The last three days ahve been very busy - We've been doing walking tours of Berlin. Thursday's tour was the free walking tour. Our touyr leader, Rob from Manchester, was quite wry and very knowledgeable. The tour 
, and proceeded through the general area to other points of interest, including where Hitler's Bunker was (it's buried and above it is a car park for some apartments). We also went to the Jewish Memorial 
, The Liuftwaffe headquarters (now the Tax Office!!) and eventually ended up near the museums. We also saw some of the older history relating to Frederick the great and some of the great buildings that were put up then. He was very knowledgeable and made the whole tour interesting and fun. The tour went for almost 4 hours, so we covered quite a bit.
After the tour we went tot he Pergamon Museum. This museum is amazing. It has most of the Alter of Zeus from Pergammon (in Turkey) as well as the Ishtar gate from Babylon. Reconstructed and re-built in the museum. We first went to the museum about 16 years ago, but after having visited Turkey a few years ago and going to Pergamon, this gave a lot more meaning to the Alter and the gate.Friday's Tour was a Third Reich tour, taken by - yes Rob. Again, it was another good tour and it went for four hours, so that was pretty good for 12 Euros. Although some of the places were the same, the information was different. This is how Rob kept the tour interesting. One of the places we visited was the location where the SS and Gestapo headquarters were. It is now the site for the Berlin Museum - the Topography of Terror.
This museum houses a record of the terror tactics used by the Nazi's.
The tour was very interesting, but I don't want to spend forever dealing with the Nazi's. Berlin has plenty of other great things. That evening we visited Berlin's KaDaWe, it's biggest department store.
It was very big, especially the delicatessen - which is all of level 5. You could get everything there to buy (eg salads, fish, sausage, cured meats etc) , or there was a cafe so you could eat it there.Everywhere you go there are Christmas markets. Given that it's nice and cold and dark by 4.30, they're a great way to spend an hour or two before doing something else.
After the tour we went tot he Pergamon Museum. This museum is amazing. It has most of the Alter of Zeus from Pergammon (in Turkey) as well as the Ishtar gate from Babylon. Reconstructed and re-built in the museum. We first went to the museum about 16 years ago, but after having visited Turkey a few years ago and going to Pergamon, this gave a lot more meaning to the Alter and the gate.Friday's Tour was a Third Reich tour, taken by - yes Rob. Again, it was another good tour and it went for four hours, so that was pretty good for 12 Euros. Although some of the places were the same, the information was different. This is how Rob kept the tour interesting. One of the places we visited was the location where the SS and Gestapo headquarters were. It is now the site for the Berlin Museum - the Topography of Terror.
This museum houses a record of the terror tactics used by the Nazi's.
The tour was very interesting, but I don't want to spend forever dealing with the Nazi's. Berlin has plenty of other great things. That evening we visited Berlin's KaDaWe, it's biggest department store.
It was very big, especially the delicatessen - which is all of level 5. You could get everything there to buy (eg salads, fish, sausage, cured meats etc) , or there was a cafe so you could eat it there.Everywhere you go there are Christmas markets. Given that it's nice and cold and dark by 4.30, they're a great way to spend an hour or two before doing something else.