germany: berlin

After sleeping off and on during my five hour train from Warsaw, I arrived in Berlin mid morning. My train arrived at the main train station, and I immediately felt at home. (I feel that way every time I am in Germany.)
The train station is big, with a lot of tracks, entries/exits, and stores/food spots. My first task was to find an ATM, then find a bakery. (I adore German bakeries. As far as I'm concerned, it's not possible to spend too much time in a bakery. Or eat too much from a bakery.) Or think too much about going back to a bakery for more treats.

Third, I needed to find a map for the S-bahn/U-bahn system.
I figured out where I needed to go, hopped on the train, and soon after arrived at my stop. My hotel was quite close to the S-bahn stop, yippee! I took a chance and asked if they had a room ready for me to check in early, unfortunately my room wasn't yet clean. The front desk clerk said they could hold my bag, which was perfect.
I started walking back to the S-bahn stop, not very thrilled with the weather. It was dumping snow. And cold. (A side note: I generally love winter/snow/cold, but I wasn't ready mentally or with proper clothes.) Just down the block from the hotel I found a decently priced small restaurant, I decided to have lunch. It was nice to warm up for a little while. (My train wasn't warm, neither was the hauptbahnhof or S-bahn stations, and I wasn't inside my hotel for long.)

After lunch I headed to the S-bahn station when I saw spires and an interesting looking roof not far away.
I made my way toward the roofs, and found the New Synagogue. It is no longer a functioning synagogue, it's now a museum. You can't thank the evil government and WW2 for that. There were some nice displays, including items involved in daily Jewish life. There were historical displays and descriptions of modern day life. After looking through the museum, I climbed up into one of the cupolas, it was nice to see the view over this part of the city.

After the synagogue, I hopped back on the S-bahn, riding it only one stop. Friedrichstraße is a big station, a number of S-bahn lines come together at this station. U-bahn lines too. I walked out one end of the station and walked down friedrichstraße.
Before arriving in Berlin I'd looked at a list of sights, knowing I would only have one afternoon in the city. I'd picked out two sights that were close to each other, both of historical importance.
My walk was only a kilometer or two. It was a straight walk down the street, I walked straight into checkpoint Charlie.

You've probably heard of it.
This was one of the checkpoints set up during the days of the Berlin Wall. This particular checkpoint controlled entrance and exit to the American sector of the city. There is very little left of the checkpoint now, and the area is a major tourist trap. There are several museums there, as well as heaps of souvenirs shops/stalls. HEAPS. The advantage to having so many places selling postcards all together was that the prices were lower than any other area of the city :) Of course I took advantage.
You can also pay money to have your photo taken with a guy dressed in the style of the American soldiers way back when. Another way to spend money is to have some of the 'visa' stamps stamped in your passport. There are stamps for the British sector, the soviet sector, the American sector, and the French sector. Plus two others, I forget what they were for.
Also in this area are the shack that houses the border guards, and the signs (you are now entering the American sector, you are now exiting the American sector...both in four languages) that are so famous.
There is one small section of the wall on display, everyone wants their photo taken with the wall. For whateva reason, I skipped that. Too many people around I think. If I'd been there in early morning with fewer people were around, I would've had my photo taken. There is another area in the city with more sections of the wall to see, I want to go back and see more, and spend more time absorbing the history.

I walked back up the street until I came to a major street called unter den linden. Again I saw an interesting looking roof, so I walked in that direction. Eventually I got to the building, it was the Berlin Cathedral. A very big cathedral. I wanted to go inside, but the entry fee was 7€, I had no desire to pay that much to see the inside of a church, no matter how nice it is. Part of me sees how many people pay that fee and does basic math, the number comes out to be pretty big; I end up wondering how all the money is spent.
On the way back in the other direction on unter den linden I walked across a platz, called lust platz...I kid you not...it's right next to the church!!!
A couple kilometers down the road I came to my other sight of the day...the Brandenburg gate...the Berlin Wall once went right by this gate, it wasn't possible to cross through the gate. The first Berlin marathon course after the fall of the wall specifically went through the gate because it represented more than just a marathon course. (For that and other reasons, I'd like to run the Berlin Marathon one day.)

This is where the city hosts it's new year celebrations. Not surprisingly, there were heaps of people wandering around, including workers setting up for the festivities the next evening. Because of all this, there was no way to get a full, good picture of the gate. Maybe next time!
I walked back to friedrichstraße station, and visited the supermarket in the station, picking up one of my favourite foods: a rather large glass jar of German yoghurt. YUM. That yoghurt ended up being my dinner in my hotel room, not long after. It didn't take long to get back to my hotel, where I checked in and stayed inside for the night.
I flew out of the easyjet terminal the next morning, I loved the German efficiency of the place 😃