Here we are in not so sunny Berlin. The weather has been cloudy for the past couple of days with some light rain today. We’re off tomorrow to Paris so hopefully some sunny weather can be expected.
I’ve found the German language has been easier to understand and pronounce than the Nordic languages of the past couple of weeks, but we’re off to Paris tomorrow, so we have our phrasebooks ready…
We’ve visited the Wall and Holocaust memorial as well as a museum called the ‘Topography Of Terrors’ which is all about the 3rd Reich and its atrocities committed during the 1930/40s. A short walk away from this museum was Checkpoint Charlie. All that remains today is the sign telling you you’re leaving the American sector, as well as a US army border booth. Across the road is a panorama theatre called “The Wall” which is a panorama of everyday life set against the backdrop of the Berlin Wall, on a fictitious autumn day in the 1980’s. This exhibition was really moving and I felt conveyed the feelings and experiences of people on each side of the Wall. It highlighted the reality of suddenly having your city and neighbourhood split in two by a concrete wall which you couldn’t cross due to certain death meeting any attempt.
On a semi-sunny afternoon we payed a visit to the Reichstag (German Parliament) and Brandenburg Gate.
This was sadly the site of my 1st scam in Europe (both this trip and last time), the details of which will not be entered into here. I was caught off-guard and will not be scammed again. I think my ‘scam-watch/scam-guard’ had been lower than it should have been due to our time in England/Scandinavia where the sorts of scams which plague mainland Europe haven’t surfaced and as such I’d let my guard down. Suffice to say this sort of put a downer on the rest of that day and a sour note on my time in Berlin, but the lesson has been learned and I’m moving on (Note: nothing was stolen and no personal harm occurred. Also this was a new scam I hadn’t heard of before)
Today we visited Museum Island to go to the Berlin Cathedral and Pergamon Museum. The inside of the Berlin Cathedral was quite spectacular and it’s the first completely round church/cathedral I’ve been in. After climbing several hundred stairs, we were greeted with a 360* view of Berlin –
Afterwards, we visited the Pergamon Musem and saw some ancient Mesopotamian artefacts, as well as some sculptures from the Roman Empire. Freya really wanted to see the Ishtar Gate (she did her Yr 11 Assignment on this).
Currently it’s raining again, and we’ve just finished packing a heap of stuff into two large DHL boxes to be posted home tomorrow as our suitcases were overflowing and our flight tomorrow has a strict 20kg limit, plus now we have more room for more stuff (Swiss chocolate perhaps….)
Our hotel here is really nice, the room is huge, it’s probably about the size of a small 1 bedroom apartment and even has its own washing machine and dryer (which we’ve used 3 times). The only downside is the Internet access is expensive, unless you use it in the lobby where you can obtain a free 1hr voucher code from reception. I’ve discovered that this code also works for the wireless connection in our hotel room so we’ve been stockpiling vouchers for use during the evenings (so far I think we’ve used about 10 vouchers).
Auf Wiedersehen
