Berlin

Construction, traffic and smokers...
I have to say I am not enjoying Berlin as much as I have the other towns. Our hop on hop off bus was rather disappointing and trying to navigate around was really difficult.

The train station Banhauf, was pretty spectacular with trains moving over your head and stairs going every which way. 53 escalators, 13 glass lifts and I don't know how many levels of train tracks, 2 or 3. I was something quite modern and awesome.

One of the museums I really wanted to see - the music instrument museum was closed for their summer break. I was really bummed out not being able to see Bach's harpsichord and all the other instruments.

The Sony Centre was pretty cool and it did give me the opportunity to post yesterday's blog. We then headed for Checkpoint Charlie and found pieces of the Berlin Wall along the way. They've actually inlaid cobblestones and marked out where the wall was located so you can follow it if you so wish. There are billboards everywhere that tell you pieces of Berlin's history. They tell you about different buildings, monuments and sights and they do give you a fair bit of information (which we didn't get on the bus).

The atmosphere got to me somewhat and I started feeling like the buildings were closing in and twice as high as they actually were, the noise and people....I felt quite claustrophobic. We found somewhere to sit that was nestled behind some buildings so they helped to cut the noise down and there was a construction site on two sides so it was somewhat open. We sat and had some afternoon tea and to just chillax....that really helped.

Our last stop, once we figured out which way to go, was the memorial to the Jews. Over 2000 rectangular blocks create this very monumental space. Each block is a different height and some are on a slight lean. I actually doubt whether any two would be the same. There is no clear explanation of what the space represents but any interpretation has the potential to fit.

I'm not sure what we will do tomorrow. I could quite happily avoid another day in the city centre but we do need to make the most of our Berlin Pass....we haven't yet broken even. Perhaps some museums and see some of the things that were closed today because it was Monday.

Hope all are well xoxoxo