Have you ever seen a duck with two heads?

Last day in Berlin, so we need to make the most of it.

Our final breakfast at Berio and armed with coffees to take away, we catch bus 100 to the Tiergarten and climb the Siegusaulle.  This beautiful gold statue of the winged victory is set in the middle of one of Berlin’s major roads and is a pseudo-centre point to the city. It is set upon a giant column with a tiled mural at the first stage celebrating the victories of the Prussian state over the imperious Franco armies led by Napoleon.

A climb up the many many stairs of the spiral staircase, leads you to the top of the tower and out to a panoramic view of the grand expanse that is Berlin. Fortunately, it was sunny, though slightly hazy, but this allowed us to get an unimpeded view across this great metropolis, that was once divided by concrete and the ideologies of other nations.

We spiral back down the stairs, through the tunnel under the road with its interactive LED display and spill into the Tiergarten, for a casual stroll up the paths with their bare or burnt orange coverage. One can’t help but sing at moments like these, so we did. “Oh what a beautiful morning” came to mind and we sang it with gusto. 

Crossing bridges over the garden lakes and chasing ducks that appeared to have two heads, we walked through the park to Potsdammer Platz, grabbed some bratwurst and gluhwein and then headed to photography gallery recommended by a guest speaker at Jason’s college.

The gallery was a little disappointing as there were only a few pieces to see. Oh well. I got to go somewhere I hadn’t been before. Yay me.

We headed back to Potsdammer Platz Weinnacht Markt where we caught up with Kate and Raz to share the days experiences over gluhwein. Raz had been out to a dilapidated mental health institution that once had Hitler as a patient. The photos Raz showed of the institution were eerie, cold and haunting and to go there on your own must have made it even more disturbing, not only from its appearance, but also its history. It looked like a place of a lot of unsettled souls.

As a finale to the evening, Raz and Kate squealed their way down the man-made toboggan run set up in the market, riding on what appeared to be the inner tube of an old truck tyre with a rubber base.  Unfortunately it was time for Jason and I to head back to the apartment to pack and prepare for a whole new experience, as we would be leaving early in the morning to catch the train to Dresden.