Saturday was, necessarily, a day of recovery and Sunday gave us an opportunity to explore Berlin further. We tried a new place for breakfast – not that yesterday’s freshly made croissants weren’t appreciated just that we didn’t really want to wait half an hour to get the breakfast! We liked the new place and will return.

We had decided to do the ‘Hop on, Hop off’ bus tour as we find it a good way of getting round the main sites. It also helps to refine any further plans. The problem is that taking photos from a moving bus with reflective windows isn’t that easy. So not many photos from that trip but we did identify a couple of places we would return to for a better look.

An interesting if convoluted route that essentially bore little resemblance to that marked on the thoughtfully provided map 😉 but we were glad to have done it. Our planned interim exit point from the tour was Checkpoint Charlie.

The U.S. Army Checkpoint known as Charlie is on Friedrichstrasse at the junction with Zimmerstrasse and is way more affecting and interesting than we imagined.

I was way too engrossed by the story told on the excellent information boards to take a photo of them but I did get a couple of shots of where the wall was. We were amazed by how thin it seemed but, of course, the wall wasn’t the barrier – the guns were the barrier!

The last stretch of the bus tour took us to the Fernsehturm (Television Tower) near Alexanderplatz. No – we didn’t go up it (or even ask) but it was nice to be alongside it as opposed to seeing it from almost everywhere else we had been. Nearby was the Rotes Rathaus (Red Town Hall) – imposing building snd the St Marienkirche (St Mary’s Church).

By now it was getting really cold here in Berlin. Expected but nevertheless uncomfortable so we headed back to the hotel, had a drink & a rest and got ready for dinner. nothing too fancy tonight but we wanted something a little light than the normal elephantine portion sizes we have experience. We chose a tapas restaurant (part of a Melia hotel) just a couple of minutes up the road. It was really quite good and, more tho the point, exactly what we needed.

It is amazing how the human body can be almost regenerated by a good night’s sleep. That happened on our first night in Berlin (for me spectacularly, for Ally more slowly and much more low key). We had no plans at all for the day other than ‘find somewhere nice for breakfast’ and…… er that was it.

Given our location Unter den Linden is not too far away and we were intending a visit to the nearest Tourist Info Office which was at the Brandenburger Tor. We stopped for breakfast at a likely looking place and were delighted by getting freshly cooked croissants. OK it took a while longer than expected but it was very enjoyable.

So our random wander round Berlin began – the Tor was an obvious draw and is impressive. Just nearby is the quite staggering juxtaposition between the Akademie deer Künste (Art Academy) – all glass – and Frank Gehry’s DZ bank building.

The Tourist Information chap (Sven) was very helpful and we concluded the business we had – which was public transport cards for our stay.

The Brandenburger Tor is a magnificent thing and it was starting to get busy. With the random thing in mind it seemed reasonable to head towards the Riechstag which is close by – more magnificent monumental Berlin of course and close to a waterside stretch that rang many bells (the Guggenheim area in Bilbao mainly). Again more people about and queues forming for the entry to the various attractions.

Despite not having done much we were both flagging a little and craved some open space – luckily the Tiergarten is adjacent so we had a lovely wander around there. So very quiet and lots of statues – very relaxing. One statue caught my eye – in the middle of a (closed) main road. It is called Der Rufer which means “the caller’ though my vocabulary memory said shout rather than call.

Given our location we decided to seek out the Berliner Philharmonie where we have tickets for a performance by Jordi Savall and his Concert de Nations (Mozart’s Requiem) for Monday night. A striking building inside & out!

One thing to any about this (it is becoming a regular thing) was how we were pulled up sharply and staggered by the reference to history. In this case an excellent display about the extermination and, essentially, the development of the gas for the chambers. I had come across the name Aktion TG4 in my reading in the past but never knew out was the a reference to the hospital where these horrors unfolded. (TiergartenStrasse 4) was the address.

After all this we utilised our public transport card to return to the hotel for a glass of wine and a short rest. Feeling refreshed we went out to pay a visit to the Dussmann shop – or KulturKaufhaus as it is known. Quite the biggest shop devoted to books, music in various formats and much else besides. It was packed with people browsing, lounging, buying and generally having a great time. We were entranced and even made a purchase (a CD box set of Arvo Pärt). We will return and I will get a photo to two to show the scale of it.

By now we were thinking about food and tried a local tapas place but they don’t take bookings on Saturday nights and were doubtful of us getting a table. So we had a drink there – well the cocktail of the month is Negroni so I couldn’t not – and booked for Sunday.

Dinner on Saturday was taken at ‘Einstein Unter den Linden’ an inspired choice which we throughly enjoyed.

That covers our first full day – more to come as I organise my thoughts and photos from Sunday.

We have, in the past, promised ourselves a trip to Berlin but somehow never quite got round to it. What follows will be a short roundup of both the journey and our impressions.

Having decided to use up one of our current Interrail passes to make the journey it was a relatively simple exercise to pull together the planning and preparation. TBH it should be given we are getting to be old hands at this lark.

No photos from day 1 of our travels – Drem to Edinburgh to London to Paris took around 10 hours elapsed and we dined and stayed at Le Robinet d’Or near Gare du Nord just off the Canal St Martin. A brilliant little family run business that, despite being only 10 minutes walk, is almost on a different plane (or planet even!)

Day 2 of the journey was the more challenging just in terms of how long we spent on trains – around 9 hours with an hour waiting for our connection in Köln. Well that wait wasn’t quite as calm as it sounds – being the idiot I can sometimes be I actually left my backpack on the Paris-Köln train. Having dashed back to the platform the train was all locked up so pains really started to set in, I happened to spot two of the crew and asked in my best German if they could help. As I did so the young lady said “is it this one?” Much relief of course and I was immensely grateful.

The journey from Köln to Berlin was mostly accompanied by heavy rain and was otherwise notable only for the 5 hour duration. We had a quick (unmemorable) meal and an early night of course.

More coming soon but the leading photo of the Tor is a sort of pivot into the first full (if lazy) day.