DAY 25: we started off our day in Berlin with a Third Reicht walking tour with our local guide, Carlos at 9am. Carlos was half German, half Spanish who had a great sense of humour, in a geeky and quirky way. He explained the entire history of the reasons abd causes of the uprising of the Third Reicht (Adolf Hitler's Nationalist Socialist regime during the period 1933 to 1945), visiting key historic sites such as:

Berlin

1) Reichstag: National Parliament House. Emperor Wilhelm 2nd was the cause of WWI. Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 January 30 by instilling propaganda that a communist Holland man burned the Reichstag and that Berlin was under siege, due to internal threats from
the communists.

2) Brandenburg Gate: key symbol of Berlin, located in Pariser Platz (Paris Plaza), named due to the conquering of France during WW2 and was known as the Death Strip between 1961 to 1989 when Berlin was divided between east and west.

3) Holocaust Memorial: to commemorate the 6 million European Jews killed by the German National Socialist party as part of their "racial cleansing" regime. There are 2,711 uneven stones (no particular reason why this number) laid on uneven ground . It is located at the site of the death strip, East Berlin. There are several interpretations for the maze-like layout and design of the Jewish Monument...representing Disorientation (experienced by the Jews during the Holocaust), Deportation....

4) Adolf Hitler's bunker: built 5m deep underground, where Hitler spent the last few weeks of his life when The Red Army was overpowering the Nazis in April 1945. Hitler's health significantly deteriorated in these last few weeks, and Hitler and his mistress Eva Brown committed suicide in April 1945. Hitler ordered his body to be destroyed- by dousing it in gasoline and buried in a shallow grave, allowing forensics to quickly prove his death.

5) Potsdamer Platz: first traffic lights in Germany was installed here in 1924. It was the most busy traffic thoroughfare back in the day. Now the Berlin CBD.

6) Square of 17 June 1953: House of Ministries (old Government house of East Germany). East Germans protested on 16 June 1953 against working 10% harder for no material reward. Protested for democratic reform, national strike occurred on 17 June 1953. 3 million East Germans protested on streets. 17 June 1953 was the first uprising of it's kind in the Eastern block.

7) Last remaining piece of Berlin Wall, in the centre of Berlin. One of the most famous successful escape attempts- a couple and their 9 year old son abseiled across this section of the Berlin Wall (which was next to the East German old government building) to West Germany using steel cords and homemade harnesses.

8) Typography of Terror: memorial of ALL victims of the National Socialist Party Nazi regime. It was also the HQ of Gestapo and The Schutzstaf ("SS"), the key parties who executed the regime
of exterminating Jews, mentally and physically disabled, gypsies (Romanis), homosexuals... in the concentration and extermination camps.

9) Trabi World: cars made pretty much of plastic, used in East Germany during 1950s to 1980s.

10) Fall of Berlin Wall: 2 May 1989: Hungary opened their gates to Austria, symbol of fall of the iron curtain, allowing East Germans to 'holiday' to Hungary and hop over to the 'capitalist West' to Austria.
9 November 1989: freely cross border to West Germany, though not representing the Unification of Germany though, until the Soviet Union, USA, France and England were convinced that West and East Germany could be unified and become 1 country again in harmony (occurred in 1991).

11) Checkpoint Charlie: this checkpoint was names as such as 'Charlie' is the 3rd army alphabet in military terms (and this was the third checkpoint setup). This was the checkpoint for west allies to cross from West to East Germany and for foreigners with a special permit to cross to East Germany. 1963- an Austrian man smuggled his East German fiancé to cross to West Germany. Got a very low sportscar, and made a clean escape to West Germany by speeding under the barriers of Checkpoint Charlie.

After our Third Reicht tour ended at noon, we headed for the Guggenheim, .....though it was CLOSED! again! (Luke didnt know and didnt tell us of course). Haha shouldn't be surprising as everything has been closed or not gone smoothly on this trip anyway :) quite funny actually!

The we made our way to the Deutsche (German) History Museum that showcased the entire history of Deutschland from the beginning of Christ to current day. The sections from the 1920s to 1950s were particularly intriguing, seeing actual posters, uniforms, documents and artifacts from Hitler's nationalist socialist Nazi regime and the terror and pain inflicted on the entire international community during this time. Some of the images were quite horrific and moving actually.
Me and James spent 3 hours there all up, though Anjuli and Andie left to go shopping halfway through.

Me and James wandered around to Alexanderplatz and the "toothpick" TV Tower (he went up to the viewing platform).

Then back to the hostel for some Vietnamese for dinner and then met up for the pub-crawl tour beginning at 8:30pm! 4 pubs, 4 German beers, 2 mixers and 4 shots later... We got back to the hostel at 1:30am. Ugh! 7:30am departure tomorrow!!