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The train from Prague to Berlin was quite a long one and showed us areas of both Czech Republic and Germany. We arrived in the afternoon (Saturday 11th) so once we'd checked into our hostel and sorted ourselves out we went to meet Abi's parents, who'd come to visit us. As they had an apartment it was great to just to sit down on a sofa and eat some 'normal' food!
Near enough everything is shut on Sunday's in Berlin so we had planned to do a walking tour with Abi's parents. However after some lunch and getting a bit lost trying to find the meeting point, we'd missed it - so did our own walk around the city. We went through the Tiergarten Park which also had a Sinti & Roma Gypsy Memorial in which was very interesting. We then intended to find Checkpoint Charlie but went on quite a long walk in doing so - Berlin is a lot bigger than we realised and easy to lose your bearings. After a quick coffee break and more walking we eventually found it! Turned out it wasn't far from where we'd started!! There was a small museum/information area there which gave you the brief history of the border crossing area and some personal stories. After a long day of walking we relaxed at Abi's parents apartment for the evening.
Our hostel supplied breakfast so we made the most of the free cereal and toast on Monday morning. We then went off on an organised bike tour which lasted about 4 and a half hours, taking us to the main sights of Berlin. The tour guide was very good and gave us alot of information about all aspects of the city. He focused on different historical periods and it was good to hear information about the sights. I found it hard to believe some of the horrific stories from historical events which weren't even from that long ago. It was quite a cold day so to warm up we stopped at a cafe in the park for lunch, the potato soup with smoked salmon was delicious!! The second half of the tour was a bit shorter and took us to some of the more modern areas. We had a healthy, home cooked dinner at Abi's parents apartment which we really enjoyed - it's not always a luxury eating out all the time, as you soon get bored! Afterwards we headed back to the hostel to shower and change then make use of the bar under our hostel. It was a really good atmosphere and fairly cheap for a drink so we enjoyed relaxing there before moving on to a bar around the corner. Monday's aren't the most busy of nights but it was still good fun!
After a late night we weren't in any big rush to get up and out early on Tuesday. We eventually decided to visit the East Side Gallery which was a long stretch of the Berlin Wall with street art on. It was really good and some of the art was amazing! It's difficult to imagine that the wall completely divided the city and split up families. With a coffee to keep us going we then visited the Topography of Terror museum which was also very interesting and used photography to show the history of the discrimination present in World War II. By the time we'd gone to meet Abi's parents it was dinner time but we were all pretty tired so just ordered some noodles to take back to the apartment.
Our last day in Berlin was beautiful and sunny which was a bonus so once we'd checked out we went wandering, visited a few shops and sat in the sun. We'd arranged to meet up with Neil & Eileen for lunch as they were on a short holiday in Berlin. It was great to have a catch up with them and talk about our travels so far.
Berlin was a really interesting city and I enjoyed learning about the history of it as well as seeing the sights. It had a great atmosphere and was also nice to spend some time with our families. Hard to believe we're over 3 weeks in already!
Next stop, Hamburg!
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