Off to Berlin

  Berlin, Germany
Sunday, June 3, 2007

Sarah will go nuts at the site of the old wall...She loves this stuff!

(Boarded our train to Berlin without reservations- so we ended up in a 2nd class smoking wagon for 7 hours!)
 
 Checked into  Pension Peters late... up early for our 4 hour 'English Walking Tour' (yes Sarah agreed...especially after these street signs...her Spanish won't help her here!)
                         

Our tour guide Derek was great!!!
                   
                East Berlin:  Protestant Church (in Communist Berlin?)
  
Humboldt University (memorial for the 1933 'Burning of the Books' by Nazi Forces)...I had never heard about this before, but it was quite a big deal to Sarah???
                                     
 
 
Catholic Church (in Communist Berlin?) built to look like a teacup by some crazy king?
                                                                                 
 
Gendarmen Markt... large square with musicians, artwork, and vendors...something that could not happen here in the 70's & 80's...
                                         
 
Checkpoint 'C' (Charlie)
            
 
BERLIN WALL 1961-1989
 
                    
  (a double row of cobblestones marks the spot around the city where the wall once stood)
                                     

Hitler's Bunker 12 meters deep below this park. (Rumored that you can get to it from inside one of the surrounding apartment buildings for a price???)
 
 
Brandenburg Gate
 
 
Reichstag Building 
 
 
Little 'Palm Beach' in East Berlin
 
 
Back to the 'west': the market, laundry, and an internet café on the agenda this afternoon
          
 
To Savignyplatz (our local square) for dinner (beer, pumpkin soup & weinner-schnitzle!)
        
 
Woke up early, checked out of the pension, headed on the S-Bahn to the Hbf station to catch our first class, RESERVED train to Prague!