We got into Berlin in the morning from Amsterdam and once again asked the tourist information services to find us a hotel room. We got to the pension they reserved and found that we had a room bigger than our apartment. It even had a kitchen. Unfortunately, it had about four cups of hot water. Oh well, you can't have everything.
We went on a walking tour of the city led by an Austrailian who had been
living in Berlin for a couple of years. We learned about the bombed-out church
in front of the train station. We learned about the bombing of Berlin and how
it took out the zoo, the Tiergarden (completely replanted afterwards) and just
about all of the city. The tour took us to one of the remaining portions of
the wall and we even stood in no-man's-land (the area that was between the
walls) and survived. We then walked to and under the magnificent Brandenburg
gate, and ended up at Alexanderplatz in former East Berlin. The
whole tour lasted about 3 hours, and was entirely worth the hike.
After a late lunch we went to the 'Info Box' which is a building shaped,
amazingly, like a big red box. It exhibited many of the plans for the
rebuilding of Berlin.
In about 10 years, Berlin is going to look pretty cool. Right now, however,
it's under construction.
Later that afternoon we went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. The museum is situated on the site of one of the main crossing points in the wall, and tells the history of the wall. There were also several exhibits dedicated to the people who managed to escape, and those who didn't. There was even a very moving video showing the lead up to and the aftermath of the falling of the wall. Then it was a search for a restaurant with some good German food. We managed to find one close to where we were staying and when the menu came with no English translation, we sort of crossed our fingers and pointed. We lucked out and got very good meals.
The next morning we headed to Museuminsel (Museum Island). We weren't that
impressed with the first museum we went in. I don't even remember the name of
it. After that, though, we found the Pergammon museum. We keep comparing it
to 'Grover's Museum of Very Big Things'. They had entire facades from old
Greek temples. There were the steps to the Pergammon temple, which were
brought over brick by brick from Turkey. There were columns nearly two
stories high and there was the impressive Ishtar Gate. See the next picture
to get an idea of the sheer size of things (there are a couple of people in
the foreground). A great museum!
After the museums, it was dinner time. We hunted down a place
that the guide book said had a nice quiet atmosphere and good German food.
It was very out of the way, but we managed to find it. Once again we played
"Guess what we're eating for dinner". Once the plates full of sausagey things
arrived, we dug in. Andy only regretted his order after the waitress passed
us with what looked like an entire pig leg on a platter. Maybe next time.
After that, we needed a good night sleep to make our early train to
Prague.