Parliament and peddling

Good spot for a train station, our starting point today

Reichstag

Norman Foster's dome on top of Reichstag

We walked right to the top of the dome

My fav piece of the wall

Zooming along

A famous Berlin piece

Molecular Man

East Side gallery is popular with the tourists

Today we have an important booking, passports in hand we make it through the security to the Reichstag, Germany’s parliament. This building had not been used since 1933 due to a firse, was part of the final battle in Berlin in those last days of the war and was rebuilt in the 1990’s. I am here to see is Norman Foster's dome that was added during the rebuild. Norman has designed lots of buildings but my favourite is The Gherkin in London.

We make it to the roof top in record time and have views of all of Berlin, in just a week of being a tourist we can identify so much Brandenburg Gate, Museum Island, Berliner Dom, Alex, the shops…..all loomed over by the TV tower.

Unfortunately Angela had to cancel our coffee catch up as she had to go to Brussels to sort out the Greeks.

Its time for Jane and I to part our ways for the rest of the day. I am off for a bike ride, I can’t resist after watching bikes zooming around the streets of Berlin for the last week. The bike shop is at the TV tower and off I go towards the Spree for a pleasant ride along the river to two important destinations. Oh oh, the bike path is under construction, so now I need to push the bike back up the steps I just came down. Where is Stephen, I need some muscles, this bike is so much heavier than mine. Ok, am not sure which way to go. Time to get out the map, hmm, I still don’t really know which way to go. Lets head in the general direction. Riding, riding, cars zooming, bikes zooming, tourists getting in the way. Finally I have made it back to the general area, a pleasant ride along the Spree is a distant memory now. There is a girl zooming along, I will follow her, change up a gear and put on some speed these girls know how to ride. Ok, she knows how to get past the bridges and where to cross the roads. Thankfully she leads me right to where I want to go, the East Side Gallery.

This is a long section of the wall that was painted by street artists in 1990 as an international memorial for freedom. So its time to turn into a tourist and snap photos, do selfies, take photos for other tourists and generally have a good time. The whole strip is like one big party with all the tourists wandering along amazed and dazed. My favorite is the trabie coming out of the wall.

So that’s destination one onwards we go to destination two. I have now officially gone past where all the tourists go in my hire bike with rubber duck horn and stand out like a sore thumb. I can’t get over how many people are riding their bikes not a lycra clad roadie in sight. All in their street clothes, this morning I saw a very well dressed man in a business suit going to a meeting through the Brandenburg Gate. Destination two is Molecular Man a 45 tonne sculpture in the river in front of the Allianz building. I made it.

Now fingers crossed that I can make it back, as I have to get back over a different bridge and ride on the other side. OK, made it back to East Side Gallery, there are signs to Tiergarten and Alexandraplatz, which way do I go? I know I will use the TV tower as a beacon and follow my nose. Another detour for road works, I take over a cleaning machine, yes, legend. Now get taken over by two American teenagers and finally I am back to familiar territory. Time for the obligatory photo shoot in front of the tower.

What do I do next, all on my own, well lets see how long the queues are at the TV Tower. 20 minute wait I can do that. A quick look in TK Max till my allotted time and then I am whisked 200 metres to the top. Its nice to do it as it has been looming over our holiday since day 1. But really the Tower is too high, panorama plunket is much better.  There is a long line to get down, thankfully two Canadians in their 20s keep me entertained with stories from their walk in Spain on the Comino trail.

Back to base and Jane arrives laden with shopping. Just in time for the traditional laying out of the purchases. The maid arrives to turn down the beds and we have to politely shoo her away as the beds are groaning under the weight of our purchases.