First some housekeeping. We’re about a third of the way through the trip now. To honor dad…the price of regular unleaded here in Germany is about 1.81 euros per liter. I’ll let you do the math. And for Graham and Dana…I saw a shop (but did not get a picture) called BurgerMeister. I can’t say where Meister Burger is….

We began the day at new heights, as we went up the radio tower originally built by East Berlin. The view of the city from up there was tremendous. The elevator was a zippy ride too. After that came a tour went from old to older.

First came a stop to see a remnant of the Berlin Wall. The portion we saw did a good job of showing how the inner wall, the “kill zone” and the outer wall were laid out, and the tour guide described how thoroughly East Germany controlled their population. We had forgotten that the wall was not linear, but that it actually encircled West Berlin (as did East Germany).

Second stop of the day was at a monument for the murdered European Jews of WW2. The monument was designed to keep you off balance and to remind you of the anonymous way the Jews and other disfavored groups were killed.

Last stops of the morning were at the location of Hitler’s bunker (an empty lot now, not very interesting) and at Checkpoint Charlie. The latter is interesting in that the city has grown up around it in thirty years time. The Soviet checkpoint of course is completely gone, so you are left to visualize how things were.

After an afternoon break we took off again. The tour went to the Wansee villa where Nazi officials discussed “the final solution” for all the groups they hated. It is remarkable how little time that discussion took. Next we went to the “Bridge of Spies.” We did not see Tom Hanks.

The group changed gears at this point; we learned a great deal about the various emperor Fredricks Germany had earlier in its history, then got to view the outside of a “small” mansion Frederick I had built. It looks swanky! Finally we had dinner at a nice lakeside villa that we were told is Tom Cruise’s favorite. We didn’t see him either.

Tomorrow we start moving south…we’ll meet you there.