It's great to be in Italy again.

Goodbye Berlin, well almost. Our original plans were to fly out from Berlin around midday, however GermanWings changed their flights a few weeks ago and we were rescheduled to the afternoon. This allowed a further day of exploration in Berlin.

Breakfast at The Circus Hotel

To say that the Berlin Wall has been commercialised would be an understatement but once we peeled back the covers, we found an open air memorial to the wall and the people it affected. We caught the U-Bahn to Bernauer St. and started our exploration.

We mastered the Berlin transport system

Bernauer St. is the infamous street where people were seen jumping from windows to escape East Berlin, in the end the windows were bricked up. That didn't stop the escape attempts, some tunneling some just jumping up and over, but most didn't make their goal.  There are now iron markers in the ground to mark the place's where so many ended their attempt.

East Berlin on the left

West Berlin on the left

East Berlin side

East Berlin side - the tripwires, gravel and guns have been replaced by grass

A reminder of those and their last place

Now we can pass freely

West side

This is in no way a depressing or morbid place. The wall is still there in some sections and others represented by iron poles. The gravel has been replaced by green grass and there are interpretation signs with audio and video.

Interpretive signs

As this is in the northern area of the city, we noticed it to be slightly different, more of a suburb of people rather than signs, tourists, and gypsy girls trying to scam.

Finishing this we returned to the direction of the hotel to collect the bags, but on the way we stopped at Volkspark am Weinberg, to watch the Berliners walking, sunbaking and just enjoying the late summers day.

A bird in the park

Next, time to get bags, a subway train, a bus, followed by the standard waiting at the airport (which I hate) but the 'D' terminal at Berlin makes it even worse. As the terminal is separate to the rest of the airport, there is only one duty free shop and it only sells liquor, chocolate, and perfume. No electronics to look at, no newsagents, no cafe, no restaurants, its a little like Avalon. After being advised our gate was open we went down the stairs to the tarmac and then boarded a bus, and waited for around 20 minutes in the sun. Even being in Berlin the sun was hot and by the time we were on our way again to the plane, everyone was very sweaty, and irritated.

The flight was very uneventful and we were able to get through Bologna airport with ease and a Taxi to our accommodation. It is great to be in Italy once again.

Tomorrow - Stairs