Germany- Berlin-Day 2

20-06-2011

So much has happened here in the past 100 years that we decided to go on a guided tour to hear all about it. We went out of our way to start on an earlier tour, what they don't write on their website is that they merge with the later tour at a different venue and then start it. Could have just slept in instead!

In spite of the start I really enjoyed the tour. The guide was really passionate as well as quite theatrical , arms flying all over the place, shouting, crying, laughing, she did it all. We went through the Museum Island, saw the area that once contained the old palace and then the East Germany Parliament, both destroyed. Walked by Night of Shame, a memorial for the burning of books that occurred during the Nazi rule. Then the war memorial of the woman with the dead child, both are quite thought provoking.

Saw the Goring's Air Ministry, the area of the Gestapo headquarters , Hitler's bunkers, heard the story of his suicide. Stopped for a chocolate break at a shop which had a chocolate sculptures of the important buildings in town.

Then the Berlin wall part of the tour commenced. Checkpoint Charlie, the remaining bits of the wall itself, the museum associated with it , were seen and stories heard about it. There was a man from the US in the tour who had visited Germany when the wall was standing.

Stopped at the Ode to the murdered Jews of Europe, blocks of the same length and width but varying heights and inclination fill the area. There are others monuments as well for the lost lives at the hands of Hitler.

We ended the tour at Paris square after seeing the glass domed Parliament
(people can watch the session occurring through the glass ceiling). The square contains Hotel Adlon where Michael Jackson infamously held his child out of the window.

We walked through the Brandenburg gate, along Tiergarten to the victory column and that was it for history for the day. The best bit is I am reading a novel that is set in Berlin around Hitler's time and being here makes it a fun read.

The rest of the day was spent at the shops and watching X Men. There was a premiere of a new Kevin James movie so he was there too ( didn't actually see him).

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