I caught the train from Prague to spend a couple days in Berlin.  Because time was so limited, I focused on visiting the most iconic attractions in the city.  No visit to Berlin is complete without the obligatory trip to the remnants of the Berlin Wall.  I did that.  I got my obligatory photo at Checkpoint Charlie, which was a heavily armed checkpoint of Soviet and US forces before the wall came down in 1989.  There are still pictures of the soldiers that look at you as you cross from East to West Germany and vice-versa.  Up until recently, when you visited Checkpoint Charlie, you could get your passport stamped with the East and West Germany passport stamps.  Now, you have to visit the East Berlin Gallery to get these novelty stamps for one euro each.

I saw where the wall started at the Bradenburg Gate (I caught an awesome sunset here) and how it ended at East and West Galleries.  The galleries contain dozens of murals mostly on the East Side.  Actually, the East side has murals and the West side has graffiti.  Some of the murals are iconic including one particular mural that depicts a fraternal kiss between Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker that celebrates the 30th anniversary of the founding of the German Democratic Republic.  Even though the East side has the murals, the West side is much more industrialized, even today.

 While in Berlin, I saw some other historical artifacts including part of the wall at the Topography of Terror.  This was an exhibit that showed how Russia and Germany tried to wipe Warsaw, Poland (and Polish culture) off of the face of the earth. If you are queasy, don’t go in the museum.  Thousands of dead bodies are shown in the pics in the museum, documenting the terror that Hitler did to Poland and other European countries during WWII.  I also spent a couple of hours at the Holocaust Museum AKA Museum to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

While hanging in East Germany, I snapped a picture of a guard tower outside of Potsdamer Platz where the guards could keep an eye on the population below.  These were all up and down the wall but this one is the last one remaining.  I spent some time near the Spree River that divides the city too.  Here, I saw cruises sailing down the river in front of the Reichstag, the German Parliament.

 Finally, I caught some epic views on top of the Victory Column.  My time in Berlin was short but it was very informative.  I need to spend a bit more time in Berlin, but I believe the next time I’m in Germany, I’ll visit Munich, a city I’ve never been to before but am very interested in seeing.  If you haven’t been to Berlin, you should go at least once. It makes a perfect day trip from many European cities.  It’s definitely worth your time.