Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2019 Europe w/Wayment’s - Day 05

April 2, 2019

Berlin, Berlin, Berlin...we did Berlin today. We actually slept in a bit today....well I didn’t. I could not sleep well. Neck and hip really bothered me. And Denise being one bed over (twin beds)...that did not help either. I think we headed out to the Berlin Central Train station which was where we hoped to get some breakfast and then find the Hop On\Off bus. We found both. The train station is actually a mall with over 300 very nice stores and eateries in it. Everything we needed including a super market. Naturally breakfast was full of carbs from pastries and juices consumed. All very good. Upon finishing our breakfast, we went out the opposite way we came in, out into a square where we saw the bus. I hailed it down...which was kind of odd as it wasn’t its normal stopping point. But the driver was real nice. We bought our tickets and off we went. We took pictures at and visited a ton of places. I thought it was fun and enlightening. The places we saw were:

Siegessaule... a very tall monument that
represented something in the middle of a round.
Brandenburg Gate
The Jewish Memorial
Maurreste (& Topography of Terror)...this had a wall remnant and was also the location of where the Nazi SS headquarters once existed. They had a free museum that we went into.
East Side Gallery...a mile long portion of the wall where graffiti like artists have done some really nice artwork. It also sits on the river where we were able to get some nice pictures and eat some Berlin ‘Currywurst’....a sausage with a red sauce peppered with curry. We also got some French fries. Pretty tasty.
Bellevue Castle...this is the White House for the German Chancellor.
AlexanderPlatz...a very popular spot where the ‘world clock’ and the iconic TV\Radio Tower are found. We thought we lost the girls here as they went into a McDonalds to use the bathroom and were gone forever. Turns out they had to go to a whole different place and there they had to pay...yes, we are back in the EU...but Ilene got shut out as she could not come up with the right coins. So pounds and dollars were not accepted! :-). Anyway, Denise thought Ilene was with her, in the next stall. Denise found the flushing of the toilets unique and tried to get Ilene to validate it. But Ilene was not in the next stall. The lady next to probably wondered if she was a crazy woman!!!
Checkpoint Charlie...we paid 3 euros to have our photos snapped with the ‘fake’ American soldiers there. We joked with them and had a great time. Fun little stop there. But tons of history occurred on this site.
We went by lots more things in East and West Berlin. Kind of fun to take it all in.

We ended up back at the Central Rail station to buy groceries and get some dinner. We found a food court nearby where they food was of a great variety. I think we each had something different.

We are now back at the apartment and it is about 7 PM. We all want to go to bed...pretty tired. Tomorrow, we will try to pick up a museum or something and then take the train out to the Concentration Camp close to Berlin. It should be another fun day here before we head out to Bremen.

Pictures:

Our bedroom...