Berlin in Germany

Berlin in Germany

In my Europe trip, where I toured the whole of Central Europe, I visited Paris in France, Zurich in Switzerland, Milan in Italy, Rome in Italy, Bratislava in Slovakia (that was a short day trip though), Vienna in Austria, and Munich in Germany. Then I travelled to Berlin in Germany.

With the New Berlin Free Tour, I visited both Berlin and Potsdam, a city near Berlin. I will be talking about Potsdam in my next post, and definitely there will be beautiful pictures of palaces and great places in Potsdam here on my travel blog as well!

By the way, if you do go to Berlin, I would strongly recommend the New Berlin Tour (the free tour) for a great walking tour and for a great history lesson as you go around Berlin.

Here are the interesting and historical places that we visited while in Berlin during the free tour:

the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the new Holocaust Memorial that looks like a million square and rectangular stones, Hitler's bunker (or what remains of it, because it is nothing more than just an empty plot of grass), The Berlin Wall (or what is left of the Berlin Wall, actually), the former SS headquarters as well as the former Luftwaffe HQ, Checkpoint Charlie - without doubt one of the most interesting and visited places in the whole of Berlin on account of the Cold War, Gendarmenmarkt, the Book Burning Memorial, the Berlin-Humboldt Uni, the TV Tower, and Dunkin' Donuts, OK, that last one I added in because I like Dunkin' Donuts.

In addition, I went for the Berlin pub crawl, which was a very interesting and eye opening experience for me. I have been to British pubs and clubs, Singapore pubs and clubs, and the Berlin experience was rather special and well, eye opening, to the diversity in Berlin. Some was good clean fun, and yet other characters at the pub crawl, which took us to pubs and clubs all around Berlin, struck me as a little unsavoury and rather aggressive - but I shall save these stories for another post on my pub crawl experience in Germany! :)

I didn't get to go to Sachsenhausen concentration camp tour, because Potsdam and a booking/ reservation with the Bundestag (German parliament) for a visit ensured that I had no time, after the free tour.

OK, I must admit, it wasn't all about the Free Tour, Potsdam and the parliament - I wasted a lot of time because I spent a great deal of time in German CD shops, bookshops and comic shops. But what the heck, it was fun and it was a great experience of travelling and experiencing Germany, and in particular Berlin.

The people at the Bundestag were professional yet friendly, and I am really sorry that I turned up half and hour late - haha yep I was late, majorly :) I brought my little gang, which by this time was four people, myself, my friend Ai Lian, June Ang and Christine from Hongkong, and we all got lost travelling around Berlin and couldn't find, believe it or not, the correct entrance to the Bundestag. When we did find the entrance, we spent yet another 15 minutes before we could get in due to anti-terrorist checks and measures. All in all though, it was great and interesting to visit the Bundestag and I loved the experience and the history very much, as well as the great view of the city from the rooftop.

Pictures of Berlin and Potsdam, my perspectives of the Bundestag and of Potsdam, and much, much more to come!

Tour and see the world with me :)