Gates, monuments, toys, robots and rap dancers- Something for everyone!

Berlin!




We got here a few days ago and have been busy soaking up the culture (and yes they have large glasses of beer here too).

It's a very pretty city. We wandered around the Brandenburg gate yesterday and sat in the sun in front of the Reichstag (much nicer since Hitler moved out and they installed the observation dome). We also wandered through the Holocaust Monument which was fascinating, but quite upsetting.


While we were watching a group of French rap dancers in front of the Brandenburg Gate, there was a huge protest rally with singing and chanting and banner waving. Our German is pretty limited, and all I really understood from the banners was 'politikal'. There also seemed to be a lot of fist waving. The police turned up in a few seconds and although they had batons and were wearing flak jackets, they just watched until the crowd dispersed so it wasn't as exciting as it could have been. I think they were student communists or someting. There was way too much long hair among them to be neo nazis. They did piss off the rap dancers by stealing their crowd, but that was the only real conflict.

On a lighter note, yesterday we also went to Berlin's Legoland and saw lego being made in their oh so scientific factory. The woman in the white coat picked a small boy called Marco to assist her by pressing buttons. Bill will get over it one day.

We did got to build our own lego cars and test them on their in house jump ramp and then we got to ride through the spooky Dragon tunnel where we saw life sized medieval lego knights and wenches boozing it up before descending into the lego torture chamber (and don't the kiddies love it!) and being sneezed on by the huge lego dragon. We were the only adults in there without kids, but the lovely ride attendent let us go through twice. We didn't buy the photo that was taken as we saw the dragon, but Bill was clutching my arm in terror. He also squealed as the lego bats flew overhead. They did have flashing red eyes though.

Last night we went to a pub called the Astro Bar which had really kitch decor (wonderfully daggy purple sequined curtains which clashed perfectly with the red walls and paisley lamps. There were also retro pinball machines and toy robots scattered around the place. We both loved it there.


Not sure exactly how long we're staying here before heading to Prague. We're in the process of finding out the easiest and cheapest way to get there at the mo. There's also a few more things we want to do in Berlin, like maybe go to the Zoo(both), the Technology Museum (Bill), Madame Toussaud's (me). I'm also thinking of getting my hair cut short and there's a place called Hair Factory down the street from this cafe, so we'll see.


Feel free to post comments too. I'm never sure if anyone's reading this :ö)