Today we got up and ate breakfast at the hostel and then headed out to the free walking tour. Today it was a really nice day out, the problem was all I had clothes for was cooler weather so I was quite warm most of the day. The tour started by the Brandenburg Gate which was one of the original entrances to the city, it was finished in 1791 and is the only one of the original gates to still stand today.
We started the tour out with our 10 minute history lesson; most of it was from the last 100 years with both world wars. As we walked we were shown how Berlin has placed a line around the city to where the original wall stood.
Then the first thing that we were shown was the new Holocaust Memorial, it was very unique and hard to miss. I hope to have pictures up to show you what it looked like. After that we were shown where Hitler’s bunker was, it is now been filled in so no one could try to use it for anything. Then we went to what is left of the Berlin Wall, today there is a fence around what is left of the wall so people don’t go up to it and try to break a peace off and bring it home as a souvenir. In gift shops in the city you can buy a piece of the Berlin was but it is said that there is enough souvenir pieces to rebuild the entire wall twice, so how real most of them are, who knows.
After the wall we went to Check Point Charlie, it was the main checkpoint of the original checkpoints used to allow people to go between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. It was where civilians and Allied forces were supposed to use. After Checkpoint Charlie, we got lunch and then went on to walking through different squares where different thing happened. One of those was where the famous Jewish book burning took place that started what would become Hitler’s attempt to wipe out the Jewish people or at least part of what helped it along. We ended our tour on Museum Island; it is an island that has 5 or 6 museums on it in the heart of Berlin.
One thing that was different in Berlin and is kind of famous from what it sounds is the Ampelmann. The Ampelmann is lit up cross walk signals. They were different than what we are use to so it was cool. It was also the subject of a lot of souvenirs; they had t-shirts, and coffee mugs, and dish sponges and candy, and clocks and lamps and some of the most interesting things that you could think of. Again I hope to get pictures up of all of this.
After the tour, we walked to where the government legislation is held and where going to go to the top of the building to see the view but there was a huge line and I was not feeling well. So we decided to head back toward the hostel, on our way we got some souvenirs and ice cream. When we got back to the hostel, we relaxed for a while and freshened up and then waited for Tina to meet up with us.
Tina got there and we headed out to go get something to eat. She showed us around the some parts of the city that we had not seen yet. She brought us to the more down town area that was very new and modern and you could tell that area much have been destroyed during the war because there was nothing there except new building. We went out to eat and caught up and then she shows us some more places. It was nice to be able to see some stuff with her and be able to see her where she lives. She then brought us back to our hostel so we could crash for the night and she went home.
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