Berlin, Germany

With the trip winding down we made it to Berlin, Germany. Again with the overnight train rides we ended up in Berlin early in the morning. Once again check-in time wasn't until 2 in the afternoon so we were faced with the challenge of doing more with ourselves than sitting around the lobby and passing out. With that not being an option we headed out to Potsdam.

In Potsdam we saw the Sanssouci Palace. This was the summer retreat of Frederick the Great so that he could "enjoy life without a care". Frederick's New Palace was another one of the palaces of Potsdam that we saw. This particular palace's servant's "palace" is being turned into a building for the University. The third palace that we toured was the Cecilienhof Palace. We then went on to tour the New and Old Towns. A tad bit sluggishly we managed to make it both through the day and the tour. After our day in Potsdam we headed back to Berlin to eat and prepare ourselves for the following day.

The next day we started the day off by heading out to the T.V. Tower, continuing with our tour of the tallest buildings in various cities.

In the afternoon we ended up taking a walking tour. It was something slightly different but I am not sure that the idea of walking for four hours was something that was of interest to the family which by this point in the trip had been walking quite a fair bit. However that morning the troops were rounded up and together we headed out on foot to take a tour of Berlin in both rain and shine due to the crazy weather that would later ensue for the day. Despite the fact that it was a walking tour that lasted four hours I think this was definitely one of the tours that every member of the family enjoyed. On this tour we enjoyed the sights of:

-Hitler's bunker, which is now nothing more than a parking lot with a tiny sign stating that is where the Hitler's Chancellery and bunker used to be.

-We stood in front of what remains of the Berlin Wall. We saw the bit of wall that was left standing beside the former SS and Gestapo Headquarters.

-We saw Checkpoint Charlie. Though one does not want to get to close to the actors portraying the guards because they will charge you for a picture.

-There was an exploration in the rain of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe.

-The was the walk of the final battlefield of WW II in front of the spectacular new government quarter and we found out about the particular events that surrounded the Reichstag fire of 1933 which led to the Nazis' ride to power.

-There was the spot where President Reagan spoke his famous words 'Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall!' and JFK was confronted with the Iron Curtain.

-We stood before the ruins of the Berlin Palace and the shell of the Politburo's 'Palace of the Republic'

-We traced the footsteps of Napoleon, Bismarck, the German Kaisers, Nazis, and Allied forces underneath the Brandenburg Gate and over the Deathstip.

-There was the memorial of the Nazi book burning along with where Marx and Einstein taught.

Despite the rather crazy weather that rained like cats and dogs on moment and was sunny the next this tour was probably the one most enjoyable and very informative at least to the younger generation on the trip.