Berlin, Germany

After we left the port of Gdansk, we traveled to the port of Warnemunde, Germany. While our ship docked at Warnemunde on the Baltic coast, our destination was really Berlin. Since Berlin is about 150 miles from Warnemunde, a good amount of traveling was involved once we arrived in port. We left the ship around 7:30 a.m. and walked a short way to the train station, where we boarded a train to the city of Berlin. It was about a 2 1/2 hour train ride. When we arrived in Berlin, we immediately boarded buses for a 1 1/2 hour panoramic tour of the city of Berlin.

Berlin is the capital of Germany (since 1871) and has a population of about 3.7 million people. Our tour guide for the bus tour was Wolfgang. Our tour began on the East Side of Berlin. Wolfgang told us that, even today, in Berlin, there is East City and West City. East City is the older, more historical part of Berlin, and is the side that was formerly under Communist rule. This is where most of the government buildings are located. West City, or the western part of Berlin, is where many of the suburbs are. Part of the Berlin Wall that separated East and West Berlin is still standing, and we drove by it. Currently it contains mural paintings and a little graffiti. The strip where the remnants of the wall are located is today known as "Death Strip", as it is sadly remembered as a place where many people lost their lives trying to escape the Communists.

We drove by a church that goes by the name of Mary's Church. We were told that it used to be called St. Mary's Church when it was a Catholic Church, but after the Protestant Reformation when it became a Lutheran Church, they dropped "the first name" and so now it is simply called Mary's Church.

On our tour of Berlin, we passed many museums, government buildings, apartment houses, a university, Angela Merkel's residence, the opera house, the library, and many embassies. Many of the buildings have columns out front, and most of them have visible damages, bullet holes, left from the war. They decided not to repair the damage, but rather to maintain a reminder of the war.

One of the stops we made on our bus tour was at the Brandenburg Gate. We also drove by the Reichstag (Parliament Building), Potsdam Square, and Checkpoint Charlie, which is the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.

Shortly after visiting Checkpoint Charlie, we got off the bus and then were free to see Berlin on our own for the next 5 hours. The first thing we did is find a restaurant, since it was now shortly after noon. We ate at a German restaurant called Lowenbrau. We had weiner schnitzel and German sausages. After lunch, we walked around the downtown area, through some plazas, went into some shops, and then found our favorite place in all of Berlin - a chocolate shop. We bought some chocolate that was some of the best chocolate we've ever had.

Later in the afternoon, we re-boarded the bus to head back to the train station. On the bus, our tour guide told us a little more about the city. He pointed out some buildings that we were passing by, and these buildings were built right along the Berlin Wall. They were fairly tall buildings, maybe 10 stories or so. He said that during the construction of these buildings, they were not allowed to put any windows on the west side of the building, so that people on the upper floors could not look out the windows and see a Capitalist part of the country.

We had a 2 hour train ride back to the train station in Warnemunde. Upon arrival at the train station, we had a 5 minute walk to the cruise ship. Along the way, the Viking employees, and it must have been hundreds of them, lined the walkway on both sides, clapping for us and welcoming us back. I'm not sure we did anything to deserve that. We just took a trip to Berlin. But they do tend to pamper you on these cruises.

After we were back on the ship, we went to the cafe where the chef had ventured out into town during the day to purchase some local ingredients and prepare a genuine German meal for us: sausages (they eat a lot of that here), weiner schnitzel, sauerkraut, German potato salad, pretzels, etc., and of course, topped off with dessert (we eat a lot of that here!).