Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin

We left you in Brussels where we'd just had our mussels and chips. We didn't spend a lot of time here based on recommendations, but what we did see we liked. We visted the Grand Place, the Manneken Pis and St Katherine's Cathedral before jumping on a bus to Amsterdam.

We arrived in Amsterdam at about 3pm and wandered around the canals and had an indonesian dinner (because it was a Dutch colony you can get the best Indonesian outside of Indonesia in Holland).

The next day we took advantage of the free walking tour, which was the best thing we could have done. Our tour guide was Kevin from Boston, who knew Amsterdam inside out, after living there for 3 years - his specialty was the red light district. Kevin showed us the origins of the Dutch East India Shipping Co, the narrowest house in Holland, the Anne Frank Annex and the local Coffee Shops. The best thing about Kevin's tour was he knew something about everything and had a story for every question someone asked. That afternoon we visited the Anne Frank house, where she and her family spent 2 years hiding from the Nazi's during WWII.

It seems Amsterdam is the city of bikes, so we thought we'd better hire some and do it like the locals do. We ventured out to the suburbs and stopped off at a couple of local markets, then had to have a rest because bike bum got the better of us! That night we jumped on a bus to Berlin, arriving the next morning.

The rain followed us to Berlin, which made it all the more gray because of it's turbulent history. Once again we took advantage of the free tour, this time with Maria (a Japanese/Sweed). Maria took us to the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag (home of German Parliament), the Holocaust Memorial (the pic with the concrete blocks), the location of Hitler's Bunker, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, plus "Old Berlin" which managed to survive WWII bombings. That afternoon we climbed up the Reichstag dome which has an amazing view of the city.

Today we took the train out to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp (the pic with the chimney). The weather was abismal, which fitted the general feel of the camp. We did an audio tour to get the full background of what went on there for the 17 years it was in operation. On the way back to Berlin we stopped for some strudel to lift our mood. We had some extra time so went back into the city and headed to the Holocaust memorial museum in the city centre. It gave an excellent overview of how it personally affected individuals and families.

We've got an early start in the morning, heading to Prague for a couple of nights. Hopefully we'll start to see some sun!