Eurotrip 2011 - Day 10 (6/26/2011) - Berlin

When I woke up this morning I was cursing myself for staying out so late (especially since I had developed a full-on head cold) - 4 hours of sleep was not working out too well.  Nevertheless, I got ready and had some cereal.  Galen and I headed down to the Starbucks by Brandenburg Gate for the second consecutive morning to meet up for tours.  However, we did not go on the same tour - I did the Potsdam tour while he did the Sachsenhausen concentration camp tour.

Potsdam is about 40 minutes away from central Berlin by train, so it requires the ABC pass (C is the farthest zone).  We took the train about halfway out, and then took a bus so that we could start outside the bridge into Potsdam.  The tour went through the city and then Sanssouci Park, including a stop at Sansoussi Palace and then ending at the Neues Palais (New Palace).  The group moved pretty slowly, mostly due to a married couple with a small child in a stroller, so we ended up missing the train (and back-up bus) that our tour guide wanted to take.  So we instead spent half an hour at a nearby bar while waiting for the next train into Berlin.

I got off the train at Hauptbanhnhof and then took the U-Bahn one stop down to the Bundestag station, where I went up to take pictures of the Reichstag building.  I played the ignorant tourist role to try to see if I could get into the building without having to make a reservation (which was free, but would have given me a time after I had already left Berlin), but it didn't work (though I didn't reallz try hard).  So I walked down to the Siegessäule (Victory Column) and then to an S-Bahn stop, and took the train/tram back to the hostel (with a stop for a cheap (but delicious) döner kebap at a nearby restaurant.  Back at the hostel I hung around for a bit until Galen arrived.  Since I was tired from lack of sleep the night before and my head cold was in full force, I stayed in that night.


Some pictures from the whole trip: