Day 5 - Reichstag, the War and Checkpoint Charlie

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Geo: 52.5235, 13.4115

We started our first full day in Berlin with a delicious buffet continental breakfast at the Circus, together with some cooked to order scrambled eggs.

We then walked about ten to fifteen minutes to Alexander Platz, where we caught the 100 public bus. This is an excellent bus service for sightseeing throughout Berlin, along with the 200 bus. Highly recommend riding both these routes.

We got off at the Reichstag for our 10.00 appointment to view the Dome. You need ID such as your passport to get past the security here. Our visit to the Dome was very enjoyable. We rented audioguides which were excellent, explaining all the sights that we could see through the glass of the dome. The only bad part was the condensation on the glass made taking photos somewhat difficult.

After spending an hour or so at the Dome, we walked along Simsonweg and looked at the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma on our way to the Brandenburg Gate.

The Brandenburg Gate is simply magnificent. It was so exciting to stand in front of it, after having a photo of it as my pc backdrop for the last twelve months! We spent a bit of time taking photos of the Gate, Pariser Platz and the start of Unter Den Linden, including the beautiful Adlon Hotel building.

We then continued walking to Potsdamer Platz and on to the Sony Centre for a look around. I can't say I was terribly impressed by the Sony Centre but we were getting very hungry by then so stopped in at Lindenbrau, a pub like restaurant, where we had the biggest burgers I have ever eaten. I could only manage half of mine and I was starving!

After lunch we headed to the Topography of Terror where we spent a couple of hours in the Documentation Centre reading the horrors of this part of Berlin in the years before and during the second World War.

We next headed to Checkpoint Charlie for more photo ops but decided against going into the Museum. We spent some time walking along Friedrichstrasse, window shopping, until we reached Gendarmenmarkt which I was interested to see. Unfortunately most of the square was roped off as I believe a TV show or movie was being filmed at that time. I still managed to get some idea of how beautiful the square was. We intended to come back before leaving Berlin, but unfortunately never got around to it.

At this point, we were totally exhausted from all the walking so we caught the u-bahn back to the Circus. Time for a relaxing glass of wine before dinner. We ate at Sophieneck, a traditional pub not too far from the hotel. We all enjoyed our meals here, I had gammon steaks with vegetables, delicious, as we can't get gammon steaks in Australia, but I had them often as a child growing up in the UK.

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