Berlin Oct 4

Shocking night's sleep as I was awake at 3 am and never got back to sleep, but it gave me plenty of opportunity to get blog (or blob) as Princess A calls it, up to date and download photos. forecast is 17 and showers but there us hardly a cloud in the sky although the wind chill is quite cold. Had breakfast in dining room, but it wasn't nearly as nice as in our Prague hotel. Just as well I had my trusty jar of Vegemite with me! All on the coach for our 9 am start. Well, almost all on the coach as we had a 20 minute wait for one couple who apologised for keeping us waiting but no explanation as to why. They will only get away with that once as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, off we finally go for our Berlin sight seeing with Tim our guide for the day. Tim is probably in his late 30's to mid 40's and he is a total crack-up. He is an absolute gold mine of German knowledge, his English is excellent and throughout his commentary he delivers perfect one liners and sarcastic zingers that have us in fits of laughter. At times, roomie is laughing so much she misses the very next hilarious thing he says. I reckon he is the best local tour guide I've ever had (not in the biblical sense...). Anyway we drive past museums, Humboldt university, Charite hospital, and heaps more. Lots of grey buildings and Berlin is nothing like I expected, but when I think about it, I shouldn't be surprised as it was all but devastated after WWII so most it required building again from scratch. Our first stop is near Parliament House which is a huge imposing building. Tim's explanation of the German voting system has us in hysterics. Next stop is the small part of the Wall that has been preserved along with an original guard box and light post. It is very grim and I can't imagine how the easterners were able to live with that god-awful bloody wall keeping them caged in from the rest of Germany. Where else the Wall has been torn down and built over, if it is a footpath, then a double line of dark pavers have been laid to indicate that this us where the Wall ran along. In some areas, large steel rods have been 'planted' along the route. Where some of the Walls remain, a gallery of murals have been painted. I think this covers about 2 km. It is similar to the murals seen throughout Belfast but whereas no one would deface any of the Belfast murals, there are tags dotted along the German murals. No one will ever convince me that graffiti is art. It's bloody vandalism! Our next stop is the Brandenberg Gate. We are so lucky with the weather as we have lovely clear blue skies, but it is cool so I'm glad of my wind cheater. From the Gate we walk to the Holocaust memorial which proved to be a collection of grey cement slabs of different heights and lengths in row upon row. Doesn't sound much and isn't pretty, but still powerful. We are then in the east and go to Checkpoint Charlie which is commercialism at its best, but a good spot to stop for a cuppa. Next stop is Berliner Dom and Museumsinsel. We drive through a poorer suburb where red Mohawks and multiple piercings are the norm. Berlin certainly has it all. We head back to our hotel and bid a reluctant farewell to Tim. Time for a late lunch so we head up the road to a bakery cafe we had seen yesterday. Roomie and I then head to the little supermarket on our way back to the hotel to source tea bags, milk and a much needed bottle of Jamesons! Back in our room it is time to set up our Chinese laundry and get some hand washing out of the way. while roomie is doing her washing first I assume the role of bartender and ask if she would like a cup of tea. Answer 'no'. So would you like a scotch? Answer, 'Hell yes!'. Would you like water with it? Answer, 'Hell no!'. This is clearly my kind of roomie... Washing done and hung out around the bathroom. I thought we had it all sorted until I eventually sat on my bed only to look over at roomie's light over her bed, to see a pair of knickers hanging off the light shade supposedly to help dry them. Well, they certainly didnt do any thing to improve the ambience of our room!!! Time to meet the 3 musketeers in the lobby and we all then head off to the Irish pub where D, G and M get stuck into the Guinness, I enjoy the very large glasses of Chardy and roomie puts us all to shame and drinks ginger ale. Had a lovely bowl of chilli con carne for dinner. M ordered scampi and chips and was expecting 6 pieces of scampi as the menu indicated. But At one stage while eating his meal, stopped and counted that he had already eaten 3 pieces and there were still 6 in the basket. So we figured that must be an Irish version of 6! We've all had a great day and head back to the hotel I reckon M was probably ready to kick on, but I was beyond tired so went back to the room and fell into bed about 10 pm. Free day tomorrow so no specific plans at the stage. A sleep in will be good.