Berlin sightseeing

Thursday morning kicked off a quick stop at a remainder of the Berlin wall =
known as the East Gallery. We then took a quick drive around the city and =
got stopped by the border police who wanted to check the bus and drivers’ =
papers. Their vehicle had the word Zoll printed on it. Which obviously =
means something respectable in German, but is slang for joint in Afrikaans. =
We then took a guided tour through Berlin which started at Karl & Engel =
square. The guide really knew his stuff, he gave us a rundown of the =
history of Berlin and then took us through a number of sights. We walked to =
Museum Island past the Berliner Dom and then to the Neue Wache which is a =
memorial to war and tyranny. The roof has a hole in it which allows the =
light and rain to fall on a statue of a mother holding her dead son. The =
Pergamon and Altes museums amoungst others are located here, hence the =
name. The Altes museum has a giant bowl which was carved from a single =
piece of stone standing in front of it. It was supposed to have been placed =
inside the museum, but it was only finished after the museum and could not =
fit through the entrance 🙂 Across from the meseum was the site where the =
Prussian Schlo=C3=9F Palace used to stand before the Russians destroyed it. =
Part of it now houses the former East Berlin parlement built by the =
Russians which is now in process of being dismantled (what goes around =
comes around).

We then crossed the Schlo=C3=9F br=C3=BCcke past the Deutsche History =
museum which used to house weapons for Prussians and then later for =
Hitler. We then passed the Humboldt university where Einstein used to =
lecture. Next was Bebel Platz which is famous for the book burning by the =
Nazis. We the walked down Unter den Linden passing the Russian Embassy to =
get to Brandenburg gate. It is the last remaining city gate of Berlin. =
Hotel Adlon is a stones throw from the gate. When it originaly opened it =
had a collection of over 200000 wines in the cellar, which was more than =
the current emperors collection.

Passing through the gate put us in West Berlin where we walked down the =
side of the Tiergarten to the Holocast museum which is an arrangement of =
individually shaped stones set in such a way to represent an abstract =
Jewish graveyard.

We stopped at the site underwhich Hitlers’ bunker used to lie. It is now a =
parking lot surrouned by flats. On one tour a resident told the group that =
Hitler no longer lived there. We passed the largest remaining Nazi building =
which used to be the Air Ministry, the Russians renamed it to the Ministry =
of ministries and it is now the Department of Finance.=20

We ended the tour at check point Charlie which was the scene of many =
interesting escape attempts. The museum hosts a number of interesting =
contraptions used to escape East Berlin.

We then walked to the Reichstad with the hope of walking up the glass dome. =
On te way there we passed the Audi store which had the new S3 and TT! So we =
popped in for pictures and a bit of drooling. VW was next door so I got =
pictures of the “off road” Polo and new Eos. We then popped into the DG =
bank to look at the giant fish created by Frank Gehry’s. When we got to =
Reichstad the queues were too long so we gave it a miss. We the went in and =
up the Berliner Dom for some really nice views of Berlin.=20

We then caught a train to Kaiser-Wilhelm Ged=C3=A4chtniskirche for some =
pictures.=20

It was now time for shopping. We started at CD store and picked up some =
nice albums (new Apop, Suicide Commando, Diary of Dreams an E Nominee). We =
then walked down Kurf=C3=BCrstendamm which is one of the main shopping =
streets. We went into KaDeWe which is 5 floors of shopping and 2 floors of =
food. Half of the one floor was just chocolate! We had some hot chocolate =
there which was devine and of course we bought more chocolate!

The train trip back was eventful as the train we got onto never left the =
station. The announcement to say what was wrong and what the alternative =
train was in German. So we got some help from a Asian man and got back to =
the hotel. Berlin has a very intricate rail and tram network.