Checkpoint Charlie and other Crowded places!

Today the shirts, summer dresses and colour appeared on the streets of Berlin.

George and I set of for the morning excursion, sadly a little later which allowed our selected tourist attraction to be very crowded on arrival

The three heads of government at the fall of the wall – Bush, Kohl and Gorbatschow…

Checkpoint Charlie, one of the infamous entrance gates to West Berlin, when the wall was up, under the British, American and French rule.

€3.00 to take a photo with your own phone! We avoided the trap and zoomed in in the gatehouse from a respectable distance.

In the middle of the street this sign and a very unimpressive little wooden building remains for the world to visit.

This photo taken from a wall shows what it was really like to pass from East to west.

A small piece of the wall still standing outside a souvenir shop where we bought a T’shirt for Russ!

Being continuously caught in walking tours we raced past some interesting art, George getting flustered setting a blistering pace to keep ahead…

We were close to the other big attractions on the ‘must see’ Berlin itinerary.

The Jewish memorial, from across the road, we had had our up close and personal with this sad story in Warsaw and felt a walk by was all we could manage today.

The Brandenburg Gate, 18th Century monument that marked the route from Berlin to Brandenburg.

The Reichstag building, which housed the German government up until the end of WWII.

Hot, bothered,thirsty and Hungry, it was time to go underground and train it to Russell, who had also had a busy morning with walking tests, physio and lying in his peaceful hospital bed!

He is doing Ok but with more tests scheduled tomorrow (Friday our time) he will be residing there for a few more days.

So, again, while this Northern European trip had all the elements of a once in a lifetime adventure, things have changed! We will not be river cruising on Saturday, and this trip is now cancelled! With a refund, of how much we don’t know, due back as I gave them 48 hours (just)….so the cruise ballot is off (not that I had any takers at such short notice).

I have booked into a very cute hotel for 4 nights from Saturday (breakfast included and cash only payment) The beauty of it is…only 5-10 minutes walk to Russ (with a couple of cafes on the way).

This may be extended as needed we have until the end of the month before we are due to leave Germany!

Russ is getting the best medical attention in the world, and is definitely looking brighter! George is off to Greece on Saturday and I move into the suburbs of Berlin!!