William and I found the Reichstag building on our first day here but because it  is the most frequently visited sight in Berlin we could not visit it until our third day in Berlin. There is no cost to see the building that houses the German parliament but you must register your visit.  The only open spot was at 8:00 AM so we were out early this morning.

On weekdays you can look down from the glass dome to see the Parliament working.  The cone shape mirrors provide all the light to the Parliament floor and your eyes were instantly drawn to it as soon as you entered the room.

Because of my love of Yurts, I was quite impressed with the dome at the top.  The amazing thing was that the dome is open so when rain or snow falls the water is diverted into the collecting tube and used to heat and cool the building.

The building was built in 1894 but suffered much damage to fires and WWII bombings.  It has been rebuilt several times but all four corners are from the original building.

Here on the West entrance is the inscription “to the German nation”

The next stop of our day was to the Museum Island.  Here is the Humboldt University of Berlin.   It was established by Frederick William III (memorial below) and opened in 1810 and is considered one of the Best Universities in Europe.  I found it interesting that Albert Einstein taught here.

The Cathedral Church of Berlin is also located here on Museum Island.  Notice the TV Tower in the background to the right which is also an icon of Berlin.

Frequently during our travels we simply bump into some really interesting things and just across from the Island they were having The Berlin Art Market.  The first item that I had to have were these wool fingerless gloves.  I know you have noticed that every single day William and I are bundled up in coats and hats.  The locals tell us that it has been unseasonably cool this month.  I needed some gloves and these were hand made by Zsuzsuanna and simply beautiful.

Then I saw all these beautiful coats also hand made in Berlin.  Being a seamstress I could tell the quality so I had to try one on.  It did have a very hefty price tag so I told the artist that I would have to think about it and come back later.

It’s not always just site seeing for us.  We have a lot of fun together as we travel.  It seems that food always makes William smile.

I must give credit to William for most of the photos on our blog.  He takes a gazillion photos and then I pick a few to post.  We both loved the Berlin Bears.  Here is a cool one and then somehow the next one got photo bombed.

We love watching people and on Museum Island we loved watching the children play with the bubble guy.

Berlin is a very big city so we were happy to spend 3 full days there.