Berlin — Freaken Sweet

Bridge and I went to Berlin as our last European weekend away trip before we get back to NZ!

We found some brochures on the "yellow" guided walk and decided to do that, really glad we did.

We started off at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church which was bombed in World War 2 and left as it was as a reminder. The two rather average and odd looking grey buildings either side of it are actually churches!

We checked it out more after the walk, here are the pics we took then, inside the grey building that's closest in the pic above:

The other side of the church:

Checking out the museums on Museum Island:

Walking towards the Lustgarten, looking at Berliner Dom (Berlin Dome)

Altes Museum (Old Museum) to the left and Berliner Dom (Berlin Dome) to the right:

Checking out a war memorial:

Wandering through a bunch more cathedrals:

Bridget let me borrow her hat:

Chocolate version of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church:

Checkpoint Charlie:

And finally we got to see the Berlin Wall (or part of what's left of one of the walls). The Berlin Wall was actually two walls with a 100m "death strip" between them. It was erected to stop people from East Berlin going to West Berlin which was causing a Brain Drain. West Berlin was under American, British and French control.

A propaganda mural on the East side, showing how sweet it was with everyone having a job:

The Jewish Holocaust Memorial:

It's made up of 2,711 concrete slabs, one for each page of the Talmud (central text of mainstream Judaism):

Covers 4.7 acres and they're arranged in a grid pattern:

The Adlon Hotel, most well known not from the Queen or U2 staying there, but where Michael Jackson dangled his baby from:

Brandenburg Gate built in 1734, when a perimeter wall was constructed around the edge of the city:

Close-up of the Quadriga on top:

After the tour, Bridge and went for a wander of our own along the river:

Click next to check out one of the coolest miniature railways I've ever seen...