I was so amazed by Leipzig (see my previous post) that I was over half a day late travelling to Berlin.
After arriving and checking into my hotel I went and explored the city during the early evening. In my travel notes I have written that I found Berlin “interesting” – in fact I have so many photos and places I visited that I am going to do three posts about Berlin.
I stayed in a small hotel in Mitte which is right in the heart of the former Soviet controlled area. The hotel building I stayed in was over 100 years old and the hotel itself was run by the local church city mission.
The first place I visited in Berlin was the Berlin Wall Memorial. The remains of the wall are both impressive and sad. I simply don’t understand who decides to build a wall through the middle of a city, especially a city like Berlin that suffered so much through the Second World War.
Next I visited Alexanderplatz and explored some of the old city area around Nikolaiviertel. From here I got very lost. My plan had been to walk the few kilometres back to my hotel. However, I kept finding Hackescher markt and somehow walking around in circles ending back at the same street intersections.
Eventually admitting defeat I caught an S-Bahn back to Friedrichstraße where I had the worst dinner I had the entire trip (this was the only day I spent completely by myself). I then succeeded in getting myself lost again but eventually found the Brandenburger Tor and the Reichstag before returning to my hotel for the night.
