To round out our perspective on Berlin's history, we paid a visit to the Berlin-Hohenschonhausen Memorial site. The memorial is on the grounds of a prison that was first used by the Soviets to persecute Nazis after WWII, before becoming a secret prison used by the Stasi, the State Security Service of East Germany. The Stasi were concerned with quashing all political dissent within the GDR, which manifested itself in a nightmarish surveillance state. The prison, w...

Today we joined a walking tour with Terry Brewer, the founder of Brewer's Walking Tours and a human storehouse of everything Berlin related. To describe Terry is a daunting task, but I would say that he's a pedantic stickler with an amazing capacity for historical detail. So as you can imagine, the tour was a double-edged sword: rich in history, but at the price of enduring the vagaries of mind of one who was hell-bent on dispensing every last bit of it. Regardl...

Our first day of exploring Berlin was really an eye opening experience. The city is just brimming with things to see and do, and the entire city seems full of good energy. Today we did our favourite day one activity: a walk through the city to get our bearings and a feel for the surroundings. We saw the unmistakeable TV Tower from the East Berlin era, which was considered an achievement in the DDR days but is actually quite a hulking eyesore. We also passed throu...

We said a rainy goodbye to the tremendous Czech hospitality this morning as we hopped on a bus and made tracks for Berlin. On arrival at our hostel in East Berlin, we were informed that Wednesday was cooking night and that we were welcome to join the communal feast (those communist tendencies stubbornly persevere). Anyone who was interested could join in the preparation, so we rolled up our sleeves and took directions from Sophia, our Grecian cook. The meal was f...

At Louise's insistence we ventured to the Staropramen Brewery today, where we learned a little bit about the history behind Prague's most famous beer. While the tour is brand new and very impressive from a technological standpoint, it is a bit impersonal because it is an unguided tour with voiceovers leading you from one exhibit to the next. The tour's most redeeming quality was undoubtedly Mikael, our gregarious bartender who not only helped us navigate the Star...