Both our heads are pretty much overflowing with facts about Berlin's history. We really didn't know what to expect here. We knew it was going to be a pretty good city, but the history is un-escapable. We knew that the city had been divided after the second world war, but didn't realise that West Berlin was actually an island of the West smack bang in the middle of the East. We knew that the wall had gone up, and later come down, but had no idea of the circumstances surrounding either event. We knew that checkpoint Charlie was famous, but not why.

In order to get a feel for the city, we took a free walking tour (same company as in Munich) which focussed mainly on the former East Berlin. The walk started at the Brandenburg Gate, and took us through the memorial to the holocaust (more on that later).We passed the square where the first book burning took place, and the former royal chocolate makers where there were massive chocolate sculptures of famous sights in Berlin, and the Titanic - random. We saw the site of Hitler's bunker, now a car park where people bring their dogs to go to the toilet.

The Berliners weren't the most creative folk when it came to naming places. We saw 'the French Church', 'the German Church', 'the concert hall', and 'the museum'.Oh, and Berlin actually means 'swamp', which Berlin is built on and the smell of which occasionally wafts up to remind you.

On the museum island there was the former site of the royal palace - demolished by the communists. There was the remains of the people's palace - built by the communists - and now being demolished after the communists left.

There are a few sections of the Berlin wall left standing, not much to look at but what it represented for the people living in East Berlin was pretty imposing. The path that the wall followed has been marked with a double row of bricks in the ground.

After the tour, we took ourselves back to a number of the sights for a better look. The memorial to the holocaust is a huge space filled with concrete blocks of different sizes. It's easy to get lost when you're in the middle. There was also an information centre with heaps of information on the persecution of the Jews. This was pretty full on, like the concentration camp at Dachau, heaps of information about the atrocities. I left wondering how the world had let it all happen, and also understood now why so many people jumped at the chance to join the army to kick some Nazi butt.

One of the highlights of my time in Berlin was not at all German. We went to see the Simpsons Movie at a cinema showing movies in their original language. I didn't stop laughing the whole way through. It was raining, so there wasn't much else to do anyway. The cinema was at Potsdamer Platz, touted as the busiest intersection in Europe before WW2, the Division of the city put the border between East and West through the middle of the square, so zero traffic. With the wall gone, the area has been totally rebuilt and has some of the most interesting modern architecture in the city.

We also went back to Checkpoint Charlie for another look, and to read the information on display, which neatly summarised all of the events leading to the division of the city, the installation of the wall, and the ongoing significance of the checkpoint as a focal point of the cold war. Interesting stuff.

I never did history at school, and I'm kind of glad now. This is a much better way to learn.

Later, Paul.