Gaily graffiti-ed sections of the Berlin Wall are positioned here as a tourist attraction too. More on the Wall later.
On our first full day we took in a couple of the city's main attractions. 
We skimmed the edge of the Tiergarten – Berlin's huge rectangular urban park – and saw the memorial to the Holocaust's homosexual victims. It's a big rectangular solid, the edge of which you can see in the inset photo.
Our walk took us to the famous Brandenburg Gate. Note: not everyone we saw in Berlin looked as intently mean as the people in the photo below. Though I will say Berliners in general are fairly pushy, which doesn't mean unfriendly, and I actually like cities like that, as they remind me of Gotham.
We then paid a visit to the Reichstag. It's free to visit this huge, stately building, still used by the government today, but we had made online reservations for a specific day and time, as things are tightly controlled here. If you go, bring your passport! We hadn't, and were given a stern lecture before being admitted. It's grim, but still a reality: It is disconcerting to receive a stern lecture in a German accent.
Inside, you're crowded into a large elevator and taken up to the lower viewing deck surrounding the great glass dome:
You can view the city from every direction:
Inside the dome you can walk up a ramp to the upper viewing deck for even better angles on the sprawling city below, but the geometry of the dome offers its own interesting view:
Article comments
1 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
It's amazing what a 67 year peace dividend has done for Germany, its people and the world. This very important lesson should be heeded by countries like Syria, Iran and North Korea.
2 - Marie Warder
Well-written, interesting, and beautifully illustrated, I really enjoyed reading your story which took me back to a happy time, years ago, when my husband was temporarily seconded to Lufthansa, and I had the privilege of going with him. Wonderful to be able see how "polished" the country city has become since those post-war years!