Day 4

We had breakfast in the hotel with Phil and Sybill, and took a yellow bus tour of the city. It went around the east part of Berlin first, which we had already walked, but then it took us to west Berlin, including Charlottenburg where Sybill grew up. It’s a very charming area with a big Prussian castle, lots of Sunday antique markets, tree-lined streets with small restaurants and cafes. We got off in the famous shopping boulevard of Kurfursten damm and walked it until the KaDeWe department store (unfortunately all stores are closed on Sunday), and had ice cream and beer in an outdoor café. Then we got on the bus again and got off at Potsdamer Platz. We went up to the Panorama Point to see the view of Berlin from the 25th floor (by the fastest elevator in Europe), and then across the street to see the very modern Sony building with an amazing, enormous courtyard. Then we had an early dinner in an Italian restaurant and went to the main train station with Sybill and Phill to see them off. The station is a beautiful, brand new building, from which the trains leave at 3 different levels. It’s a very attractive building. Unfortunately, German trains don’t always run on time so we had to wait because the train to Hanover was 20 minutes late. Then we went back to the hotel and collapsed.