Day 01 - Berlin / Wittenberg

After some much needed rest, we began today by walking through the Brandenburg Gate on our way to an early morning tour of the Reichstag, Germany’s historic parliament building, which was completed in 1894, burned in 1933 and finally rebuilt and topped with a glittering glass cupola in 1999.  We were able to gaze across Berlin’s rooftops and watch parliament in session down below.

We then had a city tour of Berlin with stops at the memorial to the 1933 book burning near Humboldt University, a section of the Berlin Wall that is still standing, and Checkpoint Charlie.  We saw many other sites on our drive through the city including the bunker where Hitler died and the Holocaust memorial.  We stopped for lunch near the Berlin Zoo before riding by the 1936 Olympic Stadium where Hitler tried to show the rest of the world that he was the best as we headed out of the city for an overnight in Wittenberg.

Tonight we go back in time from modern Berlin to the birth of the modern world in Wittenberg.  While it is nice to have been in a modern city with all of its conveniences, it is really cool to go back in time…but first dinner and ice cream!!! And some more sleep!!!