Well we rugged up and headed out to join the crowd for NYE and made our way to the entry point to join the street party at Brandenburger Gate. We were surprised by the check they did for alcohol and glass. A cursory glance through bags, males were patted down, females were waved through. Could have smuggled anything in. Mum agreed to go on the ferris wheel with me but started to have second thoughts when she saw they spun. I told her they only spun if you made them so she braved it. We made sure when we got in, the other people didn't want to spin it either. It was a shame it was a bit misty, it had been misty rain all day, but lucky the rain part had stopped. As the ride started continuous, I noticed the staff would give the individual carts a spin as they passed the ground so I put my hand out and said no. The one time I didn't do it, you guessed it, one of the guys gave it a good spin and mum started screaming. I think her words were "YOU b******". Managed to calm her down and buy giving the middle column a good hold, it stopped it spinning. Not sure if I will get her up again on another one anytime soon.

After getting off we slowly made our way closer to the stage area, probably ended up about 150m - 200m away. Down each side of the road were stalls selling scarves & hats, food, alcohol and more alcohol. You could even buy spirits and cocktails. I was surprised we were so close at 7pm. I guess I have images of Sydney where people sleep out overnight. The reason we wanted to be close to the gate was we thought the fireworks got let off behind the gate and wanted to see the gate through the mist. We were near a big screen so could see the entertainment on that. Obviously the hosts spoke in German and some of the entertainment was in German but there was the occasional song in English, including an AC/DC cover band. Who would have thought. Another one that got a big cheer from the crowd was Tony Christie singing Amarillo. (I remember living in the UK when Peter Kay did a take off of this song and it was huge). And to top the entertainment off was David Hasselhoff. We had heard his name mentioned through the night, we didn't realise he was going to be there to sing. He is pretty big over here. From what he said, it sounds like he sang here 25years ago when the wall was torn down and there was a big party.

Well midnight arrived and we were looking over the gate...well we were a little surprised to see no fireworks, instead they got let off to the side, behind the trees...WHAT!! Kept expecting that eventually fireworks would be let off behind the gate but NO, that was it. What a let down. There was a laser show from the stage, which had been happening all night. Happy new year!!!

After the fireworks finished, David sang some more and mum and I made our way to one of the exits. Fireworks were still going off all over the city because you can buy them and set them off yourself. All over the ground were remains of fireworks & glass bottles. The sidewalks on the way to the gate was full of restaurants and shops selling alcohol in glass bottles (very smart).

Made our way to the tram and were surprised there was no queue. I guess people weren't heading our way or they were all still partying. The trains looked a little busier. Got off at our stop and had to be careful as someone was letting fireworks off on the corner..as you do.

Back to the hotel about 1.15am. The hotel had left some champagne in our room this morning so we tried that with some OJ but it wasn't very nice, it ended up down the sink I'm sorry to say. Not sure if it was the OJ or the champagne that was bad.

Sitting on the lounge in our room, we watched fireworks going off. We didn't need to go and stand in a crowd for 6hrs to see them. Hint for anyone coming to Berlin for NYE. If you want to see the fireworks over the gate, don't go into the street blocked off for the party. Stay in front of the gate and that is the view you see in all the pictures.

Slept in this morning to after 10.30am. We had considered doing a walking tour at 12.45pm this afternoon but gave up on that idea and decided to have a lazy day. The hotel put a brunch on this morning from 9.30am - 3pm with live jazz so we relaxed down there for 3.5hrs which was nice.

This afternoon we headed out and walked to where the Berlin Wall Memorial site was. This is along a section of the former border strip. Very funny feeling standing in the area that would have been between the 2 walls. In this area, a cemetery was removed for the Wall to be built. This section was famous because apartments that were on this street were in East Berlin but their windows looked out to West Berlin and lots of people jumped out of their windows to escape East Berlin. There is a famous image of a 70yr old lady trying to get out her window. Police inside her apartment had a hold of her to try and get her back, but people jumped up to get her free and on the ground, the fire brigade held a blanket for her to land in. Gives you shivers. There was a small centre which showed 2 videos on the building off the wall and life within the wall and then another Museum which had a tower overlooking the site along with boards and images of the history of the wall. Unfortunately it closed before we finished, hopefully we can get back.

Walked to the S-Bahn station and this is one of the stations known as a Ghost Station during the Wall years. Because the trains that ran from West Berlin, passed under East Berlin, they blocked off these stations to stop escapes. Inside the station, they had some more boards and pictures up, along with escape stories. Border guards also escaped while guarding the border.

Headed to Potsdamer Platz which was another ghost station. Here there were pictures of what the area looked like during the wall years. It was a wasteland, with nothing here. Now, there are these huge buildings, very modern. There was a winter market still open here and I had read they had an ice slide you could go down in a tube. Well, since I never got to do it at Seefeld due to lack of snow, I had my go here. Little bit of fun to bring in the New Year.