The morning was sunny, so we had a good view of the countryside, but slept most of the way. Saw rolling fields, isolated farms, small towns, birch forests. They handed out bottled water and a box brunch, which included juice, fresh fruit, a stuffed pretzel roll, and a cookie. The train was not an express, as we made one stop along the way at Rostok. Some of the cruise passengers disembarked there for the excursion to the concentration camp.

About 2 and half hours after leaving Warnemünde, we arrived at the Ostbahnhof in Berlin, the same station that Stalin arrived at for the Potsdam Conference in 1945. We met Martin, our guide for the day, and walked to the bus. Our first photo stop was but a few minutes later, as it was only two blocks from the train station. Called the East Gallery, it's the largest section of the Berlin Wall still standing, although the vertical concrete slabs now serve as a canvas for artists. And it's not contiguous; every so often a section has been torn down to allow foot traffic back and forth.

Our excursion group exits the train car at Ostbahnhoff in Berlin.

One of the last remaining stretches of actual wall has been turned in to an art gallery.

Jill holds the broken end of a panel, a square metal post marking the place where a section of the Wall has been torn down.

Graffiti seemed as much a part of the Berlin landscape as the Wall and construction sites.

Lauri poses in front of one panel in the East Gallery, a striking collection of handprints in black, white, blue and grey. (Mostly.)

Our next stop: the famous Checkpoint Charlie, after a fairly lengthy (and roundabout) tour of both the Turkish and Jewish sections of the city. The checkpoint is on Friedrichstrasse, one of the main thoroughfares in Berlin (although it seemed that every road we traveled was torn up with construction, worse here than even in St. Petersburg, as Berlin expands its subway system.) The guard house in the middle of the street is still there, along with signs on both sides indicating that you're leaving either the American or Soviet sector. Here, as with much of the Wall throughout the city, the only clue of its existence is a double row of cobblestones across the sidewalks, streets, parkling lots and grassy areas. A museum of sorts lies at the corner of the intersection, and a movie theater across from that has a retrospective. Didn't have time for any of that, just photos.

Twin turrets rise above this interesting castle-like structure. Something in the Turkish section, perhaps?

The famous guardhouse at Checkpoint Charlie sits in the middle of Friedrichstrasse, the various signs warning us that beyond the intersection lies the Soviet sector.

The reverse view from the previous photo tells us we are entering the American sector.

A double row of cobblestones are all that remain of the Wall in this part of the city.

Nowadays, tourists visiting Checkpoint Charlie can get a commemorative visa stamp, shop for souvenirs, and grab a burger at McDonald's.

Continued the tour of the city, including a barrage of famous buildings and streets: Charlottenstrasse, Alexanderplatz, Potsdamerplatz, etc. We made no photo stops, but managed to snag some decent pictures from the moving bus.

Moving-bus pictures included a large church . . .

. . . the Concert Hall . . .

. . . interesting architecture on a residential street . . .

. . . the Berlin Cathedral . . .

. . . and the Liberal Arts Museum.

In a view reminiscent of Copenhagen, canal boats laden with tourists ply the waters of the River Spree.

We parked on Unter den Linden between the Willy Brandt Museum and the Russian embassy, and walked up to Pariserplatz and the Brandenburg Gate. Unfortunately, we couldn't go through the gate. It was closed off, as they were still taking down the huge TV screen and cleaning up all the stuff related to the recent futbol party. Whether we followed soccer or not, it was impossible aboard the Eurodam to ignore the finals of the World Cup, especially since The Netherlands had played in the finals, and the officers were all Dutch. They lost to Argentina in the semis, but Germany won overall. The Lufthansa 747 that flew the soccer team back to Berlin from Brazil had been given persmission to do a fly-over of the gate at a few hundred meters, no doubt over the heads of thousands of fans gathered in Pariserplatz. It was only a few days after that that we strolled up Unter den Linden, so maybe we were fortunate that we got to see the Brandenburg Gate at all. It was said that in some places in Berlin, the futbol party was still going on. After pictures, I made a bathroom stop before boarding the bus, so if anyone ever asks me if I've been to the Willy Brandt Museum, I can say yes.

The Brandenburg Gate straddles Unter den Linden, but barricades prevent us from walking under the gate thanks to the recent futbol party.

A nearby Starbucks provides Jill with a familiar and reassuring glimpse of home.

The statue atop the gate features the goddess Eirene riding a quadriga (a chariot drawn by four horses).

Next to the gate on Pariserplatz stands the American embassy. The Russian embassy is nearby.

We passed several more places of interest as we motored around Berlin, including the Tiergarten (so named not because of the zoo there but because it was originally a hunting preserve for royalty), embassies, various museums and government buildings, opera houses. Stopped at the Reichstag for pictures, the best shots of which were from the broad grassy esplanade in front of the building, which seemed to be a favorite spot for picnickers on that sunny day. Drove by The Chancellery on our way to Sony Center, but didn't see Angela.

The Holocaust Memorial consists of a field of rectangular concrete slabs of varying height.

Buildings along our route still bear the scars of gunfire from the war.

A symbol of openness and transparency, the spiral ramp inside the glass dome at the top of the Reichstag allows visitors to see down into the workings of the legislative chamber.

A tour group squeezes through the front entrance under the words "Dem Deutschen Volke" (for the German people).

The Reichstag looks out over a broad, grassy park, a favorite spot for a picnic, to relax with a book, or just nap in the shade.

