Interlaken

Did a very quick side trip (in the opposite direction) to Interlaken in Switzerland before heading on to Munich. Our guides Nick and Sybil were amazing. We had a really warm day (30 +) so they weren’t sure if we’d get a consistent thermal lift. We had better conditions than the expected though so our flight lasted about 20-25 minutes. We glided over both of the lakes, over the town and forest and very close to some sheer cliffs.

Zurich

The main attraction in Zurich of course was catching up with Yannik and meeting his parents. We had a great afternoon and evening with them at their place and had fondue for the first time!

The next day we had our own private tour guides showing us around Zurich. It is an amazingly beautiful city! You can also drink from any water fountain! So we did :)

We climbed to the top of Gross Munster church for a great view that was only surpassed by the view from a restaurant at the top of Uetliberg. We had a great meal with spectacular views!

Berlin

We arrived in Berlin around 10:30 am from Hamburg. We were staying in the old East Berlin not far from the wall. As we were too early to check in we went for a walk into the city, only about 15 minutes and had a look around ourselves before joining a walking tour of Berlin that started at 2, we had a great guide, who although was Irish had a PhD in German folklore and the use of German symbols in Nazi Germany, so a very enthusiastic informative guide! So enthusiastic the tour went for about 5 hours instead of 3  There is a lot of building happening in Berlin still as part of the reunification process and this is difficult because Berlin is an island so the water table is very high and everywhere you go there are these pipes coming out of the ground which are pumping water away from the construction site. The other problem of course is courtesy of WW2 and it is the layer of bombs that lie underground, on average there is one callout a day to check on a WW2 bomb that has been uncovered. Most are not live but occasionally they are, they estimate they will need this service til about 2040! Some curious things about Berlin architecture….you can’t trust when the building looks like it was built, this is not just a WW2 thing either. The Berliner Dom/Berlin Cathedral looks very much from the outside like the Marble Church in Copenhagen, but it was only built in the very early 1900’s. Likewise the building next door that is in many Hitler newsreels looks ancient but again is less than 200 years old. Additionally before the separation of Berlin in the 1960s there were two Palaces, the one that was located on the West side was maintained and still looks as it did, the one on the East German side was demolished by the Soviets and is now being rebuilt identically on the outside with nothing on the inside for tourism…there is also a fake building that they ran out of money to finish so erected huge canvases instead…

Hamburg

We went from Copenhagen to Hamburg by train. What we didn't expect was the train to get on a ferry for part of the way!! The train station in Hamburg is right in the middle of the city and luckily we stayed right next to the train station to make it easier with luggage, now that we had returned the car in Copenhagen. We set off on a tour the next morning and saw most of the city in that day, which was great as we were only there for one full day. This was really the first city where we were confronted with the destruction that came as part of WW2 bombing. One of the churches has been left as a shell to commemorate the lives lost although the steeple still stands, apparently it was used as a visual marker by the bombers so not targeted which is an interesting way to retain a historical building….. There were also memorials to the many Jewish people who were killed at this time including little gold coloured inserts in the paving, which we also saw in Berlin. These remember individuals and are inlaid in the paving in front of a building that had some significance, school, church, workplace, club etc