Berlin May 10

Famous Brandenburg Gate with the Goddess of Liberty

Before we left home, we heard that there was a German Rail Strike and we wondered if we would be able to use our EuroRail passes to get from Amsterdam to Berlin  It took a few advance trips to the train station ticket office to learn that there would be just a few trains running.  We were then booked to Cologne (a longer slower train) and all seemed to be going well.  Suddenly, a few stops before Cologne there was an announcement that we would have to disembark quickly and grab a local train to Dusseldorf where we could then connect to Berlin!  We quickly gathered our bags and scurried down 2 flights of stairs barely making the train.  In Dusseldorf we found our train and took the last 2 seats remaining (they were supposed to be reserved).  At any rate, we finally arrived in Berlin a few hours late and no worse for the wear.



Old American Checkpoint Charlie Sign

The next day dawned and we chose a "Hop on - Hop off" bus tour so that we could become familiar with this lovely city.  There is lots of construction going on. Of course, it was rebuilt after WWII - not to mention after The Wall came down in 1989, the East was reunified into the city. The Brandenburg Gate was designed as an Arch of Peace and is the former border of East and West.  While there, we happened upon an Israeli concert.  I spoke to one of the young men in the crowd. He told me that he and his friends became aware that their ancestors worked for the Gestapo.  To make amends, they were supporting and helping with this concert. 

Check out some of the other pics below.




Reichstag, German Parliament Building



An interesting bike!

 


Old and new buildings along Spree Riverfront

Little Green Man Traffic Sign



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