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An early start for our journey to Berlin from Warnemunde the port on the Baltic where the ship docked. We travelled by train for about two and a half hours. Once again it is overcast and as we near Berlin it begins to rain. The train moved quickly through the countryside. It is very green and we pass through plantations of tall straight fir trees, we also saw many tall narrow logs stacked up on flatbed trains. We also pass huge windmill turbines and rows and rows of solar panels. It is good to be travelling by train after a day at sea, although the rain is getting heavier as we approach Berlin. We have an excellent German guide Martin who makes the history of the city interesting as he points out landmarks that were important during the war, conditions after WWII and about East and West Berlin. We stop at Brandenburg gates, some remaining parts of the wall that have been painted by artists from around the world and Checkpoint Charlie. The architecture of Berlin is very impressive so many beautiful buildings but so much construction going on that the view of many of them is blocked by scaffolding. The rain continues to pour down and it really does put a dampener on sightseeing, the Reichstag building which was familiar from all those SBS documentaries about Hitler looks very impressive, with its glass cupola at the back towering over the original building which has been rebuilt. Lunch is at the Hilton Hotel and is very enjoyable but can't even get a word from our lunch companions, I thought they may not speak English but did eventually get a comment or two before giving up. Every time I saw them on the ship afterwards she would look up or down to avoid eye contact. After lunch we went to the Allied museum which explained about the occupation of Germany after the war and then had a short time on the shopping street Kurfurstendamm before heading back to the train just as the rain stopped. We were more fortunate than the group on the next train, a man suffered a heart attack so they had to call paramedics and the helicopter and they waited on the train for two hours before they could even begin their journey into Berlin. Apparently the man died so their tour was delayed and the ship had to delay sailing until they all returned. The next day at sea someone had to be airlifted to a helicopter which caused lots of interest as they had to close off decks while it was hovering. I hope they had insurance as the rescue crew had come from Sweden.
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