Sophie again, writing about our stay on our third stop: Berlin.
Probably our favourite city so far because it’s steeped in history and there is a real ‘feel’ for the place that we didn’t get with the other two. We wandered around the city on our own on Monday seeing such sights as the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust memorial and the Reichstag Parliment Building. We took the amazing free sandermans tour on Tuesday, learning loads about German history, Hitler and the Berlin wall. Louie, our tour guide was probably the best so far, making loads of jokes about David Hasselhof and rabbid dogs (very amusing) making the history seem not so grim and definitely worth a large tip.
A cousin of mine Gregory has a friend called Thorsten who lives in Berlin so I got in contact with his girlfriend Norina via the wonderful world of Facebook to see if we could meet up during our sojourn in Berlin. On Tuesday evening we were taken out for dinner at the Augustiner restaurant where Charles ate his own weight in pork and the Strudel made you stop and take a moment to adore it. We spent the rest of the trip meeting up with them for lunch and dinners, even going to the top of the Humboldt box for cocktails. A lovely, generous couple who were great fun to spend time with!
(Charles abusing the Holocaust memorial)
(The iconic Brandenburg Gate)
(Us with Norina and the amass of pork)
(Cocktails are good at any time of the day, this being the first of four I had that day)
(Norina and I at the top of the Humboldt box)
(Panorama from the top of the Humboldt box)
(Charles promoting world peace at the East Side Gallery)
5 Interesting things about Berlin:
1. Michael Jackson hung his baby from a window at the Hotel Adlon, opposite the Brandenburg Gate. Said hotel also costs you €15,000 to stay in for one night, without breakfast.
2. The fall of the Berlin wall arose because of one Man’s failure to turn up to a very important meeting and the unfortunate use of the word ‘immediately’.
3. If you are caught jay walking by the police you could be fined €5.
4. The green men to cross the street in east Berlin are larger and walk with an arm out and the red man stands with his arms out to his sides much like a crucifix. This is not the case in west Berlin where they favour the normal green and red men.
5. If you order a hot chocolate in a cafe you will have to stir the chocolate with the milk yourself.
Sophie
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