What a Pain in the Neck!

Turns out our decision to take a hop on, hop off bus day in Berlin was positively prescient.
Christine rolled over and cricked her neck first thing….walking all day would be out of the question, but some powerful Ibuprofen got us to the Big Bus stop.

Berlin Cathedral, Museum Island, Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag on the outbound, & we stepped off past the Zoo to visit the Kaiser Wilhelm Church.
Damaged beyond repair in WWII, it was retained as a memorial, with a very modern replacement immediately next door.
I had seen it a few times on work trips, staying in hotels nearby….but there was a new poignant piece about the terrorist truck incident from 2016, killing 13 people at the Christmas market I had strolled through only days before….

Checkpoint Charlie was the main stop for the return leg. Plenty to see at the point where the Soviet and US tanks faced off during one tense point of the Cold War, & a lot of sad stories of the oppression and the infamous Berlin Wall….evidence of which we found many times around the formerly blockaded City 👀

Back at Alexanderplatz, we hopped on to the Blue tour route. Interesting to head through the former East Germany, some different architectural styled flats and plenty of art on the East Side Gallery: conserved graffiti on the remaining parts of the Wall.

A trip back to hop off at the Reichstag and wander past the memorial of the murder of the European Sinti and Roma persecuted as “gypsies”. More sad, and brave, tales.
Pictures at the Brandenburg Gate, & a look at the stark columns forming the memorial to the Holocaust. Moving stuff 😔

We also learned the pink pipes all across the city were not art, or carrying gas, but are to take ground water from the many building projects to the River Spree 🤪

The last bus back, then some dinner from the Vegan Pirates before taking a final S-Bahn home, & a beer in the bar back at the Social Hub 👍Read more