This is part of my travel diary of a tour I joined from Contiki which goes to Berlin+Prague and Vienna.

We took a late morning flight to Berlin from Terminal 5. This is my first time to use this new terminal and I have to say the design is really impressive. It is spacious inside with very modern design. The journey only took us about an hour and a half and we arrived in early afternoon. The weather was nice and sunny-much better than the rainy UK. For myself, this is my second time in Berlin and I wanted to learn more about the history about this fascinating city. We met the tour guide and fellow travelers for a welcome evening and dinner. We then retired early for the night.

We began our day with a visit to the East Side Gallery. It is the largest open air gallery in the world. It stretches from Ostbahnhof station to the Oberbaumbrücke. 118 artists from 21 countries have painted several pictures on a 1,316 meter long section of the former Berlin Wall, which is now a listed landmark. The most famous pictures are "Brotherly Kiss" by Dimitri Vrubel, "Fatherland" by Gunther Schaefer and "Berlin ? New York" by Gerhard Lahr.

After the war, the devastated building was rebuilt in a simplified form from 1961–71 to plans by Paul Baumgarten, but it was not used for parliamentary functions. The dome, which had been blown up in 1945, was not rebuilt. After reunification, the German Federal Government decided to use the building as a parliament once again. From 1994–99 the Reichstag was reconstructed and extended by the Architect Sir Norman Forster, taking into consideration both the immense historical implications and its function as a modern working parliament, and adding an accessible dome. The glass dome divert natural sunlight into the building with an underlying meaning that it can also “shed light on the workings of democracy”

In 2006 the stadium hosted the final match of FIFA World Cup Germany 2006™ between France and Italy.

Construction of the camp took place during the summer months of 1936, at the same time that the Olympic Games were being staged in Berlin. Prisoners were brought here to do the construction work. The new camp was built further away from the town and the main roads: too many people could see what was happening at the former site. Sachsenhausen was used as a model for other concentration camps, and was also a training centre for the guards. The camp was for male prisoners (a separate camp was used for women).
Between 1936 and 1945 over 200,000 prisoners were kept at Sachsenhausen. At first these were mainly political prisoners or trade unionists. Later they were joined by groups which the Nazis decided were "inferior", including Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and religious leaders from Germany and the countries which had been occupied. Prisoners were marked with a triangle which identified why they were there, for example: black triangles for political dissidents, red triangles for communists, double yellow triangles (making a star) for Jews, pink triangles for homosexuals. Tens of thousands of prisoners died. Many died from hunger or disease. Many others were worked to death, or were murdered by the SS. Among the people who were brought to Sachsenhausen were those who were suspected of taking part in the attempt to assassinate Hitler.

Instead of destroying the camp or preserving it as a memorial, the Soviets decided to use Sachsenhausen as their own concentration camp. It was put under the control of the NKVD (the Soviet secret service). Former Nazi officials were imprisoned here, together with political prisoners. About 60,000 Germans were imprisoned here between 1945 and 1950, of whom over 12,000 died from hunger and disease. The camp was finally closed in March 1950, after which it was used by the East German army and police. In 1961 the site was turned into a National Memorial: at that time it was used by the communist regime.

Berlin/Prague/Vienna tour Day 3
We began this day with a guided historical tour of the city. We started in the Marx-Engels-Forum. It is a public park and is named for Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, authors of The Communist Manifesto of 1848 and regarded as the founders of modern socialism. The park was created by the authorities of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1986.
It consists of a rectangular wooded park with a large, circular paved area in the centre. In the middle of this stands a sculpture by Engelhardt, consisting of larger-than-life bronze figures of Marx (sitting) and Engels (standing). Behind the statues is a relief wall showing scenes from the history of the German socialist movement.

We then walked past the Berliner Dom and the Frederick the Great Statue and reached the Museum Island. It is home to a clutch of great State-run museums and sights. We came to Bebelplatz, one of the most noteworthy tourist attraction. The square dates to about 1740, but it was named in 1947 after the joint founder of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), August Bebel. At first, it was to be the centre of the Forum Fridericianum planned by Knobelsdorff. This could not however be fully realized – only the opera house was constructed from 1741–43, which lead to the grounds becoming known as Opernplatz. Behind the Opera House , St. Hedwig's Cathedral can be found (built 1747–1773), while the western side is the site of the Königliche Bibliothek (Royal Library, 1775–80), known colloquially as the "Kommode" ("chest of drawers"); today, this building belongs to the Humboldt University and is attached to the Alte Palais (Old Palace)

We then got into one of the underground stations nearby. The underground played a very important role during the time of the cold war. Before the Berlin Wall was put up across the country, people living in the East Berlin could ‘escape’ by getting onto the underground as the network consists of services that loops between the west side and the east side of the city. After the Berlin Wall was put up, the Eastern regime closed all the underground stations to prevent any more escapes. Many of the tube lines were still running, as the west side paid the east a fee for that, but stations on the east side were guarded by soldiers from the east. Interestingly, many West Berliners at that time could be on a train that went past these stations before reaching their destinations. The trains did not stop at these stations but the passengers could well see the abandoned stations or the guards. We then emerged out the station and continued our walk along the Unter den Linden.

We then walked past the Brandenburg gate, the symbol of the unification of Germany, before reaching the Holocaust Memorial.

Nowhere inside the memorial, or around it, does it say what it commemorates. It seems that the creater wants you to come up with your own feeling or conclusion. I think it also depends on the weather or mood when you visit the place. If you go on a sunny day, it could play a role for allowing you to take a rest. For families, this could be the site for hide-and-seek between daddy and son. However, if you go on a cloudy or rainy day, you could have a different feeling.
After a short walk from the memorial, we reached the site of the underground shelter(bunker) where Hitler, the main character in the dark history of the Second World War, spent the last of his days. Before this trip, I used to think that he was German born but actually, he was Austrian by birth. Another interesting thing is that initially he wanted to be an artist but was rejected twice by the Art Academy in Vienna. One of his self portrait was sold for a reasonably high price recently in the UK, far more than what the auctioner expected!!

Being rejected by the Arts school, Hitler then joined the military and moved on to become a secret agent for the government. He then became a member of the Nazi party and finally came to power and became the chancellor. Legends says that he knew how to give good speech, how to charm people, kind of like a mind reader. Interestingly, a man with a twisted mind like his, managed to get involved with 7 women. 6 of them attempted suicide-well you can probably work out why. And one of the women he fell in love with was actually his niece- inbreeding seems to be a common practice in Austria? (many of you may have heard of the horrific tale of Josef Fritzl).

From 1961 to 1990, Checkpoint Charlie was the only border crossing point for the Allies, foreigners, employees of the Permanent Representation and officials of the GDR. Today, the checkpoint is commemorated by a border sign and a soldier's post. The museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie tells the history of the Wall.

On 17 August 1962, a teenage East German, Peter Fechter, was wounded in the back, shot by East German guards while trying to escape from East Berlin. His body lay tangled in a barbed wire fence, slowly bleeding to death, in full view of the world’s media. American soldiers could not rescue him because he was a few yards inside the Soviet sector. East German border guards were reluctant to approach him for fear of provoking Western soldiers, one of whom had shot an East German border guard just days earlier. According to legend, some of the west Berliners threw bandages into the no-man zone in the hope that would help him. Over an hour later Mr. Fechter’s body was removed by the East German guards.

We then spent the afternoon to chill out and get some souvenirs. Apart from the usual ones such as magnets, you can also get souvenirs of the Ampelmann.