Well like I said I didn’t think I would have been able to update after our trip to Berlin. Boy was I right. The ship was late to dock in Warnermünde and therefore we were late to leave for Berlin. We took a 3 hour train ride to Berlin and arrived @ 1PM. They dropped us off at the Berlin Hilton (nice place) and from there we were on our own to explore the city.
The first place I wanted to go was Checkpoint Charlie. If you know anything about Berlin you are quite familiar with this term. For those who aren’t, this is the place where from 1961 to 1989 you had to travel through to get from West Berlin to East Berlin or vice versa. West Berlin was the Democratic side and had guards from the US, UK, and France (at times) guarding it. The Eastern side was guarded by the Soviets. In 1961, a wall was put up to keep the East and West Berliners apart. Many people tried to escape to the West side but the wall and the barbed wire along with the guards and dogs pretty much prevented this. Families were torn apart when the wall was put up since one part of the family may have lived across the street from the other. Once the wall was up one part of the family was in West Berlin and the other was in East Berlin. They have Checkpoint Charlie set up like it was until 1989 and you can have your picture taken with a “soldier” from the US and one from USSR standing beside you. Of course, it cost money - 1€ (euro)or $2. Mom took the picture for me. There is also part of the wall they have left standing and I took pictures of it as well. Pretty cool!
After lunch, we went to a museum that housed some Rembrandt paintings one of which was the Man in the Golden helmet. I am sure quite a few of you have seen this painting but if not Google it and you will see what I saw. After this we decided to see the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. What amazing buildings these both are to see. Such a rich history in Berlin and unfortunately 6 hours was not enough time to see everything there was to see. Would love to go back some day and see much more. We boarded another train for the ride back to the ship. We didn’t get back until 11:15PM and the ship sailed at 11:59. It was a long day but so worth all of the time. I kept a pedometer on me to see just how much we walked there. It ended up being 3.75 miles. Wow!
Thursday is another day at sea as we travel to Stockholm. Then we move on to Helsinki, St. Petersburg (2 days), and then Tallinn. It is going to be crazy for the next 5 days. We are at sea after Tallinn enroute to Copenhagen.
Auf Wiedersehen (Good bye in German) for now.
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