The first picture is of the Brandenburg Gate. Instead of giving my own brief (but really not) history of the significance of the gate, you can check it out here : http://www.centsoft.com/VirtualBerlin/English/Brandenburger_Tor_Info_1.html . The most interesting part is on the second page, so just skim the first one. The second picture is a night-sky view of Patsdamer Platz, a new development that is being constructed in Berlin. It has been designed by well-known architects and addresses many current questions about architecture, urban space, blah blah blah. The bottom left picture is Jessica taking a picture of me taking a picture of her; but more importantly, the building in the background is by Frank Gehry and we didn’t even realize it when we were there. The lobby is the most sculptural part of the building, that actually looks like Gehry’s work, but the front facade is very chic as well. The bottom right is Carl and Candace standing in front of “The Thinker” that is sitting in the middle of the square in-between the Brandenburg Gate and a Starbucks. We did not realize that we (we as in Paris, since we are Parisian enough now to be included in the term) loaned the statue to Berlin from Musee Rodin, so we were a little surprised to see him sitting there.