Berlin - May 2016 Day 1

At the end of May this year I went to Berlin for four days from the 26th to the 30th and I can defiantly say it wasn't long enough, I had been the Germany before and have loved it( you can read about the last time I went to Germany in my Beautiful Places blog post) but I defiantly loved the city lifestyle that little bit more. Berlin was so open and friendly and full of amazing things to do and see which was made even better by the summer sun making the city at least 20'c the whole time I was there, most places in Berlin have at least one English speaking person so there was no language barrier in any of the places I went to.

On the first day after checking into the Hotel we went to check point Charlie the only place foreigners visiting Berlin could cross from East to West and back again when the Berlin wall was built and became the most famous of all the check points. At the check point there were actors dressed as American solders who will take your picture for you and with you so you can remember the experience. After taking pictures at the check point we then went into the Check Point Charlie Museum which was founded by Dr Rainder Hilderbrandt in 1962 which was full of art work to do with the check point and Berlin at that time along with other interesting information which I wouldn't of know otherwise. One thing that really stuck out to me was a book of all the names of people taken to concentration camps during the holocaust which as you can image was very long and split over several books with made it very real as you saw the individual names of the people effected.

After going the museum we walked around Berlin where I got a frankfurter which was amazing (as expected)then we went to a part of the Berlin wall which was very surreal. It was also very interesting because it wasn't just the wall but it had people's stories and other information which gave me a little more incite on how the wall effected normal people, we later went into the topography of terror which was a museum which is located on the former site of  Niederkirchnerstrasse, the site of the Nazi Regime building between 1933-1945. The building was very modern and bright white which is the opposite to the Nazi buildings which were there formally which were grey and dark. The building was also surrounded by stones which is the Jewish was to honour the dead which I thought was very sentimental. The museum was very interesting and taught me a lot about how people we're discriminated during the Nazi Regime along with the horror committed by the Gestapo.   

Later in day one we went to the Reichtag building which is the parliamentary building in Germany, before we went in we had lunch outside in the sun while we waited for our tour. When we went inside we went up a lift to the very top of the building which has a dome on the top, along with other parts of the  building it was made of glass which is designed to make the politics of Germany transparent. On the top of the building you could see a lot of the city, you can also walk around the glass dome which has spiral ramps which go to the top which also has an amazing view of the city and is perfect for photos.

After the Reichtag building we went to the KaDeWe which was full of designer stores and makeup counters with around 6 floors it has a lot to choose from even with a floor completely dedicated to food, as I was in one of the biggest malls in the country I couldn't resist buying something. As they had a Longchamp shop and I had wanted a La Paige for a very long time I decided to buy one which after having the bag for a little over a month now was defiantly a good purchase and will be worth the money. Overall the mall was amazing with very friendly staff who once again had amazing English and made the overall experience great.

After going to the mall we went back to the hotel for dinner and the later heading out to the holocaust memorial which is very famous and a defiant must see when going to Berlin, the memorial is a variety of different height concrete blocks placed in lines. The memorial has a different impact on different people and is interpreted differently but to me it created the impression if a being crowded and confined in a small area which may have been what it was like in the concentration camp but was defiantly an experience that I recommend. The memorial is also a little walk from the site of Hitler's bunker which you can go to place where it used to stand where there is a board telling you about how it was laid out and a little about it.

Finally on day one we went to the Brandengurg gate which again is very famous and is something I defiantly recommend visiting when going to Berlin, I would recommend visiting the gate not only because of the history but because of the atmosphere around, it does defiantly come across as the hot spot of the city with street performers; when I went there was bubble machines where you could pay to make massive bubbles, it was also surrounded by restaurants and hotels. It also had a Duncan donuts which I could help but go into and get a donut and ice coffee which was very nice to say the least. Going here topped of the end of my first day in Berlin especially because of how beautiful the gate looked at night and I would recommend going later in the day to see it in the lights!



I hoped you enjoyed my first day in Berlin

Lots of Love
Aimee
xoxo

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