After a great buffet breakfast we left our hotel to head to Berlin. When we arrived we met up with the nephew of one of the couples traveling with us. He travels around the world and just happened to be in Berlin and made arrangements to join his Aunt and Uncle for the day – how much fun is that?
We encountered intermittent rain, but its always seemed to stop whenever we got off the bus for photo opportunities! We went to Checkpoint Charlie, one of the checkpoints that provided passage between the former East and West Germany. Our bus parked on the former Russian side and we walked over to see what used to be the American side.
We went to Brandeburg Gate. It used to be the tradition that only kings and queens passed through the center section of the gate; the “common folk” went through one of the side passageways. The guide said he’d leave it up to us which section we walked through; we all felt right at home waking through the royal middle. There by Brandenburg Gate we were able to see the French and American embassies as well as the Adlon Hotel. This hotel has the famous (infamous) balcony over which Michael Jackson suspended his child.
We went to the German House of Parliament and not too long after that it would be time to head to the airport.
From Berlin we flew to Manchester, England.
We met our new guide, Ross and our bus driver, Craig. It was very strange to all of just to enter the bus on the opposite side! But it didn’t seem to bother our driver to sit on the right hand side of the bus. He drove us safely to our hotel for the night in Leeds, England.
Tomorrow, we are off to York!
