On Monday morning I went to a clothes place on Oxford street. Adele and I had been there before, but it was mad, so I wanted to get back there one morning. I bought some clothes for great prices - 2 pairs of dress trousers for the equivalent of $30NZ. And a couple of t-shirts for less than $10NZ. It was great.
I dropped the bag off with Adele (I couldn't take them all to Berlin) and wandered around Piccadily Circus, down to Charing Cross Station and along The Strand (anyone recognise the Monopoly board) to find out where our theatre was for Thursday night. Then on the train to Gatwick Airport. It is very interesting how different all the airports are in what they want you to check - having now left 3/4 of the main airports around London, it intrigues me as to how different they are and also make me think about how things might go on Tuesday! However, this time I was made to take of my shoes - not an easy task with the way my back is at present for a mere 2 mins - so they could put them through their machine!
I arrived in Berlin at 10.05pm, to a temperature of -6! Plenty of snow around and thankfully I'd brought all my thermals. My friend Julia met me and we took a taxi to the pension I was staying in.
I went for a wander the next morning to find breakfast. Found a great little bakery and had a pecan pastry with a cappucino for breakfast. Following the train line down the main road, I was able to find the station, but then, it was quite difficult to figure out which way I needed to go to get into the main area of town. Finally decided that going in the direction the taxi had come from in the morning was probably the best bet. Found myself at Alexanderplatz - quite a main shopping/tourist area I think. World clock and a couple of other statues. Went for a little walk around it and some shops, then managed to get myself to the Brandenburg Tor (Brandenburg Gate) to check it out, get a transport map and get to the Reichstag. This is the government building for Germany and has a glass dome that you are able to walk up for a view of the city. Last time I was here it was being refurbished/cleaned so I decided to head up, after having a nice drink in the very warm cafe. As I've been to Berlin before for 5 days, I decided there were only a few things I was keen to do this time, and with the cold weather, doing a walking tour was not one of them! However, it was good to see the Brandenburg gate again and the Reichstag. I then headed to Potsdammer Platz where Sony is based - it is quite and awesome structure and some lovely cafe's and restaurants around the platz, though a little cold to spend too much time here.
That night Julia took me out to a Mexican Restaurant and we had a great catch up. The food was good, it was warm and the company great so we had a fantastic night that really went way too fast!
The next morning my back was really playing up so I huddled in bed after taking some painkillers and had a bit of a lie in. Finally made it out the door around 10 and headed to Julia's flat to drop off my bag. After finding a place for breakfast, Ashley (Julia's boyfriend) and I headed to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. It was quite a trip on the train, but enjoyable too. Ashley has done tonnes of travelling so it was great to hear about all he'd done and the time flew by quickly.
The camp was similar to others that I have been too and of course the stories of the people who were brought there, made to work and then killed there or transported to other places to be killed was very sad. I have been to 2 other camps back when I was travelling around in 2000 and unfortunately all the stories are very similar.
We headed back into town - I went to see the Jewish Memorial that was talked about when I was here back in 2000, but work had not even started back then. The blocks of concrete make an impressive memorial, especially with snow on them. However, underneath in the museum memorial area I learnt that there were a lot more people from the Eastern Europe area impacted than I ever knew about.
Went for dinner with Julia and Ashley to a great little pizza place. A great size pizza for one for only €2.10! Thats about $5NZ. Real yummy and filling. Caught the train out to the airport and once again, slightly different procedures for going through security!
Took 2hours from landing in Luton to get back to Adele & Chris' place and finally get to bed. Thank goodness for the fast train!!
