Wednesday 18 June

We bought a day ticket, got the train back to Kurfustendamm, and took a coach tour to Potsdam, about half an hour's drive south-west of the city. This is where many fancy houses and palaces are. We were driven around, then went on a guided tour of 'Sanssouci', built in 1747 by Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg. Very grand, ornate, UNESCO listed.


Back in Berlin, we went across town by underground, and came to the street where the Nazis had their headquarters, and their interrogation cells. This area was bombed, and cleared, then had the Berlin Wall going along it. Now it's been excavated, and is called the Topography of Terror. All the pictures and copies of documents, from 1933 to 1989, which will go into a memorial building are displayed in the open. We spent quite a bit of time there.



This is typical of most of central Berlin, especially the eastern side where we have been. There appear to be old buildings, but they are reconstructions of 19th century done with western money since reunification. There are some communist Germany buildings, which are pretty decayed, and there is still a lot of empty ground, which is surprising when you think that the war was nearly 60 years ago.