When we got up, the next morning, the kids had a great breakfast, and headed out for a free walking tour. In Berlin, the family metro pass for the entire day was 15 Euros; very reasonable, as far as we were concerned. We took 2 trains and came out at the Brandenburg Gate, where we met a wonderful tour guide. She was half Japanese, half Swedish; had modelled in Paris; fell in love with a German rock star; moved to Berlin; fell out of love with the rock star, but into love with Berlin. She now works for Sandeman's New Europe Tours (http://www.neweuropetours.eu/). The tour was informative, funny, vibrant, and the best one to date! And it's free, except for what you decide to tip. No, we do not work for them, but we would definitely recommend them to anyone. We plan to take their tour in Munich when we're there. Anyway, to shorten it up, here is what we saw:

• Pariser Platz
• The Brandenburg Gate
• The Reichstag
• The new Holocaust Memorial
• Hitler's Bunker
• Luftwaffe HQ
• The 17th June Memorial
• The Berlin Wall
• The Former SS Headquarters
• Checkpoint Charlie
• The Former Red Light District
• Gendarmenmarkt
• Bebelplatz
• The Book Burning Memorial
• The Old Royal Boulevard
• Neue Wache
• The TV Tower
• Museum Island

Each place had a story (the great thing about tours) and we wished we had time to write them all down.

After our brilliant tour, we hit Breitscheidplatz Platz, which Barry had enjoyed visiting 20+ years previously (he had also gone through Checkpoint Charlie and visited East Berlin before the wall fell, so this was a very special trip for him). After some great photo ops of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedactniskirche (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church), bombed in WWII and left as a reminder of the destruction of war, we sat and enjoyed a beer while the kids enjoyed an unbelievably huge ice cream sundae. We then wandered past the zoo, and then headed back to the hostel for another huge supper, card game, and quick check on the blog.