Berlin with my girls, what a way to end the month of travel! We arrived on Monday night, took a taxi to Anne's flat and crashed (it was late, after all). On Tuesday morning we hit the pavement early. We took the train/underground to the city centre to collect our "Welcome Pass" which gave us tons of awesome discounts and freebies. We walked to the Holocaust memorial and then through the park to the Berlin Zoo. Fun fact: the Berlin Zoo is the zoo with the most number of species in the whole world! Awesome. We were planning on just stopping by for a quick visit but ended up spending nearly the entire day there. Close ups with lions, pandas, polar bears, and strange beavers -- awesome. We even got to see the big cats get fed!
After the zoo we headed towards Museum Island and the famous Berliner Dom. We paid to go inside the church, and rested for a while, tired from all of the walking. After that we went to the longest still-standing piece of the Berlin Wall. This chunk of the wall is 1200 meters long, which really helps to get the impression of what it must have been like during the Cold War. This piece of the wall has been preserved and repainted by different artists commissioned to paint murals, all of which are quite impressive. After our trip to the wall, we found some dinner and then headed back to the flat.
Wednesday we returned to Museum Island to visit the Pergamon Museum which houses lots of Greek artefacts, sculptures, etc., as well as Islamic artwork, and art from the Byzantine empire. It was interesting and well done. After the Pergamon we headed to Checkpoint Charlie. We went into the Checkpoint Charlie museum, where we learned about life in Berlin during the Cold War. It was really interesting to learn about all of the clever ways that people escaped Soviet-occupied Berlin to freedom. After Checkpoint Charlie we visited the Dali museum. Berlin has recently acquired a collection of Dali paintings, sculptures, sketches, and silent films. They didn't have many of Dali's most famous works, but it was still a really nice collection of his work. After Dali, we went to dinner at a potato cellar for some delicious potato-based German food. (German food is delicious!)
Thursday we went to Berlin's famous shopping malls and shopping street. We went to their version of Harrods, not quite as massive but still huge. We had some yummy sweets on the top floor of this store before heading out to do more shopping. We stopped by the recently built Sony Center, where we were able to participate in H&M's Fashion Against Aids campaign. We got our 30 seconds of fame when our photo was posted up on a large screen in the Sony Center for all to see. We visited Berlin's parliament building, which was also very pretty.
We were planning on visiting a synagogue when Anne's wallet was stolen while we were shopping. We rushed to the police station, where, after the police officer insinuated that we were prostitutes, Anne was finally able to get some help. We took a taxi back to the flat where we met the police who wanted to check the flat for signs of an intrusion. Unfortunately Anne's European travel card was in her wallet, so we scrambled to figure out how to get Anne back to England the following day. After a lot of stress and panic, handled with great poise by Anne, we had a delicious dinner at a local Italian restaurant. Friday morning we did the laundry and headed to the airport early where we waited for a decision to be made about Anne's situation. She was finally granted a temporary travel document in leu of her passport and EU ID card and we were allowed to board the plane. Once in London we all traveled through the boarder check without a hitch. We sighed big sighs of relief and headed home. On the bus back home from Victoria we were serenaded by a typical British looney. We were all practically rolling around on the bus with silent(ish) laughter.
We had so much fun in Berlin! (Of course, with the exception of the stolen-wallet situation. Although, even that was sort of fun in retrospect.) I'd like to see the rest of Germany now! Thanks, Anne for being a wonderful hostess and tour guide!
My new favourite German phrase: Einsteigen bitte!
