Berlin

June 11th 2007

woken by the forementioned germans at 6am, who were setting out for the day nice and early, fell asleep again, up around 830.

headed up the road to the little bakeri that the owner had pointed out and had chocolate crossants for breakie (not the healthiest of choices i know but it was either that or something drowned in glaze, and that really wasn't something i felt like for breakfast.)

from there headed to the u-bahn and caught it to Alexanderplatz, where we found out that there was a tour company called New Europe that offered a free walking tour of berlin. (well it's tips only)

so we set out to get to the meeting point (the brandenburg gate)

which you'd think wouldn't be too hard to find right!

arrived at alexanderplatz and headed up into daylight when renata decideds to take the s-bahn towards it, instead of making the 1.5km trek down the road.

so we jump on one, only to find it's going in completely the wrong direction, so we jumped off that one and ended up waiting 30mins for one to head back in the other direction. to arrive 45mins later back at alexanderplatz!

Renata was still insistant that we 'catch the train" and i just said i'm walking, and headed off down the road.

by this stage it was 1040 and the tour left at 11am.

Renata followed a few minutes later and we separated as we both headed down the Unter den Linden towards the gates.

it was extremely hot, the temperature was already at 32 degrees at 11am! it was awesome!
it was cool walking along the main street, thinking hey i remember that!

totally different seeing it not all covered in snow though!

arrived at the meeting point right at 11am and we were separated into groups of 30 or so as there was about 150 of us all up.

had our group picture taken under the brandenburg gates before setting off with Beci our guide for the day.

she was fantastic from the get go, and you could tell she truely loved her new adopted city (she was originally from wales!)

she seems to have lived and worked all over the world before settling here.

she took us up through the gate where we had a mini history lesson in the sade of the gate. headed over the original berlin wall and crossed into west berlin...

one of the first things that hits you is how green everything is... most of the city's parks are
located on the west berlin side. didn't spend much time there before crossing back over into eastern side and along through to the holocaust memorial. which pretty much is 2000 concrete pillers or blocks all at different levels.

i feel something is drawing me to it

it's ironic though that the solvent they use on it to protect it from vandolism is made by the same company that made the gases and chemicals used in the concentration camps.

from there we headed to potsdammerplatz, and along to see one of the two remaining sections of the original berlin wall. before heading up to check point charlie (the place where they used to control the entry and exiting of east berlin.

stopped for a bite to eat at a little cafe, and some much needed fluid replacement... i think everyone went for the unlimited drink offer for 2 euros!

perfect for such a hot day

headed on from there up along unter den linden and to a place of great controversy. where the book burning took place, not so long ago.

it's ironic that these days those books that were burnt are now offered for sale at a second hand stall just across the street from it.

finished the tour over on museum island about 4hrs later.

renata and i took up prime positions on the lawn, with a fountain to one side and the lovely Berlinr Dom to the other... and jsut relaxed in the sun while we decided what to do next.

walked back along the road towards the gate, stopped for icecream at Haagan Das for some delicious icecream, just what we needed on such a hot day!... so many flavours to choose from, ended up with vanilla brownie!

before headed back up to the gate again.

walked through the arches and headed right to look at the Reichstag (German Parliment building)

it was reccomended to us on the tour as a great place to go for a free look out over the city.
it has a giant glass dome on the top which the public is able to walk up and look out over Berlin.

By this stage i realised i was turning a rather nasty shade of pink at a rapid rate!

so we joined the que to get in, and saw that there was a wait of 30mins to get to the door...
ummmmed and ahhhhhed about standing in the line (totally out in the open and so hot!)
after not moving and inch for 10mins, we gave up and headed down to the grassy lawns and took some photos, only to look up and see the line start to move...
so we ran back up the stairs trampling some old biddies in the process, and rejoined the now stationary que..

stood for what seemed like ages, but was only about 25mins...
before getting to the golden doors, and shade.... ahhhhhhh

everyone heading in was being scanned for bombs, before being taken up in a lift to the dome.
it was amazing, the first instant you walk in the door, you're greated with a massive mirrored mushroom shaped thing!,

walked up the path winding it's way around the dome, and looked out at some rather panoramic views of the city.

came back down and found a lovely seat in the shade and sat admiring the views.

took some illegal pictures

Renata managed to drop her camera down the drain... oops, but was able to rescue it..

took that as an omen that it was time to move on and headed out of there!

