Day 9

We started out day in Berlin with a bus tour of the city beginning with some interesting architectural sites including this sculpture on the river.

From there we visited a Soviet Memorial to the Russian soldiers that died in the war but specifically those that died in the liberation of Berlin in May of 1945.

The Soviets would use a German Park and install their monument there and it was very nice but our guide said that not many Germans visited the park other than to run. He indicated that Russian tourists did visit it frequently on their tours.

We decided that it was a good spot for a group shot.

From there we traveled along a site where the Berlin wall was still standing but had art work in stalled back in the 80s that had been recently restored.

Took another group shot as we wondered through a German memorial to the Holocaust dead which was very different, huge blocks of varying heights from a few feet to well above our heads.

Then another group shot at the Brandenburg Gate which had been in no-man’s land during the Berlin Wall era, between the two walls and therefore could not be visited.

We were taking a walking tour and then headed to the famous Checkpoint Charlie, the entry and exit point from West Berlin to the east during the height of the cold war.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel via uban (subway) and electric tram line for an early evening before heading to Munich tomorrow via Nuremburg, about an eight hour trip via bus. There we will stay for the last two nights before heading back home.

About out of time to upload, internet use is expensive here, but will try and post the night before we leave. Will arrive too late tomorrow to upload probably.   gute Nacht from Germany!