After dropping off our gear at the hotel, we grabbed a couple of maps from the foyer of the hotel and set off for a place to get dinner from. We took the advice from the lady at the desk and got directions to the local U-Bahn around the corner and got off in Stadmitte.
We wandered up the streets in search of somewhere to eat and came across Checkpoint Charlie and got a history lesson instead.
Checkpoint Charlie was the name given to the checkpoint where the American Sector and the Soviet Sector met. This was where the faceoff between American and Soviet tanks took place during the cold war and the centre of the Iron Curtain really.
They have a whole block full of placards with info on the history and you can see where the Berlin wall ran through this sector. Fascinating history simply because it happened in my lifetime! The Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961 - and divided the city (and family, friends, businesses) until 1989 when it finally came down.
We had a nice meal in a restaurant in the area then headed back to the hotel and got a good nights sleep.
The next day we woke up to find the weather had taken a turn for the worse, and it was rainy and quite cold for most of the day. The wind was icy, and we found we needed our jackets zipped up for most of the day.
We bought a CityTourCard each (14.90 euros) each which gave us 48 hours unlimited travel on public transport - and this would cover us fully for the rest of our stay in Berlin.
We headed to Hausvogtel Platz hoping to wander along city streets and look at shops, but instead found ourselves in the middle of a construction zone. We saw the TV tower, so headed towards that and eventually found the shopping areas as well as a few of the sights of the area, including Berliner Dom, Lustgarten, Neptune Fountain, Berlin Town Hall (big Red Building) and Alexanderplatz.
We went up to the top of the TV Tower and had a nice view from up here at the 203m high viewing platform of Berlin. The outside windows were glass (and dirty unfortunately) - but we got a few shots and gave us a good idea of where everything was situated.
I did a little shopping in Alexanderplatz and got to looking at small digital cameras in the local electronics shop as they had a number on sale. Certainly on this trip I've thought more than once that a small compact camera would be a good complement to my digital SLR and handy when you don't want to carry a big one around. Main thing here being size really. After looking at all of them I kept coming back to a tiny little Samsung L77 camera - 7 megapixel with a 7x optical zoom - very impressive considering it's incredibly small size. I had a play with it and found the menu system to be easy to follow and ended up picking one up for $299 euros (~AU$500) and also picked up a spare battery, 2GB SD memory card and a little Crumpler pocket pouch to keep it safe in. I should also get $42 euros back at the border thanks to their tax free refund system.
Next we took the S-Bahn to Unter Den Linden and got to view the Brandenburg Gate with its huge columns and 4 horse chariot on top. Brandenburg gate is a bit of a symbol for the city and where the soldiers marched triumphantly after the successful Prussian wars.
When Napoleon brought Germany to its knees he marched his army through here also and took the statue on top back to France as a trophy. It was eventually restored and Hitler paraded his troops through here before sending them off to war.
We also wandered around the Reichstag (Seat of Parliament) and got some lovely photos of the sun setting on the Reichstag building.
One interesting thing to note is that prettymuch everything in Berlin was destroyed during the war and has been repaired or reconstructed since. This means it has both a modern feel in a lot of areas, while some areas of historical note have been preserved still. It provides an interesting mix of old and new.
We headed to Potsdamer Platz after that for dinner before catching the U-bahn back to the hotel.
The next day in Berlin was very cold - I decided to give my new camera a workout today - so all the photos I've uploaded for today are from it - it's pretty nifty - not great at taking indoor shots or low light unfortunately, but outdoors it's excellent.
The wind was incredibly chilly and the weather report said a max of 15'C during the day - feels like Winter has started already. First stop was Kunferstendamm (or Ku-damm for short). This was the location of the Emperor Wilhelm Memorial Church, and was damaged by bombing in 1943 with only the west tower remaining and left as it is as an anti-war memorial. Surrounding it are new and modern buildings and a large shopping area. Ku-damm was the city centre for West Berlin.
We headed to Potsdamer Platz after that and wandered the streets in search of Hitlers Bunker. This place was destroyed during the war, and was turned into apartment blocks while under East German rule. The whole street is something of a historical walk though - with signs every couple of hundred metres containing a little history about what was there previously. We strolled along here for a while until we got to the British Embassy and then Brandenburg Gate.
We jumped on the S-bahn once more and this time we hwaded to Nordbahnhof to see the remains of the Berlin wall - a section of the wall is preserved here and known as the East Side Gallery. There is also a building here that offers a view of it from above and has an exhibition displaying the history of the Berlin wall including pictures and videos.
Next stop from here was the Seigesaulle (Victory Column) - which we got to by catching the S-Bahn to Bellevue and then walked through the park a bit. This is an impressive statue of gold and it looked beautiful in the sunlight (with some scary storm clouds behind) and made for an impressive picture. The Siegesaulle lies in a direct line from the Brandenburg gate, and it's along this stretch that the soldiers would march as the headed off to war. I climbed up to the top of the tower here (Yumi was getting pretty tired of me wanting to climb up to the top of everything by this point and stayed below) and got a few shots from up top.
We headed off back to the hotel after that as it started to rain once more and was getting dark.
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