Day 24 - Berlin Tour

We awoke in Berlin with no plans but soon decided to take the Sandeman's walking tour.  This is the same tour company we used in London, Dublin and Amsterdam and my goal is to take their tour in every city where it's offered.

Berlin is an interesting city with lots of history.  Unfortunately wars have washed away most of the historical buildings and places.  During WWII it is estimated that 90% of the city was destroyed.  The remaining historical artifcats are the statues on most every building.  Hitler had them removed from their various locations and placed them in bunkers to ensure that they would survive the war.

The tour started at the Bradenburg Gate, which overlooks the American embassy and used to mark the enterance into Berlin  This was also the sight of Reagan's "Tear down this wall" speech.  

A few blocks away is the Holocaust Memorial.  It is intentionally vague to the point where the number of concrete pilars have no significance.

More inspiring than the look of the Holocaust Memorial is its location.  It sits just 2 blocks from Hitler's bunker.  The bunker has not been restored and is currently flooded with a parking lot on top of it.  It really shows how German's feel about Hitler's contribution to their country.


From Hitler's bunker it was a short walk to one of the three remaining sections of the Berlin wall.  In the ultimate act of irony a fence has been placed around the wall to protect it.

Humboldt University was the next stop on the tour.  The University, which has existed since 1810, has had many famous professors and alumni.  Albert Einstein was once a teacher while Karl Marx and the Brothers Grimm were once students.  In the foreground of the picture you can see the square where the Nazi's burned more than 20,000 books less than a month after Hitler took office. 

As you may have gathered by now this wasn't the happiest tour we have taken.  Luckily there were some less serious sights.  Below is Museum Island where pretty much every German museum is located.  This building is one of the few to survive the war. 

It wasn't all serious...

 After the tour we walked through an open-air market before eating a nice healthy dinner at McDonalds.  We were both still behind on sleep so we took it easy last night.

The current plan is to head to Prague tomorrow before continuing on to either Austria or Switzerland.

Scott