Blogs from Berlin, Germany, Europe - page 168

Personal Tour Seeing the sights of Berlin Seeing East and West. Anne was kind enough to take me on a tour around some of Berlin. Anne’s parents live in the Southwest part of Berlin so to make seeing things easier Anne took the car out and drove us around to various sights. We drove around a bit and I just started to get a feel for the areas around Berlin. We drove by the Siegessäule or Triumphal Column which was erected to commemorate Victory in the Prussia-Danish war of 1864. It originally stood outside the Riechstag but was moved to it’s current location in the middle of a roundabout sometime in the 30’s by the Nazi’s. We got out and walked around Schloss Charlottenburg which was the former Royal Summer Residence in Charlottenburg. There were some ... read more

As our train moved north today, the skies grew darker. What a contrast to the amazing blue skies in Provence! By the time we arrived in Berlin at the Ostbaunhof Station (East) it was pouring. We ended our journey and delivered ourselves from the elements by simply checking into the station hotel. At a counter-sit-anywhere place at the station or baun (Biergarten style)we ordered a bratwurst and local beer. Its interesting to watch the crowds in these places. Many people have dogs (like German Shepards) and are allowed to carry their beer on the trains. Hence, there are a lot of edgy mannered punk type groups walking about/ or sitting around wearing military type clothing. I even noticed one of these groups all skunk dyed pink including their dog! Anyway, sitting at the station Biergarten we ... read more

Anne, Valerie and me went to visit Carsten in Neuruppin near Berlin. We went to Postdam and visited Sans souci castle. We enjoyed a lot this week end!!! We also met Carsten's mother and her boyfriend Willy who were so nice with us!!... read more

Today we set out to see as many things as we could in our last day. In the morning we went to The National museum which included the Pergamon. We went to some other smaller museums dotted around the city but the most confronting part of our day was a visit to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It really made all that Matt and I had even learnt about come to life. It was just so disturbing to think what horrible conditions the people were subjected to. At one stage I couldn't help the tears from running down my face. We had intended to get back to go to the Holocaust museum but we really didn't want to rush the concentration camp. I think Berlin may be one of those places we need to come back to. ... read more

We arrived safely in Berlin on Wednesday evening. Our apartment is just great. It is the main floor of a beautiful old house in a residential district of Berlin. After a good night's sleep we set off to see the city yesterday. We took in several sights and feel much more like Berliner's. Today we went to the Berlin Zoo. Unfortunately our computer has gone on the frity and we are working on how to download our pictures. We shall see how that goes but we probably won't be able to post much when we use these internet cafe's. The weather is very hot and humid here in Berlin. This city is beautiful and very easy to get around on the transit system. We have decided to not pick up our rental car until Tuesday. We ... read more