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Hotel services included breakfast, so after we got up in the morning we went directly in dinner room. There were a lot of snacks prepared: coffee and tea, cheese, meat and bacon, fruits and corn flakes. Every morning there were fresh batch, fresh german bread. We didn’t feel hungry after breakfast until midday! After breakfast we asked Aleksander (hotel owner) for help and he gave us some recommendations.
First of all, we should take passports with us, in emergency cases police may have to identify our persons. He said, that a lot of Russian tourists give in to temtation to stole something in big supermarkets or small shops. There is no security employee or special equipment at the exits, sometimes one can find a seller with big difficulties in the heart of a shop. We convinced Alexander, that we are fair citizens and not going to do the same. It is not a joke to appear at the police station and talk to policeman.
Secondly, Alexander told us, that the best variant of travelling in Berlin is 7-Tag Karte – travelling pass for 7 days for all types of transport. It costs 27.2 € for AB zones and 33.5 € for ABC zones. Ira wanted to buy Berlin Welcome Card (BWC), which also give us ability of using all types of transport, but it costs 34.5 € for 5 days. This card has one advatage – owner can visit several museums with 50% discount. But Alexander told us, that this is a trick, it is for tourists, who have first visit in Berlin. The most popular museums don’t have discounts for BWC owners, another are not interesting and famous to visit them.
Finally, we bought two tickets (they costed 67 €) and whole week we hadn’t problems with city transport. Warning! Tickets you have bought must be inserted in special stamp machine before first usage, they are usually situated near ticket machines. Passengers have to show tickets, when security employee asks them. But while our visit in Berlin we saw security only twice, both times in U-bahn. At U-Bahn and S-Bahn stations there are no turnstiles or BVG employees, who check your tickets. So, it is thought, that passengers are fair and considerable. And I can say, that only once we saw how security employes cought a free rider.
We decided to start acquaintance with Berlin from visiting city zoo. This place is very popular among residents and tourists. At 8 a.m. we were staying near ticket office: cashier woman were disappointed with 100 € banknote we gave her: she had few banknotes to give us change. Adult ticket had price 13 €, there were an offer fot those, who wanted visit both zoo and oceanarium, it costed 20 €. We decided to visit only zoo. Suddenly we heard russian speech: married couple from Moscow subarbs discussed something, staying near information plan. Actually, there are many russians in Berlin: somebody studies, somebody works here, somebody has got citizenship and stayed in capital of Germany. Two russian women asked us to take a photo, they were from Saint-Petersburg and already visited Potsdam city. They said, that Peterhof State Museum in Saint-Petersburg is much better than Sanssouci Park in Potsdam. Unfortunately we couldn’t argue: we didn’t visit Potsdam yet and never were in Saint-Petersburg.
We spent about 3 hours in zoo. Actually, it takes a whole day to see all places there. Animals live here in very good conditions, pinguins and seals had pools with rocks and rookery, a beach with artificial waves is made for sea birds, night animals live in dark and we could see them hardly. There is an area in zoo, where children can feed goats and sheep, there are special automats, for 20 cents everyone can buy a small portion of snack and give it to animals. By a midday, number of visitors increases, at the exit I payed attention, that about 30 people stand in queue for tickets.
We decided to visit McDonalds, which is situated near zoo, and then go to central railway station (Bahnhof). Berlin central railway station is the biggest one in Europe and have 5 floors, where trains go in two levels. There are plenty of shops and supermarkets. Finished a research, we took S-Bahn and went to Brandenburg Gates. A small U-Bahn train of 2 cars go between railway station and Brandenburg Gates. Due to president of France Nicolas Sarkozy visit, station near Bundestag is closed, so train goes directly to last station (there are only two stations on this route) and then we get up to the square.
There are a lot of shops with souvenirs, street performers, acrobats and actors; you can take a photo with “live statue” or make a souvenir from your 10 cent coin in special mechanism (it put image of Brandenburg Gates on your coin). Also due to president of France Nicolas Sarkozy visit a part of square is closed by police, street 17 June was closed for walking too, there was an helicopter in air. We went to Tiergarten (Animal Garden). For her pleasure, Ira found here a playground and 15 minutes climbed up to the top of rope hill.
At the roadcross near Bellevue Palace we saw SUV Toyota Land Cruiser with white russian state number, 29 region. We didn’t see cars with russian state numbers any more. Moreover, we didn’t see any car, produced in Russia. As I know, little number of them is sold in Germany.
In the evening we visited Alexanferplatz, we saw rubbish at the street first time in Germany. Maybe it was so because of big number of tourists here. This square is one of the most popular sight in Berlin. There is St. Mary's Church at the square, this is the oldest church in Berlin, which works now. It was first mentioned in German chronicles in 1292. Also here is situated the Red City Hall, the home to the governing mayor and the government.
Certainly, the most interesting bulding at the square is Berlin TV Tower. The original total height of the tower was 365 metres (1,198 ft), but it rose to 368 metres (1,207 ft) after the installation of a new antenna in the 1990s. The visitor platform is at a height of about 204 metres (669 ft) above the ground and visibility can reach 42 kilometres (26 mi) on a clear day. There are special clock near Alexanderplatz, they show time in different cities of our planet. When they were built, time in Volgograd and Moscow wasn’t the same. So, Volgograd is written near Nizhny Novgorod and Baku.
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