Berlin

I got back from Berlin last night! It was a blast! So much to see, and I really only saw a snippet of what Berlin has to offer! From here to Berlin is about 650km and so quite a long drive. We left early in the morning and stopped in Nürnberg foot see the old city. The old town is built within city walls and has a castle overlooking the city. We went to the castle which was cool, it was a sunny day but there was a bit of a nippy wind around. I also saw Nürnberg's oldest house, from 1338, it was a bit lopsided haha! After looking at the castle we walked into the centre of town, saw the square where the famous Christmas markets take place and grabbed some Lebkuchen (gingerbread famous in Nürnberg) before continuing then finishing our trip to Berlin. It was getting dark when we got there so I didn't really know where we were in relation to the centre of town.
The next day we got up and headed into the centre of town, firstly to the Brandenburg gate. I really liked the gate, I'm not sure why, but I think it is a very cool piece of history. And to think that I have now been there! We then walked down Unter den Linden towards Museum island. On the way we saw a million euro Bugatti car which was pretty nice, however I didn't like the color scheme! (red and blue) once we got to the 'island' we went to the Berliner Dom, which is a pretty cool cathedral. It was very pretty and ornate. We lit candles in the church and also looked out across Berlin from the dome walkway. Feeling a little hungry we stopped for lunch before moving on to checkpoint Charlie. I first saw a bit of the wall here. The old US inner city border looks so different from its past. We also went to 'Topographie des Terrors', a museum about the Third Reich and the Nazis. It was quite interesting but just shocking. There is a big part of the wall here (70m) and its hard to imagine what like would've been like to live in confined East berlin. We went back to Kreuzberg where we were staying, had dinner and then went to bed!
The next day we went to Postdamer Platz, which is another area which has changed significantly since the wall came down. It is home to the modern part of town, a few small high rise buildings (Berlin is very flat) and also another section of the wall. We looked at the wall, which had chewing gum all over it, yuck! Then we took Europe's fastest lift (8.5m/s) to the top of a building to see another view over Berlin! Next stop was the Charlottenburg Palace, what a name! Haha a very cool palace with lavish interior including more porcelain decorations! The name, Charlotte is obviously important in Berlin, and so it should be hahah! Just kidding! For lunch I at my first Currywurst. It was pretty good, but so filling! After touring my castle we headed on to KaDeWe. This is a big department store renown in Berlin. It is like Harrods but so much more expensive, you really cannot buy anything unless your rolling in the dosh! So many designer brands. I bought some chocolate just to say I'd bought something haha! We went out for dinner this evening and ate the most delicious Italian!
Our final (half) day in Berlin started early, we needed to get to the Reichstag at 8.15! The Reichstag is the German Parliamentary buildings. We passed security and had a good tour of all the interior before we went to the dome thing at the top, here you can walk around it and see yet another view of Berlin. It was pretty cool but also pretty cold, the wind was the coldest it had been in Berlin! I went souvenir shopping before we headed back to the apartment to pack up. We left Berlin at around one maybe two? I dunno and we got home at just before ten having stopped at a Mexican restaurant on the way, the food was delicious there!
Only a couple of days then it's back to school!
Char xx