Day 6 - We're On A Boat!

There isn't a lot to report on from yesterday.  Susan and I took a 3.5 hour sightseeing tour around the central neighborhoods of Berlin.  We started on the Spree River north of Mitte and sailed east for a while, then turned into the Landwehrkanal, prior to returning to the Spree.  The tour was in German with live narration (we understood about 15% of it), but we had a book in English to follow along.  The tour guide was great, and made sure we had the English book and spoke to us several times in English to see if we had any questions.  It was a little chilly.  I wore shorts, which wasn't a good idea, but when the sun came out, it wasn't so bad.

 These little brown birds came to visit us prior to our departure.  They are very tame, and seem to be quite used to asking for handouts from tourists!

In the first boat lock.  This one lowered us about 30cm.  It was fascinating watching it do its thing!

If I had a boat, it would definitely have a scary-looking animal on the bow!

Berlin is famous for its beach bars, one of which we passed.  Not much traffic on a chilly day like this!

There was also lots of great street art:

On the boat, we were able to see the back side of part of the East Side Gallery that we weren't able to see the day before.

The Molecule Man statue, made of aluminum

This lock took us into the Landwehrkanal.  We were warned that many of the bridges on this part of the tour were very low, and would not accommodate a person standing on the upper deck. 

It's a little hard to tell in this photo, but the gentlemen in front of me had about 6-8" of clearance between their head and the bridge.  They captain of the ship played a chime sound as a warning a few seconds before we were to pass under the low bridges.

The German Technical Museum.  That is an aircraft that was used in the Berlin Airlift.

Part of the canal goes through the Berlin Zoo, adjacent to the llama enclosure.

This one gives you a better idea of how little clearance we had.  And yes, there were some close calls.  A group of guys behind us in the boat had some beers along with some shots.  One of them stood up, and then quickly sat back down with only seconds to spare.

We definitely recommend this to anyone who is coming to Berlin for the first time.  It went a long way to orienting us, and is something we should have done earlier in our time here.  Just be prepared for a little chilliness!  It was rather cold on the water.  These next few shots were taken after the boat cruise, when we were walking around the area on the way to the Ampelmann Restaurant.  This one is the Berliner Dom.

The New National Gallery

The Old National Gallery

After lunch, we still felt a little chilly, so we went to the Liquidrom, a very chic wellness facility with spas, a salt water pool, several saunas, and a lounge area.

This place was a true oasis and a great way to end the day.  In the large salt water pool (lower photo), they have underwater speakers that you can only hear if your ears are beneath the surface.  We're definitely going back here the next time we're in town.

Right now, we are packing our stuff up so that we can head to the train station later this afternoon.  It has been a great week here in Berlin, and we can't wait until we can come back.  We feel like we have barely scratched the surface!