Jamiewrites: Berlin 1 and 2

Given the misinformation we got about tram lines last night I was even more paranoid than usual, so we gave ourselves plenty of time and probably rushed breakfast a little - and we weren't even catching a U/metro but and S/train. That said, we got to the top of the stairs at the station and saw a train that would take us where we needed to go, and opted to bolt to catch it. Handily, the driver saw us coming and probably held it a few extra seconds on our behalf.

Of course, as soon as we got to the station and found our platform we saw our effing train was running late anyway. Sigh. I'm rarely happy when I've forgone a sleep-in and/or a relaxed breakfast.

Today it was Germans (I think) who we had to kick out of our seats (I will avoid making any jokes about that) - I believe the confusion this time came more from the way the seats are numbered than that they'd just sat in ours sans reservations; they appeared to be in the seats next to ours (we were in the seats where you face each other over a table, and both had the window seats) but thought they had the window seats. Either way, they moved somewhere else entirely so it didn't matter. Well, not to us.

It's not far from Dresden to Berlin, and it was then the easiest journey so far in terms of getting from the train we arrived on to the place we were staying - the platform for the intercity train was very close to the Hauptbahnhof metro station we came into, and then we only had to travel a couple of stops to Brandenburg Tor. From there it was an easy walk to the hotel; we dropped our stuff off and went wandering.

I'd booked us spots on the 1.30 tour of the Bundestag and while we had some time on our hands, I thought we might as well head in that direction to make sure we knew where to go and how to get in and so forth. It was complicated a little because the day before had been a public holiday (they told us this in Dresden, and nearly everything was closed as a result) for Unification Day; they'd had a lot of streets blocked off for (presumably) parades and street fairs and the like. But we got to the Bundestag after a bit of meandering and found where the entry point was with enough time to go to a nearby cafe and have something to eat.

After searching with no success in Munich or Vienna, and then being turned away from the only place we found it in Dresden (they were very busy; I thought maybe they were just anti-tourist, but as we left they turned away some Germans as well), we finally got our chance to try currywurst. It's everywhere in Berlin, particularly as street food.

It wasn't what either of us were expecting (we'd never looked into it that closely) - we both thought the curry came from the meat, but it doesn't; it's in the sauce, which tastes a bit like tomato sauce and curry powder mixed together and is served warm.

Bundestag - such a good tour. And free! Very informative. I wish the weather had been better.

It was cold in Berlin, so we decided we needed to buy some warmer clothes. Not realising there was a Mall of Berlin just near our hotel (we weren't near it at the time) we found some shops on Google and caught a bus out to Alexanderplatz to go shopping - only realising once we got there that it's where we'd be coming back to later tonight for dinner.

Clothes shopping is, for more, an agonising experience - and doing it in a different country does not appear to change that. I suspected I'd have to buy some clothes here, and I was actually pleased by this since I thought it would mean I'd have a far more interesting range of things to choose from than I do in Australia.

Boy, was I wrong. 95% of jackets available in Germany are the puffy kind that I would never wear. I just can't; they make people look like the Michelin Man. And are likely to be way too warm for me to ever wear in Australia unless I decide to visit the snow. Everything else available fell either into the 'wouldn't wear' or 'too warm for Australia'. Ended buying a somewhat thicker hiking softshell jacket than the one I already had - but one size up so I could layer it over my hoodie. Probably won't wear it much in Australia either, but it was at least on special. And I did need something.

Went back to the hotel after that and kicked back for a while before heading out to dinner at the Berlin TV Tower, which is very high up and has a revolving restaurant. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great and the tower itself isn't set up in such a way that photos come out great. But we did what we could.

Day 2 was pretty simple - we went to the East Side Gallery, Schloss Charlottenburg and dashed over to see Checkpoint Charlie before Rochelle left for London.