GERMANY - DAY 6

After a rushed breakfast, it was hard to get going this morning, we headed off by bus to the TV Tower. There we entered the lift and travelled up the 286 metres (approximately) at 6 metres per second, so the trip took only 40 seconds to reach the viewing platform. There we experienced fantastic 360 degree views of Berlin. Angelique attached herself to Paul, our tour director, this morning and he kindly bought both girls a small 'I love Berlin' bear.

We then traveled past a variety of famous German landmarks. The first was Brandenburg Gate which separated East and West Berlin. Near this was the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his son off the balcony.

Next was the Reichstag Building. This building had a large glass dome on the top which you were able to go up. There was even a restaurant at the top. The big thing to remember about all these buildings is that most of them were destroyed either in the Second World War and have been rebuild or were destroyed by the communist party during the separation of Berlin.

After that we drove down the shopping and entertainment district of Kurfurstendamm where all the big name designers have shops. You need a lot of money to shop in these stores.

We continued on our tour and headed towards Potsdam. En route we stopped off at the Wannsee Villa, which was regularly used by the SS and Nazi Regime for their guests, and the infamous Conference in 1942 to plan the 'Final Solution.'

We then toured the Cecilenhof, which witnessed the signing of the treaty which changed the face of Post-War Europe, leaving East Germany and Eastern Europe to the Soviets. It was fascinating to be in the room where the three big men, Churchill, Truman and the Russian guy sat around the table negotiating what to do with Germany. You can tell from the local guides that even today, they have a lot of anger against the Russian Communists and Churchill for what happened to Germany.

We visited the Glienicke Bridge, the scene of the Cold War 'Spy Swaps' and heard interesting stories of intrigue and mystery. We got to see the spot in the middle of the bridge where the two spies would meet as they walked past each other in the dead of night.

Finally we visited the palace of Fredrick the Great. We heard how he didn't have a very good relationship with his father and requested that he not be buried beside him, he would rather be buried with his two favourite dogs at his palace. This did not happen though as his son thought that it was improper that the king be buried beside his dogs and went against his father's wishes and buried him beside his father. There is a happy ending to this story though, 200 years later something happened and their graves were disturbed and Fredrick the Great was finally laid to rest in the grounds of his palace with eleven of his dogs. People sometimes place potatoes on his grave as after a time of serious drought and famine, he sent for potatoes and when they arrived, he dug up his palace grounds and planted them for his people who were starving.

Tonight we went out to dinner at a local restaurant with the people from the tour. It was a great night of excellent food, delicious wine and great music. Afterwards we toured the city and saw several of the landmarks by night. We even spotted several 'ladies of the night'. They stood out among the crowd.