The Circus Hotel is a very "green" hotel. For instance, they do not automatically provide soap, shampoo, etc. in the hotel room, you have to request it at the front desk. Accordingly, they had a very limited buffet for breakfast but it was a very good selection. There is a sign there that asks that you not waste food. The coffee there was very good so that made me happy.
I had read online about a "free" walking tour of Berlin that left our hotel around 1:00 p.m. It's the kind of tour where you just tip the guide at the end of the tour. Since it was our first day in Berlin, we thought it was the perfect thing to get the lay of the land. We went down to the lobby and waited for the group to pick us up and get started. Our tour guy was a young British man named Sam who writes for a travel website and conducts tours as well. He was really into the history of Berlin and he was quite knowledgeable and interesting. He walked us to Museum Plaza where we met a few other guests and he pointed out the various museums and told us which ones he recommended and which ones were all in German and maybe not as good for us to see as others.
Sam gave us a very good and detailed explanation of the history of Berlin and West Berlin and East Berlin and the powers who governed them at various times. As we walked he also told us when we were in East Berlin and when we were in West Berlin. We stopped briefly at the largest chocolate store in Berlin called Fassbender and Rausch. It was amazing! They had huge displays made out of chocolate. I will post some pictures soon. The store is huge and on the second floor they have a Chocolate Cafe where some kind of chocolate is in every dish. Believe it or not David and I did NOT buy any chocolate but we tucked the location away in our minds to return later.
Sam then took us to Checkpoint Charlie which I was very excited to see but which turned out to be a tourist spectacle!!! There are actually "actors" there dressed up in Russian military uniforms who you can get your picture taken with and who fake stamp your passport. Sam told us most of them were porn stars at night! I have to say Checkpoint Charlie didn't move me like I thought it would. We stopped for a break there and some people had lunch and David and I had ice cream!
We continued on too see some sections of the Berlin Wall which still exist and that was very moving. Sam told us about how the Wall looked at the time and where the "kill zones" were. He also had some stories about people who tried to cross the wall and were killed and people who successfully crossed the wall. He talked about President Reagan's famous speech when he told Gorbachev "tear down this wall." Of course David and I remember the speech clearly and Sam remarked how much he likes it when "older" people who remember the history personally take his tour!!! That might have lowered his tip!
We then walked to the former Nazi Luftwaffe Office. It was massive as were (are) all Nazi buildings. It is typically drab, stark, and, of course huge by large. It is now being used as the finance office for the German Government. On the end of this building was painted a long mural, painted by the communists depicting "the people" in various forms of industrious endeavors. We continued our walk to an open, green area surrounded by apartments buildings. It was here where Hitler's former bunker existed underground. There was really nothing to identify it as such, other than a small placard. It looked as if most Berliners used the area to walk their dogs.
We concluded our walking tour on the Unter den Linden, the street where the Brandenburg Gate is located. It is a pretty impressive looking gate with the chariot and horse team on top. We also saw the Hotel Adlon where Michael Jackson dangled his baby out of the window to show the crowd below. Our guide told us Queen Elizabeth stayed in this Hotel and was so impressed with it that she bought a 10% interest in the hotel.
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