The eight remaining teams put their eye for art to the test, whipped up delicious pies and competed in carnival games as they drove through the cities of Chantilly and Paris in last week’s episode of The Amazing Race. Unfortunately, the sisters Michelle and Victoria were eliminated after getting lost while searching for the Musée des Arts Forains! Despite our bumpy start with driving stick shift at Charles de Gaulle Airport, we survived this leg of the race after checking into the Pit Stop in fourth. As you can imagine, we couldn’t wait to put this hot mess of a time in “the city of love” behind us as we advanced in the race. If you haven’t caught up on last week’s adventure, be sure to watch Episode 5 on CBS All Access before tonight’s back-to-back episodes, starting in Berlin, and then if all goes well for The Boyfriends in Germany, we’ll be traveling to Almaty, Kazakhstan in the second hour.
Berlin is the capital and largest city of Germany, known for its vibrant, rich and turbulent history. Wherever you step in this multicultural metropolis, you can’t help but feel transported in time with remnants of war, division and revolution from the past 75 years. It’s filled with historic and world-renowned landmarks such as the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate (above), and the Lustgarten where Hitler addressed mass rallies during his Nazi regime. It’s transformative history isn’t the only reason to travel to Berlin, this city boasts it’s delicious culinary traditions, eccentric nightlife and a world-class art scene for travelers of all ages to enjoy. Berlin is also a great destination for budget-minded backpackers seeking affordable accommodations. For anyone interested in visiting, there’s no need to speak German as most of its residents speak English but that wasn’t going to stop us from trying to use the key phrases we learned prior to The Amazing Race.
At the start of this leg of the race, we took the train from Paris to Berlin and proceeded via-taxi to our first stop, the East Side Gallery located in the artsy Friedrichshain-Kreuzburg borough.
Check out the first of our two sneak peeks of this week, as the teams travel past the longest continuous section of the Berlin Wall that remains intact:
The Wall served as the backdrop as we searched for our first clue. We couldn’t help but stop to soak in our surroundings as it was incredibly humbling to understand the significance of where we were. The Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961 both physically and ideologically, to divide West and East Berlin during the German Democratic Republic. After the Wall fell in 1989 throughout a wave of revolutions, 118 artists from 21 different countries redesigned this remaining section of the Berlin Wall into the longest open-air gallery in the world at 1.3 kilometers or 0.8 miles. The series of painted murals was truly a spectacular sight to see and we highly recommend making this a must-see for any trip to Berlin.
Once we found our clue, we had to search for a Trabant (above) and travel to our next destination but only after reading the instruction manual related to this antique automobile. This vehicle (also known as a Trabi) was once ubiquitous in East Berlin until it was discontinued in 1991. They remain a symbol of East Germany as it was before the Wall fell. Driving in a Trabant, which was mass produced between 1957 and 1990, was a very daunting task given how we struggled with the stick shift in Paris. We knew immediately that this car would be even more of a challenge for us.
Watch the second sneak peek of this week’s episode in Berlin to see the teams learning how to drive a Trabant:
After we brushed up on our Trabant basics, we made our way through Berlin to the Teledisko (below) – an old telephone booth transformed into the world’s smallest disco! We were given the option to pack as many teams as we wanted inside to receive our next clue but the two of us standing at 6’6” and 6’1” didn’t allow for anyone else to join our party.
The German we studied prior to the race was definitely put to the test as we were faced with learning and performing a song in German at Ballhaus Berlin (below).
We don’t claim to capture the dialect perfectly in any way, but our singing promises to be very entertaining for viewers at home.
You won’t want to miss this performance as well as a death-defying heights challenge that forces one teammate to scale the thirteen-story Andels Hotel, face down (below)!
Berlin proves to be an exciting and challenging leg for the seven remaining teams so get ready for an action-packed two hours of The Amazing Race tonight on CBS and CBS All Access starting at 8PM/7C.
