Ok, let's get to know each other better

Brandenburg Gate

The Holocaust Memorial

Clarence took a sneaky pregnant (26 weeks) pic of me while I was taking a photo for some people (I get asked to do this kind of thing all the time when travelling, must have a trustworthy looking face)

An old building/museum, I forget which one.

The TV Tower at Alexanderplatz. With one of the ugly birds I will tell you about below. Yuck.

When you don't have a beach you just make one, next to the river.

18th June - Today we caught the tram to Alexanderplatz. It's really ugly. I figured out another reason I prefer Paris too. There are no scary birds in Paris. just pigeons. Some of you may remember my massive fear of birds. The kind that swoop and are not intimidated by humans (crows, magpies, cockys, galahs, birds of prey etc). I have blogged about this in the past. There are birds in Berlin that are like some crazy cross of magpies and crows. Not a good start when we are getting to know each other Berlin! Then we caught the bus from there to the Brandenburg Gate. So that was our first historic monument I guess. Located right next to that is the hotel where Michael Jackson held Blanket out the window, there's some fun trivia for you!

We checked out the Holocaust Memorial after that. What happened in Berlin is so ugly. It gives me goosebumps and I feel so aware of it as we explore. It's really not long ago at all that so many people died and there was so much suffering. The city is a mish mash of old and new architecture. It's got that feeling that it has never really been restored properly after so much was destroyed in World War II. I guess I didn't expect that that would be obvious as I thought decades were long enough to rebuild. It's gives some idea of the scale of the war and the destruction that took place. And I think I expected that because Germany is the third biggest economy in the world that the capital would be well kept and polished. I wanted to visit Germany after experiencing the efficiency of Frankfurt airport last year. I like that the German people I have met like things done properly, in a timely and efficient manner. So I suppose I built my expectations around that and am surprised to see something so different from what I expected.

We ended up doing a bus tour of the city after that just to get our bearings and check out stuff that we might want to go back and visit properly later. Berlin is so vast. It was interesting to see the differences between east and west Berlin. It is amazing to see the sheer scope of what Hitler had planned for himself. The tour guide was a bit awkward though. She did the tour in English and German and you could tell she was cracking the same jokes in both... some went down like a lead balloon, lots of sexual innuendo and just not funny... we felt sorry for her, it really was awkward!

On a lighter note, there is supposed to be a good flea market in our area tomorrow! I am getting over my expectations for Berlin and just wanting to take it all in and enjoy.