We disembarked at Sony Center, taking all our belongings as we were switching buses, and were led to a small brewhaus for lunch. Had a very tasty German meal, served family style: roast pork and gravy, sausages, boiled potatoes and sauerkraut, served with rye bread, mustard and beer. For dessert an apfelküche with creme anglaise. Served with German efficiency, lunch made us (and several other people, as we found out) wonder why they didn't do the same thing in Russia. It wouldn't have been that difficult to organize a similar lunch in a St. Petersburg eatery for the excursioners, sparing them the ordeal of finding and buying lunch on their own.

Boarded a different bus with a different driver, and rode to the Allied Museum, passing the nude "beach" in the Tiergarten. (It's actually a lawn.) Martin said the spot was historically the site with the most traffic accidents. (Not sure if he was kidding.) There's a lot of history on display at the Allied Museum: the division of the city into the four sectors at the close of WW2; the Berlin Airlift; the history of the Wall (including a section of tunnel built by the Americans); and a bunch of military artifacts. There wasn't nearly enough time to see everything, but we split up and each of us covered an area of interest and passed along the details later.

This official-looking building displays both the German flag and the EU flag out front.

At the Allied Museum, a marquee beckons us in to the theater. We focused on the museum displays instead, given the time limitation.

Prominently displayed is this plane used during the Berlin Airlift.

The area of the museum detailing the history of the Berlin Wall features a recreation of this section of a CIA-built tunnel.

Outside the museum stands an actual East Berlin guard tower overlooking a section of the Wall.

Part of the museum focuses on the Berlin Airlift, the relief mission initiated by Allies in response to the blockade of West Berlin by the Soviet Union in 1948.

Martin announced that we had time for some shopping, so the bus dropped us off on Kurfurstendam, Berlin's version of Rodeo Drive. K-dam, as the locals call it, is a long, bustling avenue lined with all manner of stores and entertainment. We backtracked a bit to visit the Christmas store, and then farther down to the I Heart Berlin, right next to the Hard Rock Cafe. Picked up a few things along the way, but had to get back to the bus, which was parked down the street near the war-torn steeple. The damaged church had been rebuilt around it, leaving the steeple as a standing reminder of the war.

Busy Kurfurstendam boasts a number of shopping and entertainment venues along its length, not to mention traffic.

Surrounded by newer construction, this damaged steeple remains as it looked at the end of WWII, a reminder of the destruction of that conflict.

Finished off the tour of historic buildings, including a drive through a residential section featuring enlarged photos painted on the sides of apartment buildlings of people crossing the Wall in the early 60s. The old wall ran through the area, but the concrete has been replaced by a symbolic fence of 10-foot iron posts spaced randomly along the path of the Wall. It doesn't block the view, and every 10 or 15 feet the posts are far enough apart for one to walk between them. Martin said the fence was erected to remind the youngsters of their history.

Where the Wall once stood is now a scattering of iron bars, neither blocking the view nor impeding foot traffic, but reminding new generations of the division of their city into East and West.

Continued on to the train station, the northern (rather than eastern) station this time, in the old French sector. Boarded a train which was probably the exact same train we were on in the morning; we sat in the same seats. So we had a slightly different view of the countryside going back to Warnemünde, and yes, we dozed for part of the trip. It was rather warm that day, temps reaching 30°C, so we had the windows down and the door to our compartment open to generate some airflow. They served us another box lunch, substituting a cheese sandwich for the pretzel roll and a slice of pound cake for the cookie. Found no juice boxes with the lunch, but the steward came by pushing a drink cart, and Lauri and Mark had a beer. When in Rome, and all that. (Jill was sleeping at the time.)

At the bahnhoff, an elevated walkway takes us across the tracks to our waiting train.

Jill naps in our compartment, Lauri reads, as we ride the rails back to Warnemünde.

The train passes through gently rolling terrain, studded with fields, lakes, farms and woods.

We arrived back in Warnemünde at 8 p.m., but with hundreds of people exiting the train all at once, the lines to get back aboard were really long. The line amidships and the line forward each seemed to be of equal length, so I got in the forward one. Jill and Lauri had taken a detour to visit the shops along the pier. They didn't find anything worth buying so got in the midships line. I looked back to discover they were much closer to the gangway than I was, so bailed out of the forward line and got in the other one. They arrived at the stateroom a few minutes ahead of me.

We stowed our gear, made a pit stop, and then headed for the beerfest on the Lido, where they were serving a German buffet. The Lido deck around the pool was a madhouse, two lines converging from opposite directions at a place where there wasn't sufficient room for all those people. So after getting our grub, we left the pool area and found an empty table in the Lido to enjoy our feast. Potato salad, pork, 3 different kinds of wurst, sauerkraut, red cabbage, fried potatoes--all the foods we're familiar with. And a beer, of course. The sunset was gorgeous, so I grabbed a camera and took some pictures from the veranda. Jill did the same thing from the Promenade and did a couple laps. Once the sun went down, I headed for the Promenade and completed my 3 laps around before retiring for the night.

As we watch from our veranda, a ferry boat crosses the channel from the eastern side in the waning light of evening.

The Eurodam staff conveniently swaps out the rugs in the elevators each day so that passengers know which day of the week it is. Jill happened to notice that her toenail polish matched the lettering on the rug.

The Eurodam thrusts away from the pier at Warnemünde as the sun sets over the Baltic Sea.