Berlin - East Side Gallery, Checkpoint Charlie and Gooooooal!

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We woke rather late and I was nursing a moderate headache from the previous night's festivities. Breakfast at the hotel helped a little but I was still in no mood to be moving all our gear once again. Due to a cock-up in planning we'd ended up needing to change hotels half way through our stay in Berlin so we spent the morning moving from Hollywood Media Hotel to Ibis Berlin Kurfurstendamn. Although it was only a few stops further down the U-Bahn we took a cab as the merchandise from Hellfest, Monty Python and Dropkick Murphys was by now becoming unmanageable. The Herbys met us at our hotel and dropped their bags in - this was to be their last day for this leg of the tour.

We caught the train to the East Side Gallery, one of the few remaining stretches where the original Berlin Wall is still standing. We walked the 1.3km stretch taking photos and trying to picture what it must have been like before this became a rather macabre tourist attraction. This part of the wall followed the River Spree down it's east bank and on this day, with the sun shining and in 30 degrees of heat, it was a beautiful part of Berlin. Only 30 years before the East Germans would have struggled to see the river at all.

Cold drinks were the order of the afternoon so we sat at a cafe enjoying a breeze taking the edge off the stifling heat before again braving the sweltering U-Bahn and heading to another relic of Berlin during The Wall era - Checkpoint Charlie.

Checkpoint Charlie was one of the more well-known crossings when the Berlin Wall separated East and West Berlin and the small wooden guardhouse is located in the middle of the road where traffic now drives by without hinderance. It is sadly now manned by actors dressed as military policemen who charge EUR2 for a photo (a salute comes free with the payment) and queues of brain-dead tourists were taking advantage of the service.

The Herbys had a plane to catch and left Jo and I to our own devices. We would see them again in just a few days in Sweden.

Just beside the guardhouse is Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, a museum containing a ridiculous amount of information on life during the separation. We again opted for the audio-tour but spent only a few hours reading the information on the walls and viewing the exhibits. Much of the focus was on escape attempts from the east and home-made aircraft along with vehicles modified to hide passengers were of particular interest. The Ronald Regan area - not so much.

Both Jo and I were becoming travel weary and Jo's feet contained more blisters than good skin so we decided to take a break for a few hours. We returned to the Ibis for a rest.

Germany were due to play France in the quarter finals of the World Cup so we left the hotel at 1720 and headed for the Fan Park that we spotted the previous day located behind the Brandenburg Gate in The Tiergarten - a huge park with trees and gardens right in the middle of town. Some of the boys on our train were already getting rowdy and we followed them into the Fan Park - going through two barriers where security fought a losing battle to take alcohol off each punter before allowing entry.

The street that bisects the park would be four lanes wide, had it have been open. On this occasion it was filled with tens, maybe a hundred, thousand fans watching the game on a series of big screens placed a few hundred metres apart leading up to the Brandenburg Gate. At one end a huge ferris wheel was all but empty as the masses were focussed on something far more important. Seizing our opportunity, Jo and I payed the EUR5 each and got on board an empty carriage almost immediately.

Thirteen minutes into the game, as we entered our second rotation, all hell broke loose as the German central defender, Mats Hummels found the back of the French net. The roar shook the ferris wheel as a hundred feet below us 100,000 people lost the plot. Flags were waved, fists were pumped and beer was spilt as the celebrations echoed throughout the area. The noise levels peaked with each replay.

We watched the rest of the first half while walking from the back of the crown towards the Brandenburg Gate at the front where a band kept the masses entertained at the half time break. We left the park, passing by the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe on the way back to the train. We made it back to the hotel in time to get the last 20 minutes of the game in the bar. Germany held on to their one goal lead and was headed to the semi-finals.

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