After a hellish nights sleep on a 12 hour night train (we nearly ended up in Russia) I am typing this blog barely able to stay awake!!

The train was fine - just very cramped and noisy and uncomfortable! Plus after having a nightmare with reservation we had to pay double the money so we were glad to arrive in Berlin! (even if it was at 4am)

The first thing we noticed about Berlin as we exited the platform was - the smell of beer! Walking from the station people were sat outside their workplaces and all night clubs (there is many) at 5.00am looking like they were just beginning the night! Berlin either has no sense of time or is a city of alcoholics! The first of our three days we spent from 4am until 8pm roaming around Berlin (on foot of course).

After being in Amsterdam we feel dwarfed by Berlin! MASSIVE and seriously impressive architecture that defines Berlin as a city of pride and masculinity! We covered the centre of Berlin, the river, alexanderplatz, museum island and Frederikshein volkspark! Tiring but worth every minute!

We lay in the sun on the grass in true Berliner style and spoke to some locals about Amsterdam and Munich and of course their hometown Berlin! It's a city of wealth in terms of history, the only downside so far has been the tasteless graffiti (most is quite impressive and artistic but others, not) and the amount of broken glass and bottles from beer and wine!! Shocking!

The sites in Berlin are incredible and have so much depth in terms of history - there is only so much you can get out off information boards in German and so we are going on a 4 hour guided tour tomorrow! Time for a long nights sleep in our comfortable hostel which we LOVE! Friendly and so chilled out! Just what we need!

The free guided tour was fantastic! Our guide was from Ashton non the less! He was so informative made the trip to Berlin so worth it.

We started at Brandenburg gate in Parisian square. The naming of the square is apparently a German joke - the statue on top is of a woman riding a horse, this is Irene queen of peace. Napoleon took Irene whilst ransacking Berlin of anything of value. She was found in the basement of the louvre by some Germans at a later date who returned her to the top of Brandenburg gate over Parisian square, they changed her name from Irene to Victoria, queen of victory and so this square represents the German having victory over the French! Such an interesting story. We moved onto view original nazi art ordered to be created by hitler himself then we visited the memorial to the murdered Jews which was very emotive. The highlight of the tour was seeing the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin wall on upper east side and the death strip. The information he gave us was haunting yet so fascinating. Checkpoint Charlie was interesting in theory however the area to be honest was a tourist trap, the hut and the soilders are fake and purely there to make money but again interesting history. Our guide was so clever! He showed us the side of history to Berlin which is sadly ignored - the story of Frederick II and his passion for his people! How he converted tiergarten and the concert hall into public areas so all could enjoy and not just aristocrats. Furthermore he encouraged other people to elope to berlin, he explained religion was of no concern to him and built a French and catholic cathedral to show this - this tolerance is revolutionary of a leader at this time period. In England we were still burning witches! He was half warrior half nurturer - he lead his men into battle himself yet played lullabies on his flute to help them sleep at night. An absolutely extraordinary leader - his portrait was of him teaching peasants to plant and grow potatoes - can you imagine Henry the VIII losing his jewels and robes to have his picture done in this 'common' manner?
We looked at the universities and finally finished on museum island!

The evening was spent in the tiergartens relaxing and our final day we spent looking at the reichstag, the memorial church and finally another relaxing afternoon in the tiergartens!

We are sad to be leaving berlin! But excited to see Prague tomorrow xxxxx