Deb here. We started our morning with another breakfast at Cafe Mondo, trying the veggie omelet (me) and porridge with fruit (John) this time around.
Our goal today was to buy a ticket for the hop on/hop off bus so we could get a better picture of Berlin. We took public transportation (so easy with our Welcome Cards) to the Brandenburg Gate, and then purchased tickets for one of the four buses. The bus didn’t start until 10 a.m. so we had a half hour of walking time before the bus arrived. We had a great chat with a man working for the bus company who was from England but now lives in Berlin, and he recommended the Topography of Terrors Museum, which we’d thought we should check out.
We rode the bus around half of its circuit, getting off at the Checkpoint Charlie stop to make our way to the Topography of Terror Museum. The museum turned out to be a sobering but excellent experience. It’s free, with an audio guide that we downloaded on our phones.The audio guide walked us chronologically through the awful rise of the SS and Gestapo, all done through black and white photos with print. We each worked our way through the exhibit, finally stopping after a couple hours for a coffee and tea in the museum cafe after we were done. Neither of us can understand how so many people got swept up in the hatred and killing of other people, normalizing the horrific events. Just awful. Berlin, and Germany as a whole, is doing a great job in making sure that these events are recognized and remembered.
From there we walked back to the bus stop and waited for the next bus to come through. We decided to ride it all the way through the circuit back to the Brandenburg Gate since we were enjoying the narration and views of Berlin. I’d thought we’d go back and visit the East Side Gallery, the longest strip of the Berlin Wall that was painted with murals when the wall came down, but the bus followed the stretch of wall so we saw it all from the bus.
By this time it was 3 and we hadn’t eaten lunch, so we wandered in search of something not too heavy (aka not German food) to fill us up until dinner. We ended up stopping at a bagel place to split a bagel with cream cheese and something to drink. Bagels are not the same here and the idea of ordering a bagel with cream cheese seems a strange request. They make sandwiches using bagels but no bagels with butter or cream cheese. After this we visited a few grocery stores looking for chocolate bars to bring home, some more of the Haribo Konfekties that we like, and some chocolate cups with eggnog schnapps (like Alex had brought with him hiking a couple of days ago). Success on all fronts, meaning more things to stuff in our suitcases.
Stopped at a craft beer place near where we’re staying for a beer and cider, then back to our apartment to pack. At 6 we walked over to Pastabar Gianni Gillone for a split salad, lasagna, pasta bolognese and two glasses of red wine. A perfect last meal in Berlin!
Walked back to our place for more packing, reading and bed.
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