On To Berlin

We said   good-bye to Hamburg Monday morning ftr one last super breakfast. My downfall when  in Europe is the  bread, the variety and the quality.

Our group of 23 plus Jitka, our tour director, went o Berlin on a bus with a stop at Schwerin, a town that has one of the prettiest castles ever. We had a walk through the town center, then had lunch there. A very good goulash with rice and cucumber salad. Shredded cucumbers with a vinaigrette dressing.

Then we drove on to Berlin through a rural area dotted with many wind turbines. Our hotel isthe Park Inn,  37 Floor building with a viewing terrace on top.

This morning,  we had an almost 4  hour bus  and walking tour of this 3.9 million population  famed city. The city guide we had is also a historian so we got a lot of history  included.  The majority of the buildins are re-erected to look like they did before the extensive bombing destroyed so many in WWII. We saw the Brandenburg Gate where Ronald Reagan gave his  famous speech asking Gorbachev to tear down the wall between east and west Germany. There is still a remnant of the wall and Checkpoint Charlie where 2 American military men stand with  American flags--the perfect photo spot.

We've been taking photos but can't seem to send to facebook or anywhere else.

Ken and I had lunch at an outdoor Italian place. Too hot to eat indoors with no a/c. Fun to watch the people go by. We did eat inside a restaurant last night with our entire group, now numbering 90. The new people all looked tired, just as we did when we arrived on Friday.

We've enjoyed Berlin  but decided we like Hamburg better. Tomorrow, we are taken by bus to Wittenburg  where we board our river ship, Allegro, which will be home for the next full week.