Day the first!!!!!

Eugh! 3 AM starts are harder than they sound, even with several doses of coffee!

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However, skipping forward a few hours (thankfully) we had all had a restful and relatively painless flight and were ready to explore Berlin! We took theS-Bahn into the city proper and began our tour of Berlin with lunch: currywurst being the most popular choice, although a few stragglers in our group were ensnared by the golden arches. Unfortunately, the likes of McDonalds and Starbucks are just as prosperous in Germany!

Potsdamerplatz was our next destination: this square is the beating heart of Berlin and is (excitingly) home to Europe's first set of traffic lights! Less importantly, what is now the Sony Centre was once the headquarters of the SA, which Hitler stormed in 1934 as a step towards consolidating his power. Even less importantly (!), there is a small section of the Berlin Wall here, the dividing line between East and West Berlin, the boundary erected in a single night by 40,000 officers to prevent oppressed East Germans accessing the wealth and freedom available on the west side.

Further up, we had a look at Hitler's Chancellory Palace, which he had ordered to be 150m long (twice as long as the Hall of Mirrors, at Versailles where that humiliating treaty was signed!) and made of marble, to make his 'guests' unsure and edgy before they even reached his office! Next was the area over thr Fuhrer Bunker, where Hitler spent his last days. 'Downfall', which we are currently watching, encapsulates these days very nicely, so go and watch it! 

After a brief look at one of the watchtowers, situated in the 'no-man's land' that lay beside the wall, we proceeded to Checkpoint Charlie to learn about the most tense point in the Cold War: it was here that the Americans and Soviets had their tanks aimed at each other, each with a nuclear arsenal sufficient to destroy the world sitting at home. We agreed that although the American soldier by the checkpoint collecting 2€ for everyone who had a photo with him, none of us were that desperate to pay for the privilege!

Mr Dickens then deployed his collection of disturbing stories as we looked at the excavated Gestapo headquarters, including Communist party leader Ernst Thalmann's account of an 'intensive interrogation' that left him within an inch of his life.

We also saw the French and German Cathedrals, and the huge Concert Hall that lay between them, which reminded us that not all of German history is depressing! However, this was only after the group has split up, mainly due to Dr Coke-Woods, though apparently a joint effort by all of our highly responsible staff!

Thankfully, Mr Dickens made it up to us by playing (very loudly) a Conrad Schumann song. Which was really appreciated.... thank you....

I will very quickly gloss over Jack Connolly's attempts to take a 'stranger selfie' at this point.

We visited the 'Platz des Volksaufstandes' next, with its colourful depiction of the benefits of socialism on one wall, contrasting starkly with its story of how a peaceful strike in 1953 led to thousands of arrests by the Soviet Government.

On our way back, we passed through the Bebelplatz, the site of book burning under the Nazis. This horrific act is commemorated by an underground room full of empty white shelves. What makes it even worse is that students of Humboldt University, an intellectual powerhouse in which Einstein and Karl Marx both studied, were forced to burn the books!

This led us onto Unter den Linden (Under the Lime Trees) - Berlin's main thoroughfare. It was here that a bunch of angry ex-soldiers (Freikorps) organised the Kapp Putsch in 1920, which led to Dr Wolfgang Kapp having control over Berlin until he was defeated by a general strike several days later. It was also a place for Hitler to show off - his Potsdam Day, a celebration after he became Chancellor in 1933, is a good example. We finished our tour at the Neue Wache - originally used as a guardhouse for Prussian troops but not used as a war memorial to remember all victims of violent conflict.

We came to the hotel with pretty full heads, some tired feet and (in some cases) high on sugar and liable to burst out laughing for no obvious reason. And so, having checked into our basic, but comfortable hotel rooms, had a nourishing buffet dinner and finally found out how to connect to the wi-fi.... here we are watching 'Downfall' in the games room... the secret underground bunker of our hotel. I just had to say that....

Hopefully tomorrow you'll get a few shorter stories, but there's a (very detailed) idea of today's adventures!!! Also, if you can figure out who the blogger is, there may be a special mystery prize....

Goodnight!