Berlin and on to Prague

Hi everyone!

Wednesday

We spent our last morning in London visiting Richmond which is about a 45min train journey up the Thames. While it's a London suburb, it has a very village-like atmosphere. Had a quick look around and a picnic in the park before heading back to pick up our gear and make our way to Stansted airport for our flight to Berlin.


Picnic at Richmond

Caught the train from Liverpool St station directly to Stansted in plenty of time for our flight. Landed in Berlin and navigated the train system to make our way to our accommodation. Quite cold (about 2 degrees), but even at 11:00 at night, there was a real vibe. Checked in to the Berlin Art'otel in the historic centre of the city. The hotel is dedicated to contemporary German artist Georg Baselitz. Original art hangs in the foyer, hallways and hotel rooms. Looking forward to exploring tomorrow after a long 'travel day' today.

Thursday

Did a huge amount of sightseeing in Berlin today! We started at Potsdamer Platz and visited the Topographie des Terrors - an open air display of photographs and information about the Gestapo and SS headquarters that used to occupy the site. Unfortunately, many of the beautiful buildings have been destroyed. This part of town also still has some original parts of the Berlin wall.


Topographie des Terrors - original Berlin wall in background

Walked to Checkpoint Charlie and then down Friedrichstrasse to Bebelplatz where a memorial (a window in the pavement showing empty bookshelves below) serves as a reminder of the first major Nazi book-burning in 1933. Continued on to see the Brandenburg Gate and then to the Reichstag (Parliament Building) - a beautiful building that has been the site of many significant events in history.


Brandenburg Gate


Reichstag

Visited the Holocaust Memorial - a huge open air space containing 2711 concrete columns of different shapes and sizes - an amazing design.


Holocaust Memorial

Made our way to the East Side Gallery - 1.3 km of the original Berlin wall which has been dedicated to art essentially themed around the wall itself.


East Side Gallery - old Berlin wall

Headed to see a different kind of art at the Hamburger Bahnhof where we were lucky enough to see two fabulous exhibitions - Warhol and Beuys.

Not having stopped all day(!!) we enjoyed a lovely meal at the Boulevard Friedrichstrasse - a fabulous restaurant with a great host (thanks - Jochen!!). Certainly recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Berlin.


With our host Jochen

Finished off the day with a visit to a Christmas market in an absolutely beautiful setting - an old square off Friedrichstrasse surrounded by magnificent buildings. Enjoyed some of the local fare before heading back to the hotel - absolutely exhausted! Need to get some sleep as we have a big day tomorrow!


How happy does he look??

Friday

Said goodbye to the Art'otel and headed for Kurfurstendamm to collect our car (a tiny black Merc)! Thanks to the satellite navigation (thanks, Phil for booking this and not listening to Louise who insisted we could do it the old fashioned way and use maps!!) and to Phil's driving, we made our way out of Berlin - bound for Prague.

The further we drove from the city, the more snow covered the landscape. Took a detour (much to the disgust of the sat nav) into a lovely little town - Luckau - for morning tea. It has a beautiful old town centre, cobbled laneways, gorgeous buildings and awesome strudel!!


Luckau

Appeased the sat nav and got back on the road to Prague. Travelled through some amazing countryside, particularly the mountains around the Czech Republic border, and tiny villages before arriving in Prague just as it was getting dark.


Scenery on the road to Prague

Checked in to our hotel which sits at the foot of a fortified hilltop Cathedral. It was snowing!! Enjoyed a lovely walk around the local area before retiring - ready for a day of exploration tomorrow!


Hilltop Cathedral above our hotel - complete with snow!!