Germany and Beyond: Berlin

We caught the InterCityExpress train to Nuremburg, then changed to the slightly slower InterCity train for the rest of the journey to Berlin via Leipzig. After arriving at Berlin Hauptbahnhof it took us all of about 5 minutes to get our hands on a currywurst and chips which is a very typical Berlin streetfood. Our airbnb apartment was situated on the border of Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg which is a hip area in the old East Berlin. There are loads of cafes, restaurants and interesting shops in the area. Since we eat German food all the time at home we decided to mix it up and get Vietnamese for dinner which was really good and really cheap.

Church behind our apartment

Our apartment was in the grey building there past the hipsters

Next morning we headed off to a huge flea market which had tons of furniture, antiques, East German memorabilia, and all manner of crap. (Un?)Luckily we were travelling light because otherwise we would have come home with truckloads of awesome stuff. The market is in the old "dead zone" between East and West Berlin and there is a section of the wall still standing there. We then followed the path of the wall along Bernauer Strasse to various memorial sites. They have locations marked on the ground where escape tunnels were located and where escapees were shot.

Flea Market

Mauer Park

Berlin Wall memorial

Preserved section showing the "dead zone"

We pressed on past the Reichstag and after a quick currywurst overlooking the Brandenburg Gate to re-energise we went to the Jewish Memorial. It is a bunch of concrete blocks set at different heights which forms a sort of maze, with an information centre underneath.

Do what the Japanese tourists do!

Delicious and nutritious

Jewish memorial

Lucky timing

Hitler's bunker is just around the corner, although it's just a carpark now with a sign out the front so there isn't much to see. Through Potsdamer Platz and on to Checkpoint Charlie which was swarming with tourists and Gypsies trying to extract money from them.

Potsdamer Platz

Checkpoint Charlie

The next day we headed east to Alexanderplatz and checked out the excellent DDR museum which has exhibits and paraphernalia from the communist East Germany era. This side of town still has a very communist era feel with many apartment buildings from the 50's and 60's still in great condition looking as drab as ever.

Kate in a Trabant (plastic East German "people's car")

Recreated apartment from East Germany complete with old people!

Diorama of a nude beach for no apparent reason

Classic Communist era architecture on Karl Marx Allee

The East Side Gallery is a preserved section of the wall which has many graffiti artists' work on display. All over Berlin there is some great graffiti on the sides of buildings and old sections of wall.