Leonardo Royal Berlin

... back to the hotel, where I couldn't fall asleep. Tom had no problem sleeping though. And selfishly, I was annoyed by that :)

So Saturday morning, we headed back to the airport for our flight to Berlin. We sat next to a very friendly gentleman who gave us tips on things to do and see while we are here. One of his suggestions was to eat a Currywurst, which, I think, it like a bratwurst that is cut lengthwise and topped with ketchup and curry. Wow. Let me run out get one ...

... very proud that I managed to limit my purchases to just 4 Niederegger marzipan items. I'm excited that the range has increased since last year, especially with the addition of walnut and rum marzipan balls. From KaDeWe it was about a 10 minute walk to the Bauhaus-Archiv, where Steve and I explored the world of the Bauhaus movement and architects who have designs on the whole world. The temporary exhibition was of photos from the movement's founders' study visit to the USA ...

... several souvenir shops, and I was tempted to get lots of tacky tourist stuff. Actually I think I'll succumb to temptation and do this tomorrow. I wasn't surprised to see "genuine" bits of the Berlin wall still for sale. What makes me suspicious is that every piece had coloured paint on it. How come there were no plain bits? Only the Western side was painted on, and not all of it. The interior and the eastern bits would have been plain grey. I refrained ...

<Brian's brief chronological list of "highlights" (and of whinging)> - Joined the free walking tour but decided to do the free bike riding tour instead as it took the same amount of time but covered 5 more places since they could cover more area. It seemed like a good idea but you don't get as orientated of the city as you are too busy watching the bike ahead of you and avoiding the local pedestrians and traffic. This covered ...

... up with more people from the group. The Riechstag is the German parliament building famous for its large glass dome and art-deco internal mirror design, which allows citizens to look down on their government during sessions. The views from the top are also amazing and allow for awesome pictures. Once finished with the typical toursity pictures we grabbed dinner near the Brandenburg gate and I got another currywurst, fries, and a glass of riesling for about 10 ...

... also learned the Nazi is an abbreviation for the National Socialist party. There is a zi at the end because Socialist is spelled Zio-something in german. Our tour concluded in the Museum sector of the city where five world famous museums are. It so happened that these museums were free that night after 6pm, so we went back to the hostel to drop off our stuff and grab some dinner, before returning. We met some people in our hostel room that were ...

... a cab is in sight, but he says he is not the cab we called and drives off. Grand, finally another one appears, 25 minutes before we have to be on the train, this one a posh Mercedes. The driver spoke excellent English and chatted us up as we plodded through traffic for eight miles and finally arrived at the train station with five minutes to spare. We made all of our connections and arrived at Gare du Nord very early the next morning. Hurrah.

With Budapest being the climax of our Eastern European trip, Rachel and I both agreed that we were ready for a more western feel. But at the same time, we were afraid that alot of what we liked about Eastern Europe would not be seen again on this trip. It was only fitting that our next destination would be Berlin, the city with so much history and so much to offer. And, as it turned out, an excellent mix of east and west. Before arriving, and with knowing only what our books ...

... for the prison rooms reminded me of that tv series that was shown on Hogan's Heroes! The average age of the guards was 20 years old as they wanted to influence the young minds of the guards with their political crusade. The gas chambers were hidden away from the grounds and metres and metres of human ash have been found where the crematorium's were. I didn't realise it would take me so long to walk back to the entrance of the camp and then to the train...so after a very ...

... in the same way, and the soaps are also stupid. I really like that they are dancing (Forro, Axe, Samba) and laughing a lot. You can not go out alone, because then people come to you and talk with you, but mostly they cannot speak English. So it is necessary that you speak Portuguese. And if you are a girl you have to be careful, because guys like to kiss you. Here it is like saying hello. What I really liked were that the ...