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<\/a><\/p>\nThe bus ride is long. It\u2019s a 3-hour commute. The scenery is mostly agricultural. There\u2019s lots of wheat and corn in the area, broken up with forested areas. Halfway, we pull in to a \u201ctruck stop.\u201d We noticed this in Amsterdam, but we\u2019re 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\u2019m going to need for rest of the day. Back on the bus, we\u2019re given a snack with juice and water.<\/p>\n
When we arrive in Berlin, our city guide joins the bus. We drive through town towards our lunch stop, passing highlights we\u2019ll visit later. We enjoy a nice Bavarian meal in a large hall. There\u2019s way too much food. We sit with a couple from Hong Kong. They have lots of questions about \u201cPeking\u201d. The husband seemed determined to not refer to it as Beijing.<\/p>\n
After lunch we begin to visit more of the town. The Brandenburg Gate area is blocked off for \u201cpedestrian only.\u201d 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 \u201cnews activity\u201d 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).<\/p>\n So much of the Berlin commentary is a discussion of when the major buildings we\u2019re 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 \u201cThe Wall\u201d, and how the city was divided after WWII. \u00a0Our guide is East German, and has memories of dealing with \u201cThe Wall\u201d, and later when it was knocked down.<\/p>\n Checkpoint Charlie<\/p><\/div>\n One of the last wall segments still standing.<\/p><\/div>\n 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\u2019re told about the German Buffet waiting for us. We\u2019re still full from lunch and bus snacks, so it\u2019s off to bed for us. The boat pulls out at 11:59 pm, right on time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n