Winter Spirit day 20-21: Berlin

Day 20: Prague to Berlin via Dresden.

We headed to Dresden which was only about 2 hours from Prague. We walked to see a few buildings that had been reconstructed after the war, then got coffee and cake from Starbucks. We walked around a little more to see more beautiful buildings before getting on the bus for Dresden.

When we got to Berlin we had a few hours of free time, so 3 of us took a walk down the east side gallery on the Berlin Wall. There's some good artwork there but unfortunately it is covered with graffiti.

After dinner we stayed in the bar for a few drinks.

Day 21: Berlin

This morning we had a 'Third Reich' walking tour, where a guide took us around the city and told us a lot about the rise of Hitler and the nazis in the lead up and including world war 2. He was very interesting and told us a lot of information. We started at the Reichstag, the German parliament, then visited a few memorials, the last being the Holocaust memorial. After a coffee break we walked past the place where Hitler's bunker was, which is also where he died. We walked past a few buildings that were used by the third reich, and then went on to the Topography of terror, a museum built where the Gestapo and SS had their headquarters. There is also has a section of the Berlin Wall here. The final stop was at Checkpoint Charlie, where during the Cold War the US and Soviet Union had a long standoff with their tanks. There is a museum about Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall here, which would have been interesting to visit as I don't know much about it. 

After the walking tour, a group of us went back to the Topography of Terror to visit the museum, and use the free public toilet. The museum is interesting, however there was a lot of written information, and I found our tour guide had already told us a lot of the information.

Then we went back to the Holocaust memorial as there is a museum there too. At this point I was pretty hungry, and the information was repeating itself, so we walked over the the Brandenburg gate and found a stall to get curryworst. 

We walked down to Alexanderplatz to try and find some shops, but failed, so we took the metro back to the hostel. We walked along the east side gallery again, then went to Lidl to get some cheese for dinner. We had a cheese party, and then everyone went out for the pub crawl, but I stayed in the hostel as I was feeling sick again.