Day 13: 9/26/12 - thank you London (part 2), Guten Tag Berlin!

I'm writing this post a few days late in account of the recent events but I'll remember as much as I can :)

I got up early for a flight to Berlin and happily (for me at least) Corrin had to be up early that morning for work too so I got to see her one last time.

The flight to Berlin was totally nondescript (a good thing) and then I took the train to the Friedrichstrasse stop which was near my hotel. Even though everyone was super friendly and helpful I don't know a lick of German so that made things tough.

After chilling in my hotel room for a but I went out to explore. I actually had signed up for a free walking tour but when I got to the meeting place I just couldn't do it. I wanted to be free to explore the city as I wanted and couldn't commit to someone else's itinerary. I guess that is the "P" in me.

Anyway I started off near Brandenberg gate and then walked over to the Reichstag. I then ambled around Tiergarten for a bit before heading off to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Both the memorial outside and the museum downstairs were beautiful and moving. Below is an iPhone pic of the opening to the museum, a quote that is very beautifully said.

After that I just walked around a bit and it was interesting to see how "modern" some of this city is ... At times I felt like i could have just as easily been walking around Boston or some other smaller American city.

Then I headed to the Checkpoint Charlie museum, which I had heard a lot of great things about. This museum was built where there used to be a checkpoint across the Berlin wall and has a ton of history about people who tried to cross and escape as well as about the wall and surrounding politics. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed by this museum. It was very poorly laid out, difficult to follow and had a lot of superfluous information. I really wanted to be excited by it but I just wasn't.

After that it was almost 10pm so I headed back to the hotel. I had been thinking about not going to Munich as I knew it would be a lot of partying and socializing with Oktoberfest and I just wasn't in the mood for that. So, I decided to go to the beautiful island of Capri instead. I spent a couple of hours looking up information and making bookings and finally went to sleep.

I had a very unrestful night of sleep, so I was extra glad that I had made that choice, but not as glad as I would be the next day ...