international jet-setter

 

Well, my green credentials are looking kinda muddy at the moment....2 weekends ago in Zurich, last week in Skye, this week in Berlin. Yep, that's right, I was in Berlin.

We arrived mid-afternoon on Monday and caught the train to Hauptbanhof, the main rail station in the city. You have to be there to appreciate this place, which is on about 6 levels and looks like some futuristic space station, not somewhere to change train. As the train pulled in we saw this amazing sculpture.

I also saw something else incredibly amazing - make that foolish, actually ;0) How many people do you know, when faced with a whole line of German 'riot-police' would slip between them? I mean, wouldn't your natural instinct be to let them pass? Not dive in amongst them, making them break step and glare at you....well, it's not Number Guy's natural instinct. Fortunately they must've decided he was a dumb tourist and not really trying to trip them up...

Following that interlude, we jumped on another train to Tiergarten where we booked into our hotel. Having expected something akin to a Travelodge I was more than delighted with the hotel that had been arranged.

We did some of the usual tourist things, like visitng Checkpoint Charlie I have a few mixed feelings about this, since I know that there is some controversy about the way the Wall and events surrounding it are memorialised. And I can't help but feel that novels about the Cold War have left some of us with 'romanticised' views about this dark era. However, be that as it may, I was very moved by what I read at the Checkpoint and in the museum, as was my son. And that is surely no bad thing....

The other two whole days that we had available were spent at a museum and Berlin Zoo, interspersed with general sight seeing and eating. I also had the opportunity to meet up with Jennifer - typical, isn't it? You go on holiday and meet your friends and neighbours:0)