Onward and Upward: The End of the World

Despite the title, today was a wonderful day! TWO people had birthdays today: Mr. Andreson and Stephanie Armstrong. Following tradition, both of them had to stay in their rooms until breakfast, drinking the chocolate milk that was brought to them on a tray. Once breakfast was ready, the rest of us (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and everyone staying in the house) congregated downstairs and serenaded them with Happy Birthday as they came downstairs and into the kitchen. They blew out a candle on top of a stack of cookies, and we proceeded to eat a delicious breakfast.
After a relaxing morning, hanging out, a group of us decided to go on an underground tour. There are four or five tours that show you a different "side" of Berlin. :) One tour shows you the bunkers used by soldiers in WWII. The tour we took was all about the Cold War and showed us the "bomb shelters" designed in case of a nuclear war. It was really interesting and our tour guide had a great sense of humor. I feel like I don't know much about world history past the second world war because that is always at the end of our history books and either teachers don't have time to cover it, or they rush through the end to finish the book on time.
We spent most of our time in two "shelters." I say "shelters" because if a bomb had been dropped on the first shelter, the impact would have sent the bomb through the ground, into the shelter, and exploded, killing everyone. The shelters couldn't be built very deep into the ground because there is so much water under Berlin, and therefore, a bomb shelter that has not been fortified well would not have offered much protection. Furthermore, if the power in the city had been turned off, they would've lost their ventilation system, which could've been manually operated, but not for long because temperatures would've reached over 100 degrees and people would've fainted and eventually suffocated. Not much of a shelter.
Then we move onto shelter #2. This shelter was much stronger and was built better. There was a cooling system to help attain liveable temperatures, there was a kitchen that would've had to run 24 hours to keep feeding all the people the shelter would hold and had a colored bowl system so people didn't get more than their rationed portion. There was a much better chance of surviving in this shelter, but then the question arised: would you want to survive World War III where nuclear bombs demolish the world and leave a barren, radiation-filled land where the last people alive would be fighting for survival every single day. OR you could sit in Zone 1 (where the bomb will hit), on a balcony somewhere (get a good seat to see the "fireworks"), grab some chocolate and a glass of wine and wait to be killed instantly. Knowing I would go to heaven, I choose the second option, but even better, how about we just stay away from WW III. :)
At one point during the Cold War, massive destruction lay in the hands of one man. He had designed the computer in Germany that kept track of all the missiles that could've potentially been fired at any time. Fortunately, he believed that America did not plan on bombing Germany to start a war. His theory was tested when a light went off on his computer, indicating that the Americans had launched a missile. He soon recieved a call from the government asking if they should fire back. He stuck to his theory and also figured that if the Americans had planned to start a war they would've launched all their missiles. As he was telling the government that it was a computer error, the computer indicated that all the missiles had just been launched. He confidently told the government that it was definitely a computer error (still guessing at this point) and this stopped the Germans from "firing back." As it turns out, it really was a computer error, but it had really come close.
After our informative and entertaining tour, we went to the nearby mall for lunch and to do a little shopping. We then headed back to the Andresons for a bbq. Kimberly and I rode bycicles to Eric's house to practice music for the wedding. The ride back was gorgeous! The land near their houses is wheat fields and trees. The sun was setting over these fields which were also lined with red poppys and other beautiful wild flowers. It was all very picturesque. The boys all went to Marco's tonight and most of us girls watched Father of the Bride while doing last minute wedding prep.

I didn't take many pictures from today, but I plan on stealing some from a couple others...but at the moment they are all in bed so I will try to post more pictures tomorrow. :) Here are mine from the day.

On the train going to the tour.