Today was a very sobering day. We caught the train to Oranienburg, then a taxi for the short ride to Sachsenheusen, the former nazi concentration camp used as a base to train officers in how to run concentration camps, and also as a model for building new camps.
The place was haunting, disturbing and moving.
We visited the autopsy rooms, the barracks and the trench where they used to shoot the prisoners.
After a couple of hours, we caught the train back to Potsdamer Platz, and walked to the Topography of Terror. Here they have maintained a small section of the Berlin Wall on the site of the old SS and Nazi headquarters. There is a museum there now depicting some of the stories of what happened from this site.
We then walked over to checkpoint Charlie for some photos, even though it is a bit gimmicky now.
Tired from walking, we got on a bus and headed out to Charlottenburg palace, the main palace in Berlin of the Prussian Kings. It is huge, and the gardens are splendid, but after seeing the gardens in Denmark, these were a little underwhelming.
From there we caught the bus across town to museum island. This place is amazing. We started walking from the Berlin Dom around to Pergamon museum, and its stunning Ishtar gate and market of Miletus.
We then walked over to the old national gallery to see some impressionist art, including Monet and Renoir.
We were now ready for a drink. Rania had found a roof top bar on the south side called Klunkerkranich. We caught a taxi over. It is in the roof of a modern shopping centre. You take the lift to the top floor, then walk up the carpark ramp to the roof. Then up another ramp to a gate where they have set up a bar, with amazing views of Berlin in the distance. The decor is weird, eclectic. And the place was packed. By the time we left there was queue outside trying to get in.
After having a drink, we headed back to our hotel and a restaurant nearby called Moredo. It was Argentinean, with nice steaks. It was a delicious meal at the end of a long, tiring day.