From Prague to Berlin

Part of the Berlin Wall
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We started our journey out of the Czech Republic, briefly stopping at the Terrazin small fortress, used as a political prison, and by the Nazi's in WW2.  It was not the nicest of places to visit.

The first real bit of excitement for the day happened at the Czech-German border; we were finally heading toward Berlin (as our "day song" Infernal's Paris to Berlin had reminded us every day on the bus) but one of the girls had mislayed her passport.  Oh dear...the police accepted a copy of her passport though and we were allowed to continue, but this was after I got myself stuck in the toilet cubicle in below freezing temperatures.  I think the door had just gotten stuck because of the cold, but for a couple of minutes it was a bit of a worry!  It's all good though, I'm not still in a German toilet cubicle... :-)

The art of "splodging" a Dickmann

The Brandenburg Gate
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We passed through Dresden, and bought "Super Dickmann's" (that sounds more dodgy than Mozart Balls), a German delicacy that's made from wafer and very soft marshmellow covered in chocolate.  After our tour leader demonstrated the art of "splodging" a Dickmann (kind of like what you do with a Chocolate Royal only Dickmann's make a bigger mess!), we arrived in Berlin - oh it was cold!!!

After dinner we went out to celebrate one of the girls' 25th birthday, our tour leader took us to "KLO" a toilet themed pub where the beers come in urinals, there are toilets for chairs, and customers get sprayed (with water) at the door.  It was a fun, quirky German place!

Nefertiti
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The next morning we had a German guide take us for a three hour tour on the bus around the main sites of Berlin, including bits of the wall, the Brandenburg gate, lots of political buildings, shops and Checkpoint Charlie, where our tour finished.  Before going into the Checkpoint Charlie museum some of us went off to a chocolatier for really good hot chocolate and cake.  This is starting to sound like the gastronomic tour of Western Europe really... :-)

We ended up going back to the museum, buying a "bit of the Berlin Wall", then going to the Egyptian museum, where I spent most of the afternoon.  Of course there was a bit more shopping, after I directed a Kurdish lady back to her hotel, then made my way on the metro to our hotel with dinner in tow, in the snow.  It was a great day in Berlin, which seemed the most like Melbourne of all the cities I've been to in the Northern Hemisphere.  Yet another one to go back to...