Berlin, well worth a visit for anyone I’d suggest. Lads to see and do, given the incredible history of the city, how could it fail to provide a fascinating and thought provoking experience? Once again we were lucky enough to find superb accommodation, we went with Jon and Katja, each couple had large rooms with kitchen facilities and private bathrooms plus use of the lovely garden (which you can see via the photo link in my last entry) where we had breakfast every morning. There was an underground stop at the end of the road and a supermarket across the road from that, so really nothing could wrong. Amazingly this fantastic place only cost us £33 pounds a night (Jon + Katja paid a little less as they had no cooker in their room), an absolutely bargain.

Berlin keeps on hitting you with hammer blows reminders of the relatively recent past, and also leaves you amazed at the amount of construction work going on all over the town as it attempts to make up for all those “lost” years. The contrasts between the old East and West are disappearing rapidly, but can still be found if you look hard enough. Loads of amazing architecture is spread around the huge city, which meant that we had to give the public transport a pretty vigorous workout, still at only £16 each for a week of unlimited travel on the U-Bahn, S-Bahn, Bus and Tram links that proved to be no problem at all.

A few highlights – The day in Potsdam, including the wonderful Einsteinturm and the grounds of Schloss Sanssouci. The amazing views of The Olympic Stadium and surrounding areas from The Glockenturm. The meal in the revolving restaurant of the huge TV tower, which dominates the city. The wonderful little Art Deco splendour of the Brohan Museum. A great meal at Monsieur Vuongs Indochinna Caffe. Best of all the stunning trip to the roof of The Richstag at night, what a wonderful reconstruction of this building, absolutely spellbinding.