Berlin – The history lesson

Day 1 – Arrived in Berlin via Frankfurt on my first ICE (the proper one not the other flat faced one) and boy what a ride. They even hves LEDs on each seat which informed the passengers if a particular seat was reserved so that what happened to me at Goteborg would not happen here. The Germans were impressing me more and more J 

So we arrived at 130pm on time and then we were in a soup as to what to do. Went to burger king to find free wifi but instead we found wifi from Starbucks. Saw the location of a hostel which was on the S-Bahn route (free for euro rail pass holders) and then on our way to that hostel. Booked rooms for 2 days and boy the rooms were soooo nice. Fluffy pillows and good blankets. 14euros seemed to be a good deal. (Remember we are in europe) 

Having flicked off free maps from all possible locations we were prepared to go on our first outing of Berlin, and the first history lesson would come from the infamous Berlin Wall, we were conveniently put up at the beginning of the East Side Gallery and what a landmark. 

Such remarkable art in a city and each one better than the previous one, Berlin was going to be a wonderful trip. You could see tourists (Mostly Chinese, god knows how many of them we saw on the trip till now) everywhere and a whole bunch of school going kids wandering along the wall, taking pictures, staring at marvel at some of those master pieces.

 If that was not enough then we made our way walking all the way to Alexanderplatz. A happening place in berling, full of malls and eateries, and a good hang out place in the evening. The time we arrived we were astonished by the whole environment there, definitely helped by the guy playing the guitar. The star attraction of the area was the TV tower situated there, currently the second tallest structure in the EU, and a 10euro fees to take you all the way to the top to a restaurant from where am sure the night view would be SPECTACULAR. 

When i do go back to berlin i’ll do that for definitely. Hopefully on my next trip to mainland. 

Went back to the hostel early as even the shops in Berlin start closing by 8pm and by 1030pm we were tucked in and ready to sleep. Tmrw Sudeep would join us from Frankfurt and then we would go on a full day tour of Berlin.

Day 2 – Day 2 began with us going to the Warschawer strabe station to meet sudeep, who had come down from Frankfurt and then we all headed to the Reichstag (pronounce it properly man... ) The german parliament which was the centre of all that action during the last century and lo there was this long queue of people waiting to get in, and after an hr of waiting we were finally at the front.

 Security checks and then we were herded to the dome of the Reichstag which was open for public and was situated on top of the room where the parliamenterians used to sit. The idea being that if at any point of time they 4got who was the real boss in germany then only need to look up once and they would find the people of germany (these days it would be tourists of course J)

 It was an audio tour with all of us given some audio guide which was sensitive to your location on the ramp. So as soon as u came to a particular area the voice in the device started giving u some gyan. Very very clever. So people could go on at their own pace without having to operate or worry about the guide. 

The Reichstag was definitely a  good place to begin the tour and the guide was excellent with detailed explanation of events in the history of Berlin. There was also the free tour which according to the pamphlet that we got was scheduled to begin at 1pm. So we had enough time to go to Branderburger gate which also has a very unique history. At this point of time i am tempted to tell all the things which my guide told during the free tour because i doubt if things can be made more interesting than that. J 

So we met Ed at 1pm near the brandenberger gate from where four different groups proceeded at the same time. Some notable points during the whole tour –

1.       The godess at the Brandenberger gate looks towards the French embassy, the French were the ones who had stolen her in the first place (napoleon)

2.       The commercial bank there seems a very stale bank from the outside, coz according to the laws anything in that square cannot outshine the gate, however the inside is supposed to be breath taking. He also designed another structure in Prague or some other city.

3.       The hotel adlon there was the one which has a room which costs 15,000 € per night!!! And was the same building from which Michael Jackson threw the baby!!!

4.       
       The holocaust memorial cost around 6mn € and was quite controversial

5.       The square where Hitlers bunker was present and how the allies kept it a secret of his death

6.       German and French Cathedrals on the same square very similar to each other, though the German one was a few inches taller.

7.       Bank which featured in the movie run lola run.

8.       Island museums and some of the escape stories surrounding the berlin wall.

And by 5pm we were done with our tour and what a tour that was, and all that for free even better. Well they run on tips only basis so we also decided to chip in. This was followed by a tour of the new museum. A one hour marathon through the 3 floors of the museum. That was quick. 

This followed by a visit to the sony centre which housed only Hollywood flicks, so we decided against watching the movies. A trip to alexanderplatz where we had our dinner, and some more live music. Finally at 930 we made our way back to the room, a tiring day but then it was good fun. The last day in Berlin would be dedicated to schausenhasen, the concentration camp near berlin.