Day two in Berlin.

The Hogwarts Express

We can’t believe it. We actually both had such a good night's sleep. I slept through the whole night till about 7am (which is super rare) and the bed was actually surprisingly comfy! We have a semi lay in and head to breakfast at 7:40ish. The breakfast room was very busy and to be honest it was pretty basic.... rolls, scrambled egg, chips (for some reason), yogurt, cereal and a crepe maker. NO FRIED EGGS. There was also no orange or apple juice and the coffee was SUPER strong, I love coffee but this was like paint stripper!

The weather is cloudy and cold but it is dry and after seeing a week of rain forecast we were happy. We stumble across a little shop called Tam Tam on the way to Uhlandstraße underground station which is a few minutes walk from the hotel. It sells lots of amazing wooden kids toys but what really caught our eye was the cute little Christmas decorations, we find a couple we like and decided to get them on the way home, so they don’t break in our bag today. The underground train is made up of old vintage looking brown carriages, which looks like it’s straight out of Harry Potter and our carriage is almost empty, its super quiet ...there is only 1 other woman and us (and this is basically the equivalent of London’s Underground)

Dog Poo & Cigarettes We are heading to Checkpoint Charlie first and we finally think we are figuring out how to use these trains. We get off at Kochstaße which is literally 30 seconds from the checkpoint, I had seen this gets very touristy and there were some annoying people around but overall it wasn’t that busy (although we were there early) is very commercialised though and it proves very difficult to take a photo of the checkpoint without getting a McDonald’s sign or KFC logo!

We then go to the outdoor museum ‘Blackbox cold war’ which is free and explains the history of Checkpoint Charlie. We were planning on looking around the Mauermuseum, but we thought it was a bit overpriced and after looking it up online on McDonald’s wifi we didn’t think it was worth it. Another good tip, we went and bought a hot drink from McDonald’s, we got wifi, could use the toilet for free (was is a hard find in Berlin) and they had a balcony where you can get better photos of the checkpoint!

We decided to walk to the next station before heading over to East Side Gallery, this was a bit longer than expected but we like to walk, so that you see more of the city. We stumbled across some amazing artwork near the Willy Brandt Haus, saw another protest, we were looking for a bin but there was none in sight however there were about 30 what we think were cigarette bins along the way, Ashleigh did German at school and not sure if her translation was totally correct but we think these bins were for dog poo and cigarettes. We get the train across to Warschauer Straße, which is the closest to the East Side Gallery. The artwork is based around freedom and some of the murals are incredible. Here are a few of my favourites:

We didn’t realise quite how far the remaining wall was and we ended up a fair distance away from Omberbuckle bridge, which was our next stop. The bridge isn't hugely interesting, but I had seen a couple of photos of it and it looked like a Disney castle so though Ash would enjoy it.

Ashleigh is a snack queen We head back to Warschauer Straße and I go to my back pocket for our underground map (which has been our saviour) it’s not there, Ash thinks I’m bantering her but it’s actually gone. (we got this at the airport we haven’t seen any others since) So we kinda end up guessing which train to now get on. We eventually work it out and end up at the Brandenburg Gate, as we wanted to see it again in the light. Last night I said it might have been fairly quiet as it was dark... I was correct, it was packed and I didn’t even bother trying to get a decent photo. It was also more touristy with knock off Mickey Mouse (with his head off talking on the phone) and other characters trying to get you to have a photo with them. We are now walking to the Holocaust Menmorial, but it’s now about 2pm and we still hadn’t had lunch, no restaurants in sight… luckily Ashleigh is a snack queen and pulls out a big bag of Pom Bears she bought in Lidl, so we sit on a bench eating some pom bears. We walk over to the memorial which was really interesting, as you descend into the huge memorial of stone pillars it feels even larger once they are towering above you, unfortunately the museum was closed for refurbishment and we both said it was kinda hard to connect with what it represents. We’re not sure if it’s because we’ve recently been to Auschwitz which was obviously a lot more impactful or whether it was because there were kids running around it like a playground playing hide and seek.

Hitler’s Bunker

We walk up a road and I had google earlier in the day where Führerbunker (Hitlers bunker) was located (it is literally just a car park now) as I normally get my facts wrong when I tell them to Ashleigh. I take her past and tell her this is where Hitler supposedly shot himself... again she thinks I’m bantering her and as I’m taking photos of a car park and she thinks I’m taking the piss, a big walking tour stops and starts telling the story of what happened here. It’s very strange that it is literally a car park and housing, imagine living here .. very strange.

We still haven't eaten and I desperately need a wee so we are not only ‘hangry’ but a new one ‘toilangry’ We find a shopping centre, where I pay the 50c to use the toilet and then we find Vedang (which is a plant based fast food restaurant). We get vegan nuggets and a vegan cheeseburger to try. The burger is soo good that after finishing it, I have to get another…

We head back to the little shop we saw this morning and buy our Christmas decoration, it’s a little pretzel for the tree at home.

Instantly greeted by a giant cock.

We are heading to Liquidrom tonight, which we found on unique things to do in Berlin. It’s a spa that has an indoor salt pool that you float in along with some saunas, when we looked online it said the sauna cost extra and it is strictly no swimwear inside the saunas... so we decided to do just the pool. We get the train to Möckernbrücke and it’s a few minute walk from here. They only let a certain amount of people at one time so we have around a 10 minute wait before we head in, we are told about the pool rules and that even some of the pools are swimwear optional. As we head into the changing area it was separated into men and women, however only by different doors, you can see straight across the other side, so while me and Ashleigh were trying to get changed and talk about if we are taking our towels through we had a heavily pregnant naked lady in between us. Everytime I looked over to check on ash (who was at the same height of this woman’s breasts) it must have looked as if I was peeping.

We then head to the showers and I’m instantly greeted by a giant cock from the naked man showering in front of me. You then walk past a cafe that is directly opposite the naked saunas, so on my right is a bloke eating a sandwich and on my left is a swinging penis.

“Let’s pretend they are just practicing their bouncing” The main pool is mandatory swimwear, although a few people didn’t get the message. The water however is awesome, very salty so you naturally float and there are lots of woggles so you really are weightless in the water. Another selling point of Liquidrom was that they play music underwater however I tried a few times throughout and we couldn’t hear anything. One thing to note is that it’s built a bit of a reputation of ‘heavy petting’ so I think that people almost go for this reason. Ashleigh summed it up by “it’s like these couples have just discovered kissing for the first time” they were proper going for it! “Let’s pretend they are just practicing their bouncing” We thought at first 2 hours might be a bit long as we were only going to stay in the main pool, but time really went quick and after an hour and a half we got out (mainly as we looked like prunes!) While walking out past the cafe we had to dodge a few more cocks and boobs and we got changed and headed out. There are a few cubicles to change but they do have a very thin not quite big enough curtain and it’s worth noting that you pay when you leave, so if your over 2 hours from entry they will charge you for 4hours (22.50)

After Liquidrom we get the train back to our hotel…. shower and sleep.