up here and there with music. And vendors lined up along the street leading into Brandenburg Gate called Avenue of June 17 (which has it's own significance in German history). We stumbled upon two swing bands who were great -- we danced a little -- and a little chorus of kids singing "We Are the World" karaoke-style -- which wasn't so good.

And, yes, we ate our way up the street and back -- the food was fantastic. We started with a bratwurst, a huge pretzel, followed by French fries (pommes) and some dessert. Everyone got something they wanted...

Couldn't be happier!

Dave got an obscenely large glass of beer -- good thing we took the S-Bahn (subway) and not the Benz! No need to worry about a DD.

Hello, Kitty!

Leah got a very large Hello Kitty balloon. Which annoyingly banged us and fellow festival-goers who passed to closely. Grrrrr!

Vanilla and Chocolate cone and nose

Alice got ice cream, which she was very excited about. Unfortunately, she didn't finish it. It was drippy and she dropped in on the ground -- which was a tragedy of mythic proportions.

The greatest kabob ever

And I got a stick of chocolate-covered strawberries. One of my favorite treats. I shared with Alice, after the ice cream cone disaster. Just call me a giver.

Believing we made the most of Unity Day in Berlin, we headed back home with full bellies. I'm hoping they'll televise some of the concerts tonight on TV -- meanwhile, Dave found an American bar where he can watch some football.