Last stop: Berlin

My final city was Berlin. I'm not a huge fan of large cities but I was actually quite impressed with Berlin. It's quite a modern city, but it's also doing a good job about remembering its history.

The first day I wondered around in the morning before going on a free walking tour in the afternoon.

I went inside the Berlin Cathedral. It's quite an impressive cathedral. It's dome was completely destroyed during World War II.

You get an excellent view of the city from the dome walkway. It seems that everywhere in Berlin is under construction. There were cranes in every direction.

The walking tour started by the Brandenburg Gate by Pariser Platz, the main square. In the main square there is the U.S. Embassy and the French Embassy, as well as the famous Hotel Adlon.

We stopped by one of the remaining sections of the Berlin Wall.

We stopped by Checkpoint Charlie which is a huge tourist draw. The Checkpoint was rebuilt in 2000 after many tourists came to Berlin looking for Checkpoint Charlie because they remembered their parents and grandparents talking about travelling through the checkpoint.

We saw the French Cathedral which is across from the German Cathedral.

That evening, I went looking for the Soviet War Memorial and military cemetery, built in 1949. It's definitely worth finding. Despite how big it is, you do have to go looking for it. It's off the main path in Treptower Park in East Berlin.

In the memorial, there 16 stone sarcophagi, representing the 16 Soviet Republics. The sarcophagi have military carvings and quotes from Joseph Stalin. Facing the main part of the memorial is the Motherland, who weeps for her lost sons.

The main part of the memorial consists of two large pieces of red granite, representing stylized Soviet flags. Beside them are two kneeling soldiers.

At the end is a 12 metre tall statue of a Soviet soldier carrying a sword and a German child, while standing on a broken swastika.

One more post about Europe.