Berlin

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Haven't managed to update in a few days, but we had a bit more of a go at Oktoberfest (how unpredictable). We were planning on doing a tour or two around Munich and Dachau but we decided to hit Oktoberfest early to avoid crowds and get a seat. This turned into us missing the tours because of drinking. Didn't mind too much since that's what I was there for. We caught an overnight train to Berlin and decided that we all wanted to do tours this time, to make sure we got to see the city.
We did a walking tour of the city taking in sights such as the Berlin wall, various churches/synagogues, gestapo headquarter ruins, checkpoint charlie, the site of the "burning of the books" and loads more. By the way, the train station they built for the world cup is the biggest i've seen. It's huge.
That night we had dinner and a few beers. Nice and quiet, not sure about Berlin's nightlife... ask Claire or Em about the Kit Kat club and its special theme nights.
The second day in Berlin, we did a tour of the concentration camp outside of Berlin. As you all should know, I'm bad with place names in Europe, but I blame it on the languages. If it was David Boon plaza or something, i'd remember it. Anyway, the tour was really good, and showed life in a concentration camp, from the SS barracks, main gate, prison quarters, death chamber, morgue and infirmary. So of the stuff these nazis did was horrific. I'll tell you when I'm home.... Some people might not want to know.
Another quiet night out in Berlin, eating Indian and drinking beer and cocktails, while listening to the crazy conversations these two girls i'm hanging out with have.... :-)
The next day we said fairwell to Em, who stunk and went home to Ireland. Claire and I decided to revisit spots on the tour that we wanted to see more of. We also checked out a larger part of the Berlin wall and took some pics. Pushing for time, we scraped in on our train and headed to Amsterdam on what should have been a nice 6.5 hour trip.. but more on that nightmare trip in the next blog... Don't worry family, nothing dangerous. See you in Amsterdam (I'll probably be writing that section in the UK though).

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Photos

Bombed Church
Left without rebuilding to show the reality of war.

Berlin Wall
The longest remaining section of the wall.

Arbeit Macht Frei
The gates of the concentration camp. This translates to "Work Will Set You Free". Very unfitting.

Gas Chamber Ruins
The ruins of the gas chamber where thousands of minorities were murdered at the hands of the nazis

Brandenberg Gate
A symbol of Berlin for many years.

Comments

[Clare]

Richard!! What happens on tour, stays on tour, remember...? (PS. Sachsenhausen was the concentration camp.)