Day 2 - We surely slept fitfully last night after getting next to no sleep on our flights getting to Berlin. This morning we got up at 8:00 and I think we are automatically in this time zone now. Our hotel has a super buffet breakfast and we took our time filling up.
It was nearly 10:00 by the time we walked out of the hotel. We're pretty close to Potsdamer Platz. That means we were within easy walking distance to famous Checkpoint Charlie. There are lots of special plaques and informational signage to show the seriousness of when this city was divided into East and West.
As soon as we came to the Platz we walked down in an S-Line train and headed back to the Central Berlin Station. It's fantastic. I applaud civilized countries that invest in public transportation. The station is modern with underground and overhead lines. We found a ticket office and purchased DB train tickets to Warsaw, Poland for June 3rd. By then we will have finished our exploration of Berlin and perhaps points further and concentrate for a couple of weeks on Poland.
The Central Station is pretty close to the middle of things. We could see the dome of the Reichstag. The historic legislative building, gained a famous glass dome and again became the home of the German Bundestag in 1999. A newly-added dome gives the public a symbolic and actual ability to watch over the legislators. Unfortunately, we couldn't book access online from Canada as it showed no tickets remaining. We did learn that getting free tickets for the next day or two was easy from the site. We did so today and have reservations for between 1:00 and 2:00 pm tomorrow.
It was a short walk to the Brandenburg Gate. Although there since the 1700s, it was a damaged by bombing and a no-go zone during the cold war era for both the East and West Germans.
We continued back onto transit taking both U and S trains to the Alexanderplatz. It was a central location for development during the Eastern Germany days and became famous for the Fernsehturm (TV Tower).
Rather than walk, we discovered how to ride the massive transit options by using them.
We realized it was time for lunch, so we ate under the shadow of it.
Returning back to the hotel proved difficult because the tram we were on was blocked when a fire occurred on a street. We had to get out and walk and found a line numbered as S42. That, we eventually found out, is a ring train that circles much of outer Berlin and neighbourhoods. We eventually connected to S1 which we knew exits from under the street right beside our hotel near Anhalterstrasse.
It was an eventful morning and afternoon!