Day 10 - Berlin

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise 

At 0800 we left for Berlin. It is about a 3 hour ride from the dock. We had a great hostess on the coach who kept us fed and watered!  

Berlin is a very large city with a lot of history.   So to get you up to speed... Berlin was divided into two parts, East Berlin and West Berlin, right in the middle of Soviet occupied East Germany.  The United States had a stronghold on the West Berlin side.  Checkpoint Charlie was an area where Americans could go back and forth between the two sides. It was mostly used as a way to know who when over so they could look for you if you didn't make it back to the West

Today was 9-11 and when you look at the pictures of the day the wall came down they all say 9-11-89.  I was so excited thinking we were there 27 years after the wall came down. BUT in Germany they list the day first. So the wall actually came down on 11-9-89

The Bandenburg Gate where President Reagan said "Mr. Gorbachev, take down that wall" 

Doug and I standing with one leg in East Berlin and one leg in West Berlin 

The Reichstag

There are still a few areas of the wall they left standing. This was on the East Berlin side where no graffiti was allowed. After the wall came down artistes were invited to do artwork on the part that is still up. Here is one of the favorites. 

We are heading back to the ship now tired and cooling down in the coach. ( it was over 90 today)