We started off our Eastern European tour in Berlin, Germany. Berlin is the most historic, yet artsy city I’ve ever been to.  I had recently traveled to Berlin on a conference for work, so I did a few more things than the rest of the group. We were in Berlin from 3-5 July which worked well for us, but there’s so much art and history in the city, you could easily spend an entire week there.

As I mentioned in the last blog post, we flew out of Manchester airport to Berlin Schönefeld Airport (SXF) at 1145 and landed at 1440. We took a train and a trolley to get to the hotel, and thankfully a person was at the train station letting everyone know to go on a different train than the one google told us to take. I’m not sure if some of the platforms were broken and that screwed up google, but she got us (and everyone else) on the right train. The trolley was from the center of town and we were only on it for about 15 minutes. A seven minute walk later and we were at the hotel, Hotel Transit Loft. It sounds like it was far, but it really wasn’t.  The hotel kind of reminded me of a hostel more than a hotel. We had our own room and bathroom and all, but the vibe like a hostel. Breakfast was included in our stay, which is always a plus, and it was full of teenagers and young adults. We dropped our stuff off in the room and headed out.

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Like I said, the hotel wasn’t too far from the center of town. We decide to walk to Fernsehturm (Berlin’s TV Tower), a little over a mile away, and it only took us 30 minutes to get there. We stopped at Momotaro Tavern, a Japanese burger restaurant that I ate at when I first went to Berlin. I got the chicken teriyaki and I couldn’t believe how amazing it was. I love chicken teriyaki and this one tasted ridiculously good. Actually, everyone’s dish tasted really good and there were no complaints at all.

After eating, we strolled around the center getting a closer look at the Fernsehturm (I actually went inside and to the top floor the first time I went), marveled at some statues and monuments, searched for souvenirs (we didn’t find any because the shops were closing by that time), and just enjoyed the 80 degree weather we don’t get too often in England. We ended up at a waffle shop, Waffel oder Becher, which is right next to the Berlin Dungeon where we ate dessert.  Surprisingly, it took us less time to get back to the Hotel, but that time it felt like forever because we were so tired!

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The 4^th of July was the day we started all of our festivities. After fighting off a school of kids and eating an included breakfast, we took an Uber to the Bradenburg Gate, the meeting point of the SANDEMANs NEW Europe  – Berlin free walking tour. If you ever go to a large popular city, inside or outside of Europe, make sure you check to see if there is a free walking tour.  The tour guides really only make money by you tipping, and you decide how much you want to tip. I check how much other tours of the city are and give around that price. They know their stuff and keep it very entertaining!

After leaving the Bradenburg Gate we discussed much of Berlin’s history. I’m not a big history person, but the tour guide was very knowledgeable and kept us all entertained. The first major stop on the tour was to the “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.”  It is a beautiful and mysterious piece in the middle of the city that imposes a place of remembrance and warning. You could easily and unintentionally get lost wandering through the 2711 concrete slabs. It is believed that this was purposely done to show you a person could be gone in the blink of an eye.  We walked some distance and stood on top of the filled in bunker where Hitler committed suicide. It’s crazy how it’s just right out in the open (well, I guess it is?), but you could walk or drive by, never knowing. The next big stop was to the Topography of Terror (or Kreuzberg..not entirely sure). We were only here for a few minutes because it was the stop before getting drinks and a snack, but essentially it’s an outdoor but sort of indoor history museum. We saw the exhibition trench at the site and saw what remained of the Berlin Wall. We enjoyed our well needed break because after walking and standing for two hours your legs are kind of dead. I got some currywurst and it was much better than the currywurst I had in Nuremberg at the Christmas market.

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After our snack, we walked over to Checkpoint Charlie in the former American sector. Two points about Checkpoint Charlie. 1. It’s really not that exciting. It’s a tiny area with a man on a sign who actually isn’t “Charlie.” Charlie just means checkpoint C. 2. It was super American in that area. There were tons of fast food joints that I haven’t seen or been to in quite some time! The most intriguing part about Checkpoint Charlie was that we had someone in our group actually use the gate to enter East Berlin when the wall was up. He informed us how much of a different time it was and how even though it was horrible for those living in Berlin, the guards were very casual towards the visitors.

Honestly, at this point in the tour I started to check out. It was really good and informative, but my brain started to hurt ha! We went through the Gendarmenmarkt, a beautiful square in the city. The final part of the tour was viewing the Book Burning Memorial at Bebelplatz. It’s a glass plate on the ground, but below it there is an underground room with empty bookshelves called “The Sunken Library.” According to visitberlin.de “The memorial shows what is missing…What was lost and burnt were the books by those who the Nazis ostracised and persecuted, who had to leave the country and whose stories were no longer allowed to be told. Symbolically, the underground bookshelves have space for around 20,000 books, as a reminder of the 20,000 books that went up in flames here on 10 May 1933 at the behest of the Nazis.”

After the tour, we graciously tipped the guide, and took off for the Berlin Dungeon, a reenactment of Berlin’s darkest history. I actually did this experience the first time I came to Berlin, but wanted everyone else to jump and be as spooked as I was. Unfortunately, the actors weren’t as into it as when I went the first time, but it was still entertaining. I found out that they have them in several cities, so I’m looking forward to trying them elsewhere. There’s one in York so that may have to be the next stop!

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We then started to walk to the East Berlin Gallery. We walked along the river for as long as we could, but were hungry, so we stopped to get some grub. We stopped at the same location I stopped at when I was on the conference. There were several little shops/bars and it was a very hipster-like environment. We paid too much for tacos, enjoyed some cheap beer, and set on to the gallery. Of course the street art was extremely beautiful. Each piece told its own story: some dark, others hopeful; some about love, pieces on politics. We stayed here for quite some time admiring all of the artwork. It’s amazing how many stories are told down this mile long walk. We ate dinner at this hole in the wall schnitzel place under a bridge next to a cool looking train station. It tasted good, and it was cheap so I was happy. Shortly after we went to a mall and were so tired we had to Uber home (would have been over an hour walk!).

The next day, we said our farewells to Berlin. We headed to the train before noon to grab some lunch for the ride. It’s a good thing we got there early because the train station was huge! We struggled finding out which was actually our platform, but we eventually made it. We decided to ride first class for each train ride because we’d be on them for so long. I thought that meant the company would check our tickets, it would be nice, quiet, and enjoyable but I was quickly put in place. We got on the train and some young adults were in our seats. I told them those were our seats and one of them questioned if we had all four of them… Why?. We sat down and they moved to the isle. I was super disappointed because there were so many of them just lying around in the first class isles. They made it hard to get to the bathroom, and one guy even complained that I should use a different bathroom because they had to keep moving for people. Dude, if you knew you were going to be on a 4.5 hour train, you should have booked a seat. It was annoying, but at least we had comfortable seats and air condition. We arrived in Prague just after 1745 where our next adventure began.