Berlin, May 16-18, 2006

After Hamburg, we took the ICE train to Berlin. Berlin is an even larger, sprawling city than Hamburg. Unfortunately, a lot of the main tourist attractions are spread out throughout the city. So, you definitely need more than several nights stay to explore the city, and expect to travel a lot. It was evident that unemployment and immigration is far higher in Berlin from some of the areas we drove through in the taxi, and the Charlottenburg district where we had our budget hotel. We were one block from the Charlottenburg S-Bahn station which was very convenient but, it also was quite a dodgy area at night since on the same block there were a couple of strip clubs and questionable businesses.

One of the first things we did was take a city bus tour of the city, and we had time to get out to take photos of the Brandenburg gate. Since this was about 3 weeks before the FIFA World Cup there was scafolding everywhere around the Brandenburg gate and Reichstag area. They were preparing for the event with large screen TVs, seating, staging, etc. Even with all the construction going on, the Brandenburg Tor with its statue of Quadriga of Victory crowning it was very impressive. Underneath, amongst the pillars, are mythological Greek inspired statues. The Brandenburg is situated at the end of the large, popular street Unter den Linden. That street we explored the following day.