We arrive at the port of Warnemunde, Germany, at 9:30 am. Our excursion for the day is Berlin. Everyone traveling to Berlin meets in the Theater to be organized into travel/bus groups. There are over 1000 people headed in that direction today, and 5 different tour options for the city.
The bus ride is long. It’s a 3-hour commute. The scenery is mostly agricultural. There’s lots of wheat and corn in the area, broken up with forested areas. Halfway, we pull in to a “truck stop.” We noticed this in Amsterdam, but we’re told by our bus escort to expect to pay .50 to .70 Euros ($.75 – $1 usd) for the toilet. This will be the case at all the public toilets we have access to. I start checking to see what kind of change I’m going to need for rest of the day. Back on the bus, we’re given a snack with juice and water.
When we arrive in Berlin, our city guide joins the bus. We drive through town towards our lunch stop, passing highlights we’ll visit later. We enjoy a nice Bavarian meal in a large hall. There’s way too much food. We sit with a couple from Hong Kong. They have lots of questions about “Peking”. The husband seemed determined to not refer to it as Beijing.
After lunch we begin to visit more of the town. The Brandenburg Gate area is blocked off for “pedestrian only.” A huge screen is setup ready for the World Cup Final in 4 days. They expect 500,000 people to watch the game in this area. The US Embassy is next to the Brandenburg Gate. I notice a little “news activity” in the area, and some cars arriving and leaving. This probably has something to do with the CIA operative being sent back to the US from the Embassy today (we found out about it a few days later).
So much of the Berlin commentary is a discussion of when the major buildings we’re seeing were restored after the war. If it was an important building, it was bombed and destroyed. There is also a lot of reference to “The Wall”, and how the city was divided after WWII. Our guide is East German, and has memories of dealing with “The Wall”, and later when it was knocked down.
Checkpoint Charlie
One of the last wall segments still standing.
We finally leave the city around 8:00 pm, arriving back at the ship at 11:00 pm. We get a small sandwich on the way back. At the ship, we’re told about the German Buffet waiting for us. We’re still full from lunch and bus snacks, so it’s off to bed for us. The boat pulls out at 11:59 pm, right on time.