Berlin Bus

One of Berlin's Berlin Bears
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This morning the day started with a brief tour of Berlin city. Our first stop was the Brandenberg Gate. The major workers union was demonstrating at the gate today. After this it was on to the Reichstaad, the home of the german parliament and then a stop at the Martin Luther museum. We stopped by Checkpoint Charlie where you could have your photo taken with two guys, one in Russian army uniform and one in American for a tip (not likely). Our last stop was at the remains of the Berlin Wall, which is these days fenced off as too many people were taking souveniers. We stopped briefly back at the hotel for coffee and comfort stop, and were told there was a hydraulic problem with the bus. Our driver Pascal would be taking the bus to the depot to get fixed and we would be boarding a temporary bus to continue on our trip. This bus took us on to Rostock, where we boarded a ferry for the 2hr voyage to Denmark. We decided to have lunch in the ferry restaurant. Joe ordered steak medium-well and it came out nearly moo-ing - probably medium rare. Our fixed bus did not make it to the ferry before we left so once off the ferry we boarded another temporary bus for our remaining drive to Copenhagen. It was hard to stay awake during this part of the trip as the drone of the bus seemed to lull everyone off to sleep.

Brandenberg Gate
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On arrival in the city at 7:30pm we went straight to the Tivoli Gardens. This is a fenced off "peoples" park that requires payment for admission. It is an entertainment precinct for young and old, There are many restaurants of varying cuisines, a fun park with rides and side-show alley type games, a large lake with boats to ride, many walking paths vastly decorated with bright lights. There are three entertainment stages, a pantomine stage, a small orchestra pit (which had people playing music the entire time we were there). There is also a larger stage area which seemed to be setup for a concert later that night around 10pm. Joe and I decided to try the local hot dogs as apparently these are very popular with the locals. We walked around and around the park down different paths making sure we saw it all. It was getting quite cold, apparently about 8deg, so I was happy to leave at around 10pm. Leaving the park we were happy to see Pascal and our fixed bus, who had come across on the 5pm ferry, and had dropped off our luggage at the hotel so it would be waiting for us in our room.

New friends..