I had arranged a 14 hour private tour for 12 of us that met
on our roll call with Private Berlin Tours. The mini bus picked us up at the
port in Warnemunde and we had a driver and narrator for the 3 hour ride on the Autoban.
We
had an 8 hour tour in Berlin seeing the usual sites with a guide that met us at
Charlottenburg Palace plus we opted to add the Jewish Museum and Topography of
Terror. We were told there was nothing to see at the Topography of Terror as
even the signs had been removed describing what was there. We all had different
things we wished to add on to our regular tour here, but the tour company
suggested these 2 as the easiest to see in the time frame we had and for
diversity. I really wasn’t that impressed with the museum, though I’m sure you
could spend some time here if you really wanted to. In hindsight I would have
preferred climbing the Reichstag to the cupola or Checkpoint Charlie Museum or
touring the Palace, which the tour company really talked us out of. They said
the tours were only in German. Since we had a guide I’m not sure why they
couldn’t have interpreted for us.
We did enjoy the contrast that the guide in the vehicle with us was young and the guide we met in Berlin was older and they both felt differently about pre & post reunification. Of course, the young lady only knew current Germany, while the older guide had lived with both.
Charlottenburg Palace
Reichstag
Brandenburg Gate
hotel where Michael Jackson held his baby over the balcony
Holocaust Memorial
Greg taking a photo of me taking a photo
boat ride on the Spree River
people were out getting some sun (I thought it was cool out)
large Corona bottle on the taxi
sand castles on the beach
We had a nice lunch at Lowenbrau at the Sony center for traditional German food in a pub atmosphere where they do brew their own brand of beer.
Potsdam Square (Sony Center)
Pork in beer sauce, sauerkraut, potato dumplings
sausages and kraut
cardboard car (term mockingly refers to the cheaply-produced Trabant cars – an East German automobile made of inexpensive materials)
Checkpoint Charlie
Jewish Holocaust Museum
why doesn't the cat have a gas mask?
back in the van
Berlin Wall
what the wall looked like without “art”
bricks left around the city where the wall used to be
driving back to the port
We finished touring and prepared for the 3 hour ride back to the ship. The narrator worked very hard to find us a Currywurst stand that was still open. Unfortunately we were told we could not eat in the vehicle, so we wolfed it down in 5 minutes flat not to hold up the group. (though one other person took theirs back and was allowed to eat it in the vehicle.) Ah well, it was worth it.
Currywurst stop - YUM!
Back at the ship we dropped our things in the cabin and headed up to the German feast going on up on deck and listened to the German Brass Band play. Nice sail away.
sunset while at the German feast on deck
Even though it was a long day it was still too short to do Berlin justice, but I’m glad we went. We really managed to see a lot. I really enjoyed the 1
hour boat ride on the Spree. (despite a crane or a tree blocking many of the sites.) In hindsight, we personally may have preferred
taking the train in and doing a HOHO. However, with the logistics of possibly
missing the train to get back, this was good piece of mind for us. We enjoyed the ride both ways
just viewing the scenery and occasional wildlife along the way. We briefly saw
a fox jump on something and several deer. Of course their were some horses and
cattle etc.
Tomorrow is a much needed sea day!
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