Day 4

Weather 28'C

We find the early mornings the best time to see major tourist attractions, nothing here opens before 10 am so generally its much quieter and you can get better photos without being swamped by millions of other tourists. Leisurely morning , caught the train to the Brandenburger Tor, took some happy snaps and had some breakfast.

At 10 am we joined a famous Insider Berlin tour. Our English/German

guide Barnaby took us on a 4 hour walking tour to explain the creation, division and reunification of Berlin with social and political historical commentary for the last 100 years. He was funny, highly knowledgeable and very passionate and we agree it's been one of the highlights of our time in Berlin.

80% of Berlin was destroyed during WWII and considering it takes the Germans 15-20 years to re-build something (not sure why) and reunification only occurred in 1990 its highly possible that every crane in Europe is employed somewhere in Berlin. The amount of construction going on is extraordinary but now understandable. We learnt about the new controversial Jewish memorial in the centre of

town, saw remains of the Berlin wall, and several spaceship looking buildings that are relics from the communist era. There was a bit of Third Reich history and we stood atop Hitler's bunker and the spot where the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were burned after they committed suicide. It's now a very boring car part with a small information sign to indicate what once occurred there which, as Barnaby explained, is fitting lack of ceremony for the grave of the worst perpetrator of genocide in the worlds history.

The picture of the bronze plaque with the German quote translates roughly to "Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings" Heinrich Heine (1823) a German/Jewish poet.

Incredibly prophetic and a moving part of the book burning memorial in Bebelplatz.

Cute Fact: The picture of the traffic light green and red walking man
was created by the communist side of Berlin and when the wall came down the Berlin government replaced them all with generic stick figure men. There was public outcry and the government had to re-instate them all. When you look at them, cold war, iron curtain communist government is not was automatically springs to mind.

The tour finished mid afternoon but our legs still had some life left in them so we headed back to the Berlin wall to wander the Topography of Terror museum situated behind it. As the name implies, it's a museum dedicated to the rise and fall of Hitler and the Nazi party and the genocide committed during this time.

By late afternoon we were pretty tired so we went back to the hotel for about an hour before heading back out to the Friedrichstadt Palast to see a show. Called "The One" with costumes designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, it was a bit like Cirque du soleil meets Cats - amazing costumes, vibrant dancing, heart stopping acrobatics, a big belting opera singer but minimal story line. A lot of fun but by then end it was definitely time for bed.