We had breakfast at 7.45 am as we had pre-booked a visit on-line to the Dome of the Reichstag building at 10.30 am.  The hotel’s restaurant was attractively decorated and smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and pastries set us up for our morning sightseeing.

We walked to the nearby U Bahn station and, like the previous day bought two, one day travel cards.  We arrived at the Reichstag at 10.15 am just in time to pass through the security and passport checks.  We were then escorted to the top of the building in a large glass lift where we had unlimited time to explore and take photographs.  The Dome was designed by the British architect Sir Norman Foster and it affords breathtaking views of the city centre (or it would have done if some of the large glass panes hadn’t been covered in ice.

The top of the Dome is open to allow air flow into the building and gentle ramps wind their way up to the top for views down into the Parliamentary Chamber below.  Tickets for entrance to the Dome are free but applications need to be made via the website in advance.

A short distance from the Dome stands the Brandenburg Gate and leading off this is a long wide avenue called ‘Unter den Linden’ translated ‘Under the lime trees’ which line this majestic avenue.  Along here are several large embassies including those of Britain and the U.S.

We noticed that when waiting at pedestrian crossings in Berlin, it is easy to determine whether one is in the former East or West divisions of the city as the red and green crossing icons differ.

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