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Berlin day two
Today was much better than yesterday. We set off, aiming for the Reichstag, a glass viewing dome on top of the parliament building. But the security checks were taking a minimum of 5mins per person and judging by the length of the queue we thought we'd be waiting for hours so we decided to head back to the Holocaust Memorial to go through the visitors centre. it is built in a WW2 bunker underneath the memorial.
The centre was quite special. We learned a lot more that we didn't know about and hadn't learned in the past few days/weeks. One of the things I found quite moving/shocking, in one of the rooms they had painted around the top of the room the countries and numbers of people murdered. There were even thousands from countries like Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia, the largest number being from Poland
(2900000 - 3000000).
From there we headed to Museum Island. Upon arrival we were very grateful for out museum pass as we walked straight past the incredibly large queues and were ushered directly inside. We visited the Pergamon Museum and saw The Pergamon Alter of Zeus, the Babylonian gate of Ishtar and the Processional way of Babylon just to name a few things. They also saw stone tablets with writing on them. It made me think of Moses.
From the Pergamon we headed for our free boat cruise. It was very interesting seeing all the buildings from a different perspective and I found it quite enjoyable. From there we made a beeline for the Berliner Dom. The clouds were looking very ominous. By the time we climbed the 297 steps to the top of the cathedrals dome it was pouring down rain. It was only one way however so we all headed outside onto the viewing deck, taking shelter under the lip of the dome. We slowly made our way around enjoying the view of Berlin, despite the rain. 297 steps back down and it had almost stopped raining so we navigated the Public transport to the Jewish Museum Berlin. The zigzag shape of the museum resembles a shattered Star of David. The windowless Holocaust Tower was quite moving. It is a definite must see and I'm glad we made the epic journey out there.
I'm quite proud of us. We used the S-Bahn the U-Bahn (frequently), took a tram, a boat and did a lot of walking.
Now for our next adventure.....
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