We stop for 3 nights and 2 full days at every city we are hading to so here's hoping I can get a blog in for each city!!
Berlin is amazing!! Our hostel was quiet nice, although the Internet connection left something to be desired. Still you can't complain when its free can you? Although sometimes I think the tease of having wifi that 'almost' works is worse than having none at all.
What did we do in Berlin? Well the first night we were there we just wandered around and had a look at what was close. The Citystay Hostel is pretty centrally located so we didn't have to walk far to see some wonderful sights.
This is the church that the Royal Family of Berlin used to attend. It is still used today but the congregation have to maintain it themselves.
Busabout offer deals on walking tours, pub crawls and various other things to do in the city which is great. All these tours are available anyway but if we book them on the bus before we get off they give us a discount and they sometimes off deals for more than one tour which is great because most of the things they have recommended have been really good.
We booked a Berlin Pub Crawl and ... a Bike Tour of the city. Now this was DEFINITELY Tarley's idea because I would never have put my hand up for that seeing as I have ridden a bike for night on TWO DECADES and I wasn't very good at it the last time I did do it. Despite my better judgement I agreed and we booked the bike tour.... and I'm really glad we did. I did get off to a (VERY) wobbly start but I guess the saying goes "it's just like riding a bike" for a reason. The tour around the city was awesome and our tour guide was this hilarious pommy guy who had studied politics and definitely knew his stuff. Was a really good tour and we got a look around the city and were able to decide what to go back and look at the next day.
On our bike tour we stopped at Checkpoint Charlie which is one of the checkpoints that was used to get in and out of East Berlin when the wall was still up. They have this line of cobblestones that run where the wall used to stand.
Here I am standing in East and West Berlin at the same time. You can tell which side is which as the writing is always read as though you are standing in West Berlin.
We saw this the Royal Church when we went for a walk on the first night and again on the bike tour and we thought "We have to come back and have a look inside this place! So the next day we did. Such an amazing old building. The photos from my phone just don't do it justice. I plan to update the photos once I am home and have organised them all.
After our walking tour we also went and saw the East Side Gallery which is 3km of the original Berlin Wall that has been relocated and many artists have painted their own interpretations of what the wall and its destruction meant to them. I don't have any photos I can load unfortunately. Insert Sad Face.
On our second day we went to look at the Victory Tower and the Berlin Zoo.
The victory tower was designed after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, by the time it was inaugurated on 2 September 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War and France in the Franco-Prussian War, giving the statue a new purpose. Different from the original plans, these later victories in the so-called unification wars inspired the addition of the bronze sculpture of Victoria, 8.3 metres high and weighing 35 tonnes.
Thank you Wikipedia. As if I could remember all that!!
Berlin is amazing!! Our hostel was quiet nice, although the Internet connection left something to be desired. Still you can't complain when its free can you? Although sometimes I think the tease of having wifi that 'almost' works is worse than having none at all.
What did we do in Berlin? Well the first night we were there we just wandered around and had a look at what was close. The Citystay Hostel is pretty centrally located so we didn't have to walk far to see some wonderful sights.
This is the church that the Royal Family of Berlin used to attend. It is still used today but the congregation have to maintain it themselves.
Busabout offer deals on walking tours, pub crawls and various other things to do in the city which is great. All these tours are available anyway but if we book them on the bus before we get off they give us a discount and they sometimes off deals for more than one tour which is great because most of the things they have recommended have been really good.
We booked a Berlin Pub Crawl and ... a Bike Tour of the city. Now this was DEFINITELY Tarley's idea because I would never have put my hand up for that seeing as I have ridden a bike for night on TWO DECADES and I wasn't very good at it the last time I did do it. Despite my better judgement I agreed and we booked the bike tour.... and I'm really glad we did. I did get off to a (VERY) wobbly start but I guess the saying goes "it's just like riding a bike" for a reason. The tour around the city was awesome and our tour guide was this hilarious pommy guy who had studied politics and definitely knew his stuff. Was a really good tour and we got a look around the city and were able to decide what to go back and look at the next day.
On our bike tour we stopped at Checkpoint Charlie which is one of the checkpoints that was used to get in and out of East Berlin when the wall was still up. They have this line of cobblestones that run where the wall used to stand.
Here I am standing in East and West Berlin at the same time. You can tell which side is which as the writing is always read as though you are standing in West Berlin.
We saw this the Royal Church when we went for a walk on the first night and again on the bike tour and we thought "We have to come back and have a look inside this place! So the next day we did. Such an amazing old building. The photos from my phone just don't do it justice. I plan to update the photos once I am home and have organised them all.
After our walking tour we also went and saw the East Side Gallery which is 3km of the original Berlin Wall that has been relocated and many artists have painted their own interpretations of what the wall and its destruction meant to them. I don't have any photos I can load unfortunately. Insert Sad Face.
On our second day we went to look at the Victory Tower and the Berlin Zoo.
The victory tower was designed after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, by the time it was inaugurated on 2 September 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War and France in the Franco-Prussian War, giving the statue a new purpose. Different from the original plans, these later victories in the so-called unification wars inspired the addition of the bronze sculpture of Victoria, 8.3 metres high and weighing 35 tonnes.
Thank you Wikipedia. As if I could remember all that!!
The view from the top of the tower was amazing. you can see the whole of Berlin. The Tier Garten stretches for ages all around the tower. It also contains the Berlin Zoo which is where we went next.
Now the line to get in was veeeeeeery long but it did move quickly which was good!!
Tarley standing at the end of the line LOL
We saw so so so so many animals at the zoo. Its absolutely enormous!!!! I saw heaps of animals I had never seen up close and in person before. There were also a few animals that neither of us had a clue what it was and the signs were all in German so we were lost.
"What do you reckon that is?"
"I don't know what do you reckon?"
"Is it a Gazelle?"
"No Gazelles don't look like that"
"What do Gazelles look like?"
"I don't know ..."
There is no mistaking this creature though!!!! This Lion was enormous and the enclosures were quiet open so we were able to get so close. He came right up to the edge of the cage and started growling at the crowd. VERY IMPRESSIVE!! Probably less impressed were the people who were standing right at the cages edge when he decided to show the crowd what he really thought of their presence. We were not in the firing line luckily!! We were also really lucky because it was feeding time so we got to see a lot of the animals eating.
We were so very very very tired after this day out. We had begun the day a little tired because of the Bike Tour (and the Pub Crawl) the day before so by the time were done with the Zoo (4 hours walking) and the Victory Tower AND the Royal Church we had been walking for 8 hours and during that time climbed over 600 steps up and down the tower and up to the roof of the church. .
YES WE COUNTED.
We slept ever so well that night!!
Berlin: Awesome!!
Off to Prague the next morning ...
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| Stairs up to the top of the Victory Tower, 295 of the 600. |
I'm sorry to say it darlings, but that conversation in the zoo was pure Blonde....
ReplyDeleteShoosh! Lol
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