Berlin - Day 4

The last day of a trip is always a little bittersweet - you're hopefully so thankful for a great experience, you wish it didn't have to end yet at the same time, you're tired and would enjoy some downtime at home.  Our flight back to Norway wasn't until 9 pm so we had the entire day to round out our trip to Berlin.

Late Monday morning, we made our way to Victory Column.  This monument has been in Berlin since 1873.  It was relocated to it's present location by the Nazis in 1939 and it luckily survived WWII practically unscathed.  We paid a couple of euros to climb to hundreds of winding steps to the top to take in views of the city.

 

From the first observation level

From the top - Brandenburg Gate at the end of the street

The views were spectacular but it was a bit chilly, crowded and my husband is not a big fan of heights so we descended and crossed the street to walk through the Tiergarten.

The Tiergarten is Berlin's central park and the 5+ square kilometres of trees and grassy areas is a haven in the middle of a busy city.  It is calm, quiet, beautiful and while in the middle, one could hardly tell we were in the city.  Joe and I spent over an hour following the paths, people watching and stopping to pause and take it all in.  Every once in awhile, a gentle breeze would make it's way through the park, picking up the fallen leaves.  The rustling of those leaves skirting around the trees was simply magical.  I could have spent hours upon hours in that park - bringing a blanket to sit on in a quiet spot with a thermos full of coffee.

 The remainder of the day was spent wandering the streets.  We walked for miles and miles, stopping for goulash soup and currywurst before continuing on.  Eventually we made our way back towards our hotel.  On our first night, we'd walked by a small restaurant, Ruben & Carla's, and we decided to eat there before leaving for the airport.  We enjoyed a delicious meal before returning to the hotel to fetch our luggage and catch a flight back to Stavanger.

This trip to Berlin was seriously a dream come true for me.  I finally got to see all of these places I'd heard/learned so much about with my own eyes and it couldn't have been more perfect.

Berlin, we will meet again, I'm sure of that.

You can find the other posts about our long weekend in Berlin here, here, here and here.

I've been nominated for an expat blog award - comments contribute to the decision.  I would be honoured if you took a moment to leave one here.