We awoke in time for the 10am walking tour with the "Original Berlin Walk" (recommended by Rick Steves). It was fantastic, but we got so much more out of it having done the Rick Steves self-guided tour first. Probably 1/2 of the tour were places we had seen yesterday, but we learned so much more history from our guide today. However, after 3 1/2 hours of walking, we were all pretty tired by the end. We went to the kebap stand by our hotel for a fabulous lunch of Donner Normal sandwiches (a cheap and tasty middle eastern / Mediterranean food) and returned to the hotel for rest and internet use.

In the afternoon, we went back out on the town to take in more sights. We were pretty interested in the Check Point Charlie museum, but we decided to divide and conquer: Claire went to the museum while Ivan and Susan took a look at Ku'Damm and Potsdammer Platz (the "Times Square" of Berlin). After Claire was done with the museum she told us many of the amazing stories she learned of how creatively people attempted to escape from the East. The successful stories were very exciting and the unsuccessful stories were heartbreaking. We enjoyed some refreshing ice cream on the street and then returned to our hotel where we retired relatively early.

Labels: Berlin, Europe 2008, Germany