We arrived in Berlin just before lunch and we got out of the bus and it was freezing!! We had a local guide who showed us Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, the Holocaust memorial and all around the city.

The next day we got a small group of people together and went out to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and had a walk around with audio guides but we found it too gruesome so we only stayed for 3 hours. We also checked out the Sony Centre which is just nice architecture and we then went to KaDeWe (largest department store in Europe) for the gourmet food floor. It’s buffet and you just fill up your plate and pay for the weight at the end.

On Saturday it was raining and even colder than the previous day so we went to the Berlin zoo (well-know for the polar bear Knut and it is also known to have the best species diversity). The advantage of going on a rainy day was that there were no crowds or ques. So there we were shivering, fighting over a small umbrella and trying to find animals that were mostly indoors. Because of the rain all the animals were restricted to their cages so the big cats were very restless and the primates were very bored. It was a really good zoo in general but we were too cold and wet to spend much time there. We got back to our hotel in the afternoon and I kept warm in the room while mum went up a few streets to do the washing (I would have gone but all my jeans needed washing and I wasn’t particularily keen of braving the cold again). We were wearing 5 layers that day and still freezing!!

We arrived in Amsterdam late this afternoon after a full day on the coach.