Day 21 Berlin

We checked out of our hotel this morning into one next door in preparation for Nicks arrival. The new hotel isn't nearly as nice but was our only choice for the 3 of us to share a room. Would rather spend on doing things than flash hotels. Not sure how we will cope with bunk beds though- thank goodness it's only for 2 nights and we'll be out most of the time.

Cam and I went for a wander while waiting for Nick. It was a gorgeous sunny day, almost too bright for good photos. Grabbed a coffee and some German pastries for Nick to try. His flight was 30 minutes late after sitting in a queue on the railway, but he was here soon after 11am. We dropped his backpack at the hotel & headed across the bridge towards the Reichstag.

We joined a queue to go up into the dome of the Reichstag. You have to show your passport or ID to then book a time slot to enter. We were planning to book for tomorrow morning as the next slot available was 4pm but just as we got  near the front of the queue they said a tour group had cancelled and we could go straight away if we liked....which we did. We got rushed into the building, through security and into a lift that took us to the glass dome. We then were given  an audio guide and we made our way at leisure to the top of the dome up a ramp that circled the dome.

The top of the dome is open to the air, designed to circulate air and rain is collected in a way that doesn't get into the building.

It was really cool, all free, and the views were fantastic! We followed the walkway back down to the lifts,& out to the street again. A definite must see and a great first look at Berlin for Nick. 

Just around the corner was the Brandenburg Gate...along with lots of tourists!

We took some photos and then headed to the holocaust memorial, which is a large field of dark grey slabs of stone of various heights, symbolising the 6 million Jews murdered in concentration camps.

We stopped for lunch at an outdoor cafe in the sun overlooking the memorial, and had various currywurst. Mine in a bun, Cam's was a western currywurst with potatoes, Nick's was an eastern currywurst with sauerkraut and fries.

We don't know the difference between East and west currywurst but the east sausage was more yellowy. All pretty good, but no better than what we bought on the street last night.

We then played hide and seek amongst the memorial slabs. People were climbing all over them so it didn't seem inappropriate. We walked to where there were some sections of the Berlin Wall.

Next we caught the train

to checkpoint Charlie...quick photo and moved on as seemed over touristy and lots of Americans having rides in horse and carts, etc.

From here we walked to the Jewish museum, which has very good reviews. It started off very abstract and arty, with things representing ideas...but got better as it went on. Cam was a bit bored in places but we all liked an artwork of thousands of metal faces that you could walk over and it made loud clunking sounds.

Sounds weird but it was really effective. By the time we finished here it was 6pm and very dark outside. Not great streetlights so we had to be careful walking to the train.

Went to our hotel and then back out on a couple of trains to the Turkish area. We had been told Berlin has very good Turkish food. We looked up a good one on the Internet but by the time we got there it was full & at 8pm we were hungry.

Instead we found a neighbourhood cheap Turkish place and shared a meat pide, spinach & feta pide, and some other egg, spinach & feta dish. We forgot to photograph until half eaten.

It was all pretty good and very cheap. We finished with baklava.

...which was incredible...nice and syrupy....best ever!

At our railway station at 10pm I bought Nick a new pair of grey leather boots....gotta take these opportunities when they come. They look very good quality and are warmly lined & have thick soles, so should last.

Back to our hotel and somehow I have ended up in a top bunk. I'm feeling itchy imagining bugs in my bed... But hopefully I am wrong!