Plans for today - travel to Checkpoint Charlie, sightseeing tour of Berlin, and visiting Pottsdam. When we arrived at Checkpoint Charlie my group opted to go to a newer Topography of Terror museum first.
This museum focused on the Nazi SS / Gestapo and was built on the site of the Nazi compound in Berlin. It was a fascinating museum chronicling the events and attrocities by year from 1939 through 1945. The layout of the museum was excellent with part of the Berlin Wall and remaining bombed out buildings from the Gestapo compound. This museum really centered my group on the history in Germany during Hitler's time and got us thinking about what we would see / learn at Auschwitz.
We then went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. It was overcrowded and disappointing as a result. We met up with the rest of the group at an additional exhibit chronicling Berlin's history during WWII.
Here we had our first run in with Gypsies asking for help / money.
For the afternoon we took a bus tour. Our driver was name Otto, of course, and our tour director was Kevin Kennedy. He presented the "touristic infrastructure" of Berlin, taking us by many landmarks and historic buildings.
We had dinner at a buffet and it was attrocious. Since we were a tour group we were only allowed to eat from certain parts of the buffet. The food was bland and mostly American. So much for German cuisine. Other than many bakeries and Nutella, the food offered has left much to be desired.
Pottsdam was incredible. The communities and architecture was magnificent. Then we came upon the palaces of King Frederick. Oh my.We ended the day with a stop at our guides favorite pub, the Empty Pear, and had a great ending to another great day. We had a lot of fun.
We had train time issues on the way back and spent a bit of time waiting around in one of the stations. Good company.
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