"Ich bin ein Berliner"

This morning our preceptor, Nick, gave us a tour of Berlin!  We checked out the Parliament buildings, Brandenberg Gate, Holocaust Monument, and Berlin Wall.  There was certainly a lot to see:

Nick explaining our surroundings

Reichstag Building

Sinti & Roma Memorial

Long line in the road is where the Berlin Wall used to be

 Brandenburg Gate

 

Pariser Platz

 

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

 

Walking through the Memorial

 Ampelmann (unique street signals from former East Berlin)

 

Remnants of the Berlin Wall (original graffiti was only on West side, East side was blocked by fences & guns so people wouldn't escape)

 

Remnants of the Berlin Wall in its original place

In the afternoon, we visited the University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin), where we heard a presentation about clinical pharmacy in Germany.  The University of Berlin is particularly involved in microdialysis development and pharmacometrics (PharMetrX). 

Nick introducing our group before the presentation

We heard a bit about the pharmaceutical care network Europe (PCNE), and a presentation about pharmaceutical care in Germany.  A clinical pharmacy PhD student is currently researching implementation of a medication plan into pharmacies and health record systems.  The medication plan uses a scannable barcode to allow for continuous updates, and better patient care between the patient's providers & health care settings.  At the University of Berlin, a medication management center will be put together very soon for continuous research and development of pharmacuetical care services, and awareness of this area of pharmacy. 

With some Berlin pharmacy PhD students & professors

After hearing more about pharmacy at University of Berlin, we took a tour & learned more about some of their research.

6th semester pharmacy students working on cholesterol & lipid level testing

Diagram explaining microdialysis

The University of Berlin is doing research using microdialysis, which is a sampling technique used for continually measuring a concentration (of a drug, for example) in the extracellular fluid of tissue.

Microdialysis machine

Corey w/ the HPLC machine (high-performance liquid chromatography)

Electrode machine that measures bacterial CFUs (colony-forming units) in ~10 seconds, versus the standard which takes ~20 hours

Pharmacokinetic modeling

 Research done by one of the PhD students-  linezolid & meropenem antagonism is seen when treating MSSA

Later that night we went to dinner, for some Spanish tapas & sangria :)

Pig feet

Heidi's huge dinner- a single "mushroom head"

Week 2- Berlin

We are starting to get the hang of this train thing.  This morning was a train ride from Wuppertal to Berlin, where we will be for the next 5 nights. 

Once settled in our hotel, we headed out to explore Berlin & spent a few hours wandering the Tiergarten (Animal Garden). 

Strolling the Tiergarten

                 

Berlin Victory Column in the center of the Tiergarten

Train track view from our hotel room (Berlin has some impressive graffiti)

Rhine River Cruise

To start off our first free weekend from APPE in Germany, our group of 10 headed by bus & train to Bacharach around 7:00 AM.  

We had some free time to roam the cute little town before boarding our Rhine River cruiseboat that would bring us from Bacharach to St Goar. 

Bacharach

Rhine River in Bacharach

The Rhine River cruiseboat was complete with a child's slide, too many people, & a very-well-worth-it view of the adorable towns along the Rhine. 

Aboard the Rhine River cruiseboat

Enjoying the views along the Rhine

Arriving in St. Goar

St. Goar is a cute little tourist town.  Grabbed some lunch before exploring the town in search of Burg Rheinfels (Rheinfels Castle).

Bier & Brezel

Cuckoo clock shop

We didn't make it into the castle, but did enjoy some gorgeous views of St. Goar and the Rhine River. 

St. Goar & the Rhine River

Ladies posing for a pic with St. Goar

Walk through St. Goar to the train station

From St. Goar, we unknowingly boarded a party train, full of soccer fans dressed in jerseys, downing beers, and singing songs!  After almost 2 hours on the train, we arrived in Cologne for some shopping & exploring. 

Arriving to Cologne

Cologne was packed!!! (think Times Square in NYC)  We explored the unique Domfuhrungen Cathedral, then went shopping :)  I was particularly excited when we saw a Kiko Cosmetics, which unfortunately does not ship products to the United States (per my research 2 years ago after a trip to Italy). 

Dom Cathedral

 

Stop for dinner in Cologne

After a busy & beautiful Saturday exploring Germany, we boarded the train towards Velbert with one more bus to catch.  In order to avoid waiting an extra hour for our bus, we had 4 minutes to race off the train in Mettmann and find the bus stop to get a ride back to Velbert.  Luckily we were unsuccessful in flagging down the bus as it pulled away, because it was the wrong one.  We proceeded to find the correct bus and bus stop down the street.  Sarah yelled "746! That's our bus!"  With backpacks, shopping bags, and souvenir masks in tow, we booked it across the street.  Heidi waved to the bus driver, who just shook his head and pointed.  Pointed where?  We didn't know.  Since the bus's right turn signal was on, we ran in that direction until we saw a bus stop.  We had almost completed our second 200-meter dash when the bus passed us by, but then stopped so we could catch up.  Ignoring the passengers' smirks, we laughed the rest of the ride home, glad we were not still waiting for a bus in the cold until 11:00 PM.