Berlin : Segway Tour, Ritter Factory & The Zoo

Segways were invented by Dean Kamen who is from NH, which is cool because I am from NH, but to be honest, I think segways look kind of silly... especially if you see a tour of them- a long line of segways driving down the sidewalk...

BUT, since I didn't know anyone in Berlin, I figured it would be okay to take a Segway tour- after all, you get to see way more stuff because you can go so much further in a shorter amount of time.

So Bob took the day off from work and we all went to Berlin for a Segway tour.

It was a two hour drive to Berlin, and we were almost late because of a "stau" (traffic jam), but we made it on time.  The first 15 minutes or so were Segway practice.  But before we could even get on, we had to don extremely attractive helmets.  Here I am, ready to go.

It didn't take long to get used to the Segway riding, even though it was a little wobbly at first- by the end of the tour we were spinning and going backwards and slaloming and it was great!

Our tour guide was Charlie, and he was a lot of fun.  The tour was 4 hours, but he was exciting to listen to and instead of boring facts, we were told interesting stories.  I actually ended up learning a lot about Berlin.

My favorite parts of the tour were the Berlin Wall, where the wall used to be, and the Holocaust Memorial .

Berlin Wall

where the wall used to be

Holocaust Memorial

This is a picture of us on the Segways.

Don't we look COOL??

Our tour was pretty small- there were 5 of us and the tour guide.  The other two guys on the trip were from Israel.  They were show-offs and kept making inappropriate jokes and comments, so I would have to say they were the worst part of the tour.

However, the funniest part of the tour was when one of them wasn't looking and rode the Segway over a barrier and fell off.  Don't worry though- he wasn't hurt, and I'm not THAT mean.  He did kind of deserve it though.

Here is a photo of all of us.

After the Segway tour, we hit the Ritter Sport Chocolate Factory.  

If you have never had Ritter Sport, it is probably one of the awesomest chocolates there is.  E-mail me and I will bring you some- its THAT good.  At the factory, you could buy just about every flavor ever, anything you might want with a Ritter Sport logo, and you could even make your own flavor! (well, kind of- it wasn't as cool as it sounds).  We also walked through a tiny tour of how the chocolate was made.  Here is Bob at the end.

We bought a bunch of chocolate (and of course had to taste it!) and then headed to the zoo.  

Surprisingly, the Segway tour made us pretty tired.  I think the hardest part was staying still when you didn't want to move- even a little wiggle made the Segway go forward or backward!  

The zoo was lots of fun and the weather was great.  My favorite animals were the giraffes and the kangaroos.

It was a great trip to Berlin.  After all that traveling I might need to sleep for a whole week...