This morning after breakfast we decided that we were going to take a river cruise on the eastern side of Berlin. To do this we had to navigate the train system. Tommy, our guide, gave me very explicit written instructions how to do everything. The main train terminal was an easy walk from our hotel.

The first problem happened when buying the tickets at the machine that all the information was in German. Duh! He told us to buy the 4 ticket booklet and share but he didn’t tell us that there were 2 – 4 ticket options. A very nice college age student helped us out and reminded us that we had to validate the tickets before we got on the train.

We got on the right train the first time and had no problem finding the boat.

The first sites we saw was Museum Island, a UNESCO Word Heritage Site. It consists of 5 large Berlin museums on Spree Island that were built under the Prussian rulers. We will be visiting the Island tomorrow on our tour. The buildings were in ruin after WWII. In 1999, 10 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the reconstruction of the museums began and is still continuing today.

One of the most famous artifacts in the Museums is the 3000 year old bust of Nefertiti. Apparently it was uncovered in Egypt by German archaeologists and moved to Germany. It was discovered in the workshop of a German archaeologist in 1912. Egypt has been demanding her return since 1924 when she was finally displayed to the public. Nefertiti has become a symbol of the effect of European colonialism over Egypt and other countries.

It was a very leisurely 2 hour cruise where we drank wine and ate German pretzels. We got to the train station for the return trip and with a little help found the right train and validated our tickets. We all got on the train, we thought. Where’s Andy? He forgot to validate his ticket and missed getting on the train. It was a very good thing that he didn’t get on without validating because the “Validation Police” came around. Janice and I got reprimanded for validating the wrong side of the ticket. The guy next to us said that if Andy had gotten caught they would have taken his passport number, charged him 60 euros and made him get off the train and purchase another ticket and pay the 60 euro fine immediately.

At 5:30 PM we meet up with our guide and the two new women who arrived today that will be part of the pre-tour. He took us on a brief walking tour of the area. Tommy commented that West Berlin was completely rebuilt after the war but East Berlin was not because it was a communist county. We stopped at a Protestant church called Kaiser Wilhelm church. They purposely did not rebuilt this church so people would not forget what happened during the war. They repaired the church to make it safe and opened it to the public and build a new ugly modern church next door for worshipping

We ended the evening at an Italian restaurant. Note to self, you are not in Italy anymore.

Tomorrow the official tour starts. It should be in the mid 70s and sunny.