Sunday 14, Monday 15, Tuesday 16 & Wednesday 17 April 2014

When we did finally check into our hotel it was 4pm. It was a glorious sunny day and we immediately went for a walk. This park is just down the road from our lovely hotel in Charlottenburg, in the western district of this very big city. It was lovely to see so many folk basking in the sun, and others walking their dogs. Neither of these things we saw in Abu Dhabi.

On Monday morning it’s raining. We’ve seen the last of the sun in Berlin. It seems that the sleeves on my raincoat have shrunk

But we intrepid travellers brave the drizzle and we walk down to the zoo to catch the HOHO bus. Whilst it’s not a laugh a minute, we find this hop on hop off journey a great way to introduce ourselves to the city. We hopped on at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It’s a victim of WW2 and now known fondly as the hollow tooth

We sat on the bus for the full round of two hours to work out what we wanted to do over our three days here. It was to be four days, but thanks to Benjamin and Iran we lost a day.

This city will never allow us to forget the wall, or the holocaust, and reminders of it are everywhere. We visit the Berlin Wall Monument, which is a 200m section of the original wall, and which includes harrowing stories of the holocaust.

This below is the Memorial to the six million Murdered Jews of Europe. It consists of 2711 concrete blocks, all different heights and dimensions, covering an area of 19,000 square metres.

There are cobblestones set in the roads to denote where the wall was

These plaques, and doubtless many others, are set in the pavements in various areas.

Checkpoint Charlie is still there. Along with some of the original sandbags

Cherrie and I were last in Berlin in 1976 and 1975 respectively, and we both went through Checkpoint Charlie. We agree that it was like passing from a technicolor film to black and white, so grey and miserable was East Berlin. I found those old memories quite emotional. As a 25 year old, travelling alone, it was a spooky city to be in. But today Berlin is a thriving, bustling, arty and tolerant city. A city which bears all.

Since the 1200’s the bear has been the city emblem,  symbolising strength, resilience, and protection and the bear is the unofficial ambassadors of Berlin. There are bears everywhere. So, over three days Cherrie and Christine go on a bear hunt.

And find a Lego giraffe

And some bears

My cousin married a German (and had a pair of very clever daughters, one of whom is a theatre producer, silly girl) and knows Berlin well. When we asked Lynne what we should do in Berlin she responded with “walk”. And so we do. We literally walk many kilometres. Three shoes and a boot do Berlin. I’m obviously quite slow. And I’m not a fast walker either. It’s a bit of a shame when I am overtaken by this

It’s true. She overtook me!

We don’t find German an easy language. Does anyone? Except for Germans perhaps. I mean, what is this napkin trying to tell me?

One thing we do know, is that the Currywurst has replaced the Bratwurst. Crikey, tradition flies out the window when you’re not looking eh? But with the exception of the currywurst, which is sold from street carts, we don’t find German food anywhere. The city is full of Italian restaurants. Lucky for us, as we can read an Italian menu, just not the German translation under Penne Arrabiata or Fettucine Tartufo. But where did the German restaurants go? What happened to the schnitzel?

Last time we were here, the Brandenburg Gate could only be seen from the back. This time, we view it from both sides.

And we see the Reichstag

The river Spree flows through Berlin and it tickled my fancy to learn that The Old Museum is fondly referred to as Athens by the Spree

We also made a point of visiting the New National Gallery.

Entry cost an arm and a leg (we did not show them one of my legs) and it’s surprisingly small with only two galleries and an outdoor sculpture garden.

I don’t ‘get’ abstract, even the one Picasso. I wonder what the model thought of Pablo’s work

But, Cherrie loves abstract and insists that I give you the name of this work. “Reclining Woman with Flowers”. Yes, of course.

One perfectly remarkable experience though is The East Side Gallery, a 1.3km section of the wall, retained as a permanent open air gallery. The first spring after the fall of the wall, in 1990, 118 artists from 21 countries were invited to comment on the political changes of 1989/90 in art. It’s wonderful

The East Side, near the gallery, is resplendent with public art. These faces are outside a little cafe called The White House

I guess it goes without saying, but I’m sayin’ it anyway, the architecture in Berlin, both old and new, is simply stunning

And there are some fabulous sculptures around

This one denotes the city before reunification in 1989

The traffic light man was first used in East Berlin in 1969. After the reunification Berliners protested to keep the quirky hat-wearing man rather than go for the international symbol. He’s rather sweet, don’t you think?

As tourists, we felt obliged to go to the top of the most recognisable of structures, the Berlin Tower

Fantastic views and well worth the rip off price. It’s good that we did it on our last day so that we knew what we were looking at

Cherrie is incapable of passing a plant, or a box of white asparagus, without whipping out her camera

What trip to Berlin is complete without a visit to the Berlin Philharmonic? Here we are, culture vultures that we are

The program of Dvorak’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, with a wonderful French Cello soloist, Gautier Capucon), Strauss’ Don Juan op. 20 and ‘Till Eulenspiegal’ all under the baton of a very energetic Petr Popelka, who has just started his role as Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony. It was a great concert and we floated back to the hotel. In the back of a cab.

We leave Berlin early tomorrow by train to Dresden.