Decided to continue down the road to the golden statue that we could see in the distance (victoria's column)

Before heading into the Tiergarten, where we got the fright of our life, coming across a selection of german men all fully relaxed naked in the sun... gave them a bit of a fright and they jumped up and got on their bikes... still naked and escaped!

i did try to take a picture, but i was laughing too much it's just a blurred mess!

kept walking and walking and ended up right in the heart of west berlin in Zoologischer garten...
where we tried to get into see the broken cathedral, but it was closed for the day.

got icecreams and decided to call it a night being around 9pm.. (i think the only food we ate all day was the ice creams!)

caught the u-bahn back to the hotel and got talking with two americans for the rest of the night

June 12th

woken up bright an early again... i think it was on purpose too! though we did make heaps of noise on purpase when we went to bed last night!

got up at 9am

Renata opted for breakie at the hostel, which included so much food, i headed up the road instead and ended up with a strange roll (which i still don't know what was on it!)

headed back to alexanderplatz where after chatting with everyone last night, we decided to hire bicycles for the day.

went with the fat tire people as they were the first ones we found! picked our lucky bikes and set off...

R wanted to see the schloss Charlottenberg (the palace) which was about 10kms away, so we set off. got separated a few times, almost coming to grief few times while trying to avoid hitting tourists!

almost took out a group of 10 or so kidlets as they wouldn't move and all holding hands!
hahaha

(found out later that i tried to run down one of the americans we met last night too.... but seems i appologised before continuing... so it must have been early on in our trip... i gave up after too long!)

it was so much fun riding around on bikes! i haven't ridden a bike for ages!

made easier for the fact that Berlin is almost completely flat!

took us about an hour to get to the palace (we got lost on more than one occasion!) and what a sight...

it certainly looked the part of a summer palace, it was all painted a light shade of yellow, and looked as if it would be better suited to a fairytale!

from there headed back to zoologischer garten and had our first run in with the law!
hahaha

we were riding in a pedestrian only section (we think)

he was doing a mime with two fingers looking like they were running... and seemed happier once we dismounted!

chained our bikes up and went to look in the ruined cathedral

headed back to see if we could catch any illegal activity in the tiergarten!
no naked men this time...

and up through to potsdamer platz..

down along to the section of the berlin wall from the tour the day befor and looked through the topagraphy of terror and sat and had slurpies (still not sure what flavour it was, but it was rather green! and cold, and ice-ey)

back on the bikes and to the jewish museum.... Renata and i had different ideas on how to get there, so we split up and decided to meet there... i liked my idea better... follow the signs pointing to it! lol

needless to say i got there first!

decided not to go in after we got there and headed instead to the west side gallery. it's a free outdoor galler on the longest remaining section of the berlin wall, where they gt local artist to come along and paint murals on the wall itself. (it's the bit they show whenever they do a documentary on it.)

took lots of picture as we rode along it..., including this one of me trying to climb it...

it was nice to ride along the whole wall... we saw it while on contiki, but it was only a 5 min stop take a picture and jump back on the bus... (it was raining and -4 degrees though!)

but it was amazing to ride along side such a historic wall and take it all in...

decided we'd had enough of the ridding, and decided to take the bikes back... headed along the road... now growing more and more confident with out bikes, we'd ventured out onto the bike lanes, instead of just ridding along the footpath...

the lanes however suddenly took us out into the middle of 8 lanes of traffic... and we were in the middle...
in peak hour traffic... was thinking i really wish i had a helmet on!

but i honestly haven't seen anyone wearing them around... feels weird riding along without one...

made it safely back to alexanderplatz where we dropped off the bikes and headed back to the hostel.

found a supermarket along the way and enjoyed a 5min pasta (that so needed more than 5mins!) and talked well into the early hours with the other guests again...

had a run in with the stairs...

i'd put everything on the ladder up to the bed before i went to have a shower, so when i came back all the lights we off, and i couldn't see... forgeting i'd put things on the stairs i started to climb...ooops..

bottles of water, camera's all flying to the ground, making the loudest noises!!!! hahahaha

off to Potsdam tomorrow