Berlin Germany

Travelled: 197km
Visited:Berlin
Stay: Berlin- Mitte:Reisemobilstation with all facilities included €22. Main attractions 10min bike ride or U station close by.

We drove for a couple of hours from Dresden to Berlin this morning on the autobahn and found the spot for tonight easily enough (with the help of Camy of course!). We arrived by 9am which is a good time because people are leaving and we managed to get a spot. As you can imagine a spot like this so close to the city centre is very popular. We did a bit of cleaning up and then got the bikes and were in front of the Reichstag building by 12. This is where Germany's lower house meet to govern the nation. Berlin has always been Germany's capital. 

We followed Rick Steve's audioguide from here. We walked down Eberstrasse where the Berlin Wall once stood. The row  of crosses along the railing is the Berlin Wall Victims Memorial. It commemorates some of the East Berliners who died trying to cross the Wall. During 28 years, 136 people were killed, 3000 were arrested but 5000 were successful. The last person to die was just 20 years old and was 9 months before the Wall fell in 1989. 

We then walked through the Brandenburg Gate. It is the last of the original 14 that surrounded the city. During the Cold War it was located in East Berlin. 

We walked through the large field of grey steles of various heights symbolizing the millions of people murdered in concentration camps between 1933-45.

 

We walked over Hitler's Bunker where he spent the last few months of the war and killed himself.

We passed in front of the Aldo Hotel where Michael Jackson famously dangled his baby son from the window. 

We walked through an underground station in the East that had been disused during the occupation and still remains relatively unchanged.

It is in the East side that the 'walk' and 'don't walk' symbols have become popular. 

There are many above ground water pipes throughout the streets. These are here to pump out the underground water whilst construction is taking place as Berlin sits on swampy land. 

 Here is a large statue of Fredrick the Great -king of Prussia in 1700's. 

Bebelplatz Square is the cultural centre with a University, former state library, the swanky Hotel de Rome once a bank, Hedwig Catholic Church and the state opera. In the square there is a glass window that shows a basement with empty bookshelves as a memorial to the event when the Nazi's burnt 20,000 forbidden books.  

We had a look at the tomb of the unknown soldier in the Neue Wache Neoclassical building like a Greek Temple. 

We admired the Altes Museum building and the Berlin Cathedral on Museum Island. Hitler enjoyed giving speeches from the top of the Museum steps. 

The Spree River surrounds the island where it is forbidden to drop anchor as there may still be undetonated bombs. As we approached Alexanderplatz we passed the Marien Church and the tall TV Tower built in 1969 to celebrate 20 years of communism.

A carry sausage vendor!

 From here we took the train back to the bikes and then back to Bluey to refresh ourselves to go out for a lovely evening with our niece Sally who is visiting friends in Belin where she had also lived for while before. We walked along the Berlin Wall and crossed over a great looking bridge. This  part of Berlin is a young bustling area. We had a yummy dinner and topped the night of with an ice cream...great way to end the day!

A toilet block now a takeaway place!