Berlin

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A lie in and a big breakfast was required to get moving to central Berlin from our airport hotel. We kicked off in West Berlin by checking out the Olympic Stadium, built by Hitler for the 1936 Olympics and where the 2006 World Cup Final will be played. It is a fantastic stadium. Then we headed to Fernsehturn (also known as the TV tower) – a massive 200 metre tower where we caught a lift up and got full views of the city. We then walked past the massive Berliner Dom, AlteNational Galerie, Altes museum, the imposing Reichstag and down to Brandenburg Tor, the gate that once separated the East from West. Hard to believe these days what it would have been like to live in the divided city.

We then went to Checkpoint Charlie before wandering back through the nice gardens of Tiergarten Park at dusk to Siegessaule Victory Column before getting back to our apartment on the underground train. The next morning, we checked out Schloss Charlottenborg, a massive palace near where were staying before taking the hike out on the train to Sachsenhausen, a massive ‘model’ concentration camp (meaning that it was purpose built and served as a model for the Polish concentration camps to follow) that was very well preserved and incredibly detailed and well done as a museum. We would need 3 days there to hear the full audio guide and see everything, but we only had 3 hours which was enough to appreciate the atrocious conditions of the concentration camp before returning to central Berlin to check out the East End Gallery and the remains of the Berlin Wall. Our last day in Berlin were spend wandering Sunday markets and sunbaking in the huge grass area outside the Berliner Dom before catching the train to Prague at 3pm.

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