Jetzt geht's LOS! So sorry about the delay old chums. I've been rather busy in the past few weeks. Only 12 days left, how time flies...
The first fantastic event is made pretty clear by the photograph below. That's right, we've had snow!!!
Unfortunately for Fran, it all melted on the day she got here, and then started up again the night she left. I hear it's snowing in London too though.
Fran arrived safe and sound an hour later than anticipated, which meant lots of lovely waiting around in the airport for her. Tegel is so small and there's so little there. I think I looked in every shop and still spent a lot of time just sitting.

One advantage to the lack of snow was that it made getting about Berlin much more comfortable. Fran ticked off nearly every sight from Berlin in her book. Adove you can see her smiling away at the memorial to the murdered jews of europe.

After the jewish memorial we headed to the Reichstag. I wanted to go up there again seeing how miserable and dark it was last time I was there, besides which, it's free. You really get an awesome view. This time the weather was very kind. The coney thing beside Fran is covered with mirrors and is used to direct natural light into the main parlamentary chamber, so they don't have to use so much electricity for lighting.
We made the trip out to Potsdam to visit Sans Siuci, only to discover we were one minute too late to get tickets to go inside. We had a good look around the gardens, until it started to rain, at which point we rushed back to the bus. The building is still very impressive from the outside.


Our big and rather sombre day trip was out to the Sachsenhausen conzentration camp near Oranienburg in the neighbouring state of Brandenburg. It was truly chilling to walk through those gates. I didn't take too many photos here. It didn'tfeel right. I also almost feinted in the dissection room as Christian (our guide) was explaining some of the medical experiments which were undertaken in the building.
I decided it was worth while taking a photo of this, the memorial to the victims of Sachsenhausen. It's covered in flowers as we were there just a few days after the official remembrance day on the Auschwitz liberation day anniversary. To my left as i took this photo were the furnaces of the crematorium and behind me the gas chambers.
On Friday afternoon we went out towards Warschauerstrasse and took in the East Side Gallery. Unfortunately a lot of the better artworks on this section of wall are fading or being chipped away. The intention thereafter was to go and see a hockey game, but being a game against Hamburg (like a Collingwood v. Essondon match) it got sold out as we were waiting in the queue. To make up for it we went to Zur Gluehlampe, the little bar where I spent my birthday. We ended up staying until really late in the night, despite having to get up early and catch a train to Prague the next morning.
Here is the statue of good king Wenceslas (you know, from the christmas carol) on Wenceslas square. He is surrounded by the four Holy protectors of the Czech people and behind him is the national museum.
Here is the changing of the guard at Prague castle. The soldiers look so bored, bemused, something... I bet you'd feel a little silly too standing perfectly still for an hour and having stupid tourists come up and take photos of you.
The famous astronomical clock on the town hall on Old Town Square. Kinda speaks for itself... Lot's of people were standing around o watch this clock toll.
And last but not least, the Charles Bridge gate. The batteries on my camera were just about to die by this stage, and I didn't even take that many photos. The bridge is gorgeous, with all of these sculptures of the crucifixion, saints etc along it.
We got up to a whole lot more, but those are the main bits for your perusal. Sorry it's so long, but remember I could have made it a heck of a lot longer...
I went to the Schloss Charlottenburg yesterday with Dana, but shall give you photos and details of that and so much more in my next entry.
Bye for now.