Day Two and the morning of our departure has arrived. I figured we should not leave Berlin without taking in at least one monument. Since our hotel (Ramada Hotel) is fairly close to the Brandenburg Gate, we decided to take this 30-minute walk.

Two Bieber fans in front of the Brandenburg Gate Berlin

There were only few tourists on the former western side of the gate, whereas most tourists were at the Pariser Platz behind it. This is where you also find the Hotel Adlon, where Michael Jackson did his infamous stunt of dangling his baby out of the window. This must be a big tourist attraction, especially since Jackson’s death.

Two guards in front of the Brandenburg Gate

The guard on the right is silver painted and real. It was hard to tell what function either one had except for attracting tourists.

Berlin and boat trips on the Spree River

On our way back, we also passed the Reichstag.

Berliner Reichstag

Last, but not least, I enjoyed the Psst! (Shush!) signs on the Deutsche Bundesbahn train.

Deutsche Bundesbahn reminding passengers to keep quiet

By the time we made it to the train at 11:20, we needed no reminder to keep quiet. We needed to rest in the comfort of our First Class seats (the upgrade was only 8 euro for this round trip). The girls were listening to music while I started the second half of the book The Hunger Games (Hunger Games Trilogy 1) (from Amazon.de). It takes about nine hours to read this book, or a round trip  by train from Frankfurt- to Berlin. The book is written for adolescents, but I enjoyed it too.

Now I have done Berlin in one day, New York in three days, and Japan in nine days. For most Germans, these “short” trips would be considered not worth going. Any trip visiting a city within Germany should be at least three days and traveling overseas should not be less than three weeks. So I have been told many times – by Besserwisser.