June 30-July2 2013 Berlin

There are many parts to Berlin and it was somewhat confusing for us.The first day I told Sam let's go to the Reichstag which is the Parliament first and then we can see the other sights in the area.The parliament has a glass dome on top that rises 155 ft above the ground and you can go in and walk inside and get the best views of the city.We got in a line to go in and were told we needed to get authorization and and a time to enter.We went across the street and got in line where we stood in line for 2 hours to get our paper work. Since it was late we decided to go the next day and got a time for 1030.We walked over to the Brandenburg Gate.The gate was the grandest and is the last remaining in the city.Back in the day it was a symbol of a divided Berlin.In the square is also the U.S.Embassy.

We didn't know exactly where we were going so we  went to see Checkpoint Charlie.Here you can see the border crossing that was the west and the east Berlin.Like everything this is also commercialized.

We walked a long way and decided we would see what we could see tomorrow.There's a lot of construction going on so some of the trains have been interrupted making it hard to find our way.This is the next day and we found out to work the train system and went right to the Parliament bldg. for our entry time.We walked around and around to reach the top of the cupola.What a view.Inside the dome there are 360 mirrors reflecting light into the legistlative.When we finished we decided not to keep fighting to get somewhere so we went to the Zoo and had a great time.

Berlin is a large city and everything is spread out.For us it wasn't one of our favorite basically because of the size.