Segway tour and the Reichstag - Berlin, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Remember when we were complaining about the heat? Well, today we realized winter has arrived. We had a 10 am Segway tour starting in Alexanderplatz. It was sunny when we left the apartment, but by the time we hit the road on the Segways, it was freezing. We had layered up with all our warm clothes, I had a scarf, they loaned us gloves and helmets, and we still froze. We met a couple from Lancaster, CA, they weren't in our group, but we got to visit for a bit. They did the Segway tour in Prague, too!! Our guide, Rob, was great. Originally from Ohio, he's been all over the world. He really explained some of the buildings we'd walked past in the last couple of days. We had a coffee break, with a history lesson, then off again. Saw a different part of the wall, that thing was huge, and went to Hitler's bunker, where he committed suicide. To the Brandenburg Gate, the embassies, Karl Marx's statue and back where we started. About 3 hours all together, all of them cold and windy. When we finished, we ran into the closest building to get warm. Then the S7 to the main hauptbanhof, to the U55 to the Reichstag for our tour of the dome. It's the shortest subway in the world, 3 stops. The same train goes from the first stop to the Bundestat, then the Brandenburg gate, the conductor walks through the train to the other end, and goes back the same route. The Reichstag was beautiful, it's a large glass dome on the top of the old parliament building. A real contrast between old and new. A walkway circles from the bottom of the dome to the top. We wore earpieces that were tuned to where you were and told you what you're looking at. Very German!! The glass represents the transparency of the government so what happened before WWII will never happen again. Lots of symbolism. We took the U55 back to the train station, the S7, to Alexanderplatz, and the U8 to Rosenthaler. We are getting so good at this transportation stuff. Walked to the post office to get some bubble wrap to take home stuff that we bought (seems like we bought a whole suitcase full of stuff, plus a carryon, I have no idea what we have), then back to the apartment. We read on Trip Advisor, and on our apartment's website about a restaurant named Nola that is near to our apartment and really good. Turns out, it's the Swiss restaurant in the park that we went to a few days ago. We decided to try the dinner menu. Jim had a hearty ,winter soup, and we shared cheese fondue with bread and potatoes. Claudia, I sure missed you tonight. Video to follow!! Tomorrow is our last day, can't believe it. We want to finish up a few things and pack. Good bye, Europe.