Today we headed out to see the sights of Berlin that we missed yesterday, mainly the Tiergarten, Victory Tower and Brandenburg Gate. We ate breakfast at our hotel then caught the train to the Victory Tower.

The Victory Tower is certainly impressive and I learned today that it was moved from its original location by the Reichstag Building to the Tiergarten as part of Hitler’s grand plan for the renewal of Berlin as Welthauptstadt Germania.

For only $3 euros each we decided to trek up to the top of the tower to get a view of the city. Luckily, it wasn’t too busy. It was a bit crowded at the top but we were still able to get all the way around. It is interesting to me that these huge cities have no skyscrapers like we are used to in our big cities.

After the tower we walked through the Tiergarten. There we rested our legs and had some snacks in the rose garden.

We noticed large parts of the Tiergarten were closed due to the Berlin Marathon and accompanying events but we still enjoyed our time there.

At the end of the park we arrived at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The memorial has 2,711 concrete slabs that vary in height among 4.7 acres. You can walk among the concrete pillars and almost get lost in the middle. Jacob told me to stay close as I have a tendency to wander. We weaved through the memorial, watching out for people above our heads who were hopping from pillar to pillar.

The memorial and the Brandenburg Gate were quite crowded today because the Berlin Marathon begins at the gate. There were many pre-event activities going on. However, we endured the crowds and made our way to the gate. It was a bummer about the crowds otherwise we would have hung around a bit longer. We took a few photos, took in the sights and then took off to the next stop.

Next up we stopped at the Reichstag Building which houses the German parliament. You can actually walk above the parliament in a glass dome. However, you have to reserve your spot two-days in advance and we didn’t know this. You can always check in to see if there is extra room but we decided to pass as our legs were already feeling fatigued.

After checking this out we decided to return to our hotel for some lunch and to rest our feet. We are still feeling the effects of our 15-mile walk the other day.

After a short nap we gathered ourselves again and headed out to see the East Side Gallery. This gallery is a 1.3 km long stretch of the Berlin Wall. One side is painted with beautiful murals and the other side is open to the public for their own art.

It was really interesting to see this part of Berlin. A lot of money has been invested in cleaning up this area and there are many new buildings. We decided to walk from here to Treptower Park. It was cool to walk along what was once East Berlin and to see all the new and hip shops and restaurants that are popping up. We also saw some restaurants floating on the Spree River.

If our feet weren’t so achy we would have spent more time exploring this area but decided it was time to head back to the hotel.

We enjoyed our time in Berlin but its time to move on!

Tomorrow is a big day of driving again. We will be leaving Berlin after breakfast, heading to Lubeck, then Hamburg and then checking into our next hotel in Bremen.