Berlin

Berlin was amazing. It has so much history that it was an overload by the end of the 4 days! On our first day we did the walking tour which was just great. Our guide was Scottish but he'd been living in Berlin for 10 years so he had lots of things to say! We visited so many places that I can't quite remember what they all were but we of course saw the main things, Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Wall and the Topograpy of Terror (this is a photo gallery of the Nazi party and their torture & intimidation methods), outsides of the many museums, the Berliner Dom (one of Liz's favourite building in Europe so far), some other cathedrals and synagogues around the city. Oh and Checkpoint Charlie, one of the four checkpoints that entered into the Allies section of the city during the Cold War.

One day we went to the German History Museum which we thought would only take 2 hours but we were in there for 4! And our brains were definately a little sore after reading so much information! But we have gained a better understanding of the World Wars, especailly the second one and how the nazi regime came to be in power. There is also this massive Jewish Memorial in the middle of the city, it's really quite depressing, but there is a information centre under it, so we also had a look there.

On our last day, we went for a walk to the Berlin Wall on the Eastern side, it's known as the East Side Gallery, and this is the longest still standing part of the original wall. It's 1.3km and every 3 years artists are drawn out of a ballot and come and paint a section of the wall...it looks fantastic. I cannot imagine what it was like to have your city divided into 2....madness really.

The picutre on the left is of the Jewish Memorial and the picture on the right is of the East Side Gallery - bit graffitied but you can still see the picture well enough.