On Sunday, the first sight on the list was the dome of the Reichstag. Peter and I have been sleeping too long, so we didn’t join to visit this one. Instead, we went there about an hour later and walked along the Spree (Reichstagufer) to the train station Friedrichstraße, where we enjoyed coffee and free Wi-Fi while waiting for the girls.

Together, we walked along the boulevard Unter den Linden passing the Humbolt University and the State Opera to the cathedral. Before entering, we had a little rest at the Lustgarten, which is right on front of it. It took us about an hour to do the tour which includes the dome, the little museum and the crypt.

The State Opera was another landmark we wanted to enjoy from the inside. Our guided tour startet at 2pm and lasted a little over an hour. It is not quite as magnificent as the Vienna State Opera  but it’s definitely worthwhile visiting.

After walking across Gendarmenmarkt and along Friedrichstraße we reached Checkpoint Charlie where we had our first encounter with the former American-Russian border through Berlin. While rewarding ourselves with a quick coffee break I wrote a few postcards. We continued with a relic of the Berlin Wall along Niederkirchnerstraße and the open air exhibition “Topograhpy of Terror“.

With a short side trip to the Carnival of Cultures we started into a more casual evening. I left after about an hour and had some dinner with Peter. This night we went to Spandau. Later in the evening the girls joined us again and we got to taste the famous Berliner Weisse. Peter and I closed the night with a beer at a pub next door after we put the girls to bed.

Cover photo by Peter Holler displays the Lustgarten viewed from the dome of the Berlin Cathedral.