Berlin day 2

Late up again, with good excuse after last night! Got the M8 tram into Moll Str and walked down to corner of Alexanderplatz where after a selfie with the TV Tower, L went into a vast 'charity shop' for an agreed hour.


N went to the Little Big City behind the TV tower - its a model of Berlin - but decided against going in after seeing the lego and duplo figures in the foyer. Instead he went to St Marienkirche, the 13th century church nearby; sat quietly while they finished a communion service, then admired the vast simplicity of the building. 



With 15 minutes to kill he went over to the Rotes Rathaus where the city mayor and council live - one can just walk in, unchallenged, although there's only one main area open at the moment.

A restorative Kaffee Kuchen (a shared apfelstrudel, if you must know) saw us on our way via the U5 to Brandenburger Tor for our Sandemans Cold War & Wall Walking Tour. Two Danes on their 14th visit (presumably they could have led the tour!), a brit trainee doctor from Newcastle and a nurse & partner from Liverpool/Manchester made up our motley group, led by Dustin, an emaciated Yank. Turned out that he has cancer, only just out of hospital, and not fit to do this - but presumably needs the money. We saw the Russian embassy, fairly empty since Ukraine and with a scattering of flowers outside, and Friedrichstrasse station that was the infamous border station and the nearby Palace of Tears where East Germans queued to leave the country, now a museum. All very moving. Dustin literally collapsed after a flight of stairs; all the Brits stayed with him while he phoned for help and waited for a cab. Then we went our separate ways.

We followed a section of The Wall along Bernauer Str and stumbled across the Chapel of Reconciliation outside of which is ... Josefina's bronze statue called Reconciliation - L was moved to find her old friend's work here.




Another Kaffee Kuchen at the excellent Cafe Libre Berlin (spotted on Google maps), impulse purchased a bottle of prosecco, and walked down to Pappelplatz to get the M8 tram all the way home. We cooked a 'boat meal' of tuna pasta, and spent ages writing this and planning tomorrow. 

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