The first day involved quite a lot of gentle strolling to see various sites. Mum had given us a wish list of things she wanted to see before we set off. We did most of them - not Checkpoint Charlie (far too tacky) or the Botanical Gardens (too far out of the centre) but most of the others were visited!
First stop Alexanderplatz in the Eastern half of Berlin. The tall tower is the TV Tower (Fernsehenturn) and the big wheel is part of a larger fairground.
No big tree this year but a huge blue bell hanging from the ceiling so still good to see.
Full of more good food and off we went towards Brandenburg Gate, stopping on the way to wander about in the Jewish Memorial - I love this memorial, it's so atmospheric.
As you can see, the first time we got to the Brandenburg Gate it was still daylight. We had a look at the Reichstag, just round the corner, but the queue was so long we decided not to wait even though it was a lovely clear day so the views from the top would have been lovely (if we'd got there before night!). Instead, we found a cafe to sit in, enjoy ApfelStrudel and coffee while we waited for the darkness to see Unter den Linden at its best. We weren't disappointed!
The Brandenbug Gate is always nicely lit up as well and there was a great big Christmas tree here for us to admire!
Mum was so impressed with the tree she even got her camera out and took a couple of photos - 2 more than I took on this holiday as I didn't take my camera out so Jonathon was responsible for recording the trip.
There's a Russian memorial in the Tier Garten so we had a look at that too.
We walked past the Siegesaule as well but Jonathon didn't take a photo so you'll have to look at the photos from our earlier visit to see that!
Lunch in the Nikolai Viertel was followed by another metro ride to Gendarmenmarkt. Unfortunately just as we arrived so did the heavy rain so we voted not to stay there but to go somewhere warmer and drier! So ... off we went to KaDeWe - Berlin's equivalent of Harrods. We had hoped to have tea there in the food court but there were no seats (obviously everyone else had the same idea) so we went back to our hotel and ate there instead.
Sunday and our last day for this break. Not much seems to open before 12 noon on Sundays in Berlin but the zoo does so that's were we went.
We still love Berlin and were really pleased to have been able to visit again. Perhaps next time we'll go in the Spring / Summer so it's a bit warmer but we were lucky with the weather with not too much rain.