The final countdown is on. After two awesome weeks in Morocco we flew to London to relax for six nights. Thanks to Warwick and Ben for letting us stay in their lounge and showing us a good time. We managed to fill five full days pretty easily with dinners and pints out along with the natural history museum, markets and winter wonderland in Hyde Park. It was Matts birthday on the 27th so we spent the day eating and drinking followed by an evening at winter wonderland. A rotating carousel bar is a game changer. We enjoyed not really being tourists for a week so barely took the camera out. Very poor quality photo below taken on the Motorola. The weather was pretty bleak but it only got colder as we headed to Central Europe. First stop, Berlin.

Back in September we visited some of Western and Southern Germany and knew we had to visit Berlin at some point. I’m glad we did because it gave us a much better understanding about the history of the country, particularly in regards to WW2. We braved 2 degree days doing a walking tour one day and catching up With Ange and Braden from our Morocco tour on day two. We visited the Mitte and Kruezberg areas and would have needed another week to see the rest extensively with Berlin being almost 9x larger geographically than Paris.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Wall, Holocaust Victims Names.

Christmas Markets (mulled wine is essential at 1 degree outside)

Eastside Gallery, 1km stretch of Berlin Wall turned into street art murals. Other street pics

Berlin felt like an enormous city with the two areas we visited having quite different feelings. With most of the city being destroyed in the war as well as the soviet influence it is quite modern and industrial. I particularly enjoyed it because of what the people have overcome in quite a short period.

Our next stop was Prague in the Czech Republic. We caught the train and shared a cabin with some very strange people. Unsure if they were German or Czech we didn’t really know what was going on most of the time but several fights almost broke out with members of our cabin as well as passers by. They were all elderly people and very overweight so we made sure we stayed out of the way. One of the rare occasions where not speaking the local language was a benefit as we couldn’t take sides haha.

The temperatures in Prague were similar to Berlin with one day having a high of -1 degree. A novelty at first, this quickly wore off as our bodies became stiff and our skin dry being out in literally freezing temperature all day. We can see why people drink so much in these parts. Prague is a beautiful city and has the fairytale picture book feel. We really enjoyed the Christmas Markets and beautiful gothic architecture everywhere. On a whirlwind tour we only spent two days here and caught a 7 hour bus to Poland for our next stop.

Krakow, Poland was our next big city to visit. We had heard it is a beautiful city with lots of see which we agree with. We spent three nights here staying across the road from the main old town square which means, more Christmas Markets and mulled wine. The food in Poland is pretty tasty, we enjoyed lots of hot food at the markets like home baked bread topped with onions and pickles, hotdogs, homemade soups and Pierogi – a delicious dumpling filled with all sorts of yummy fillings. We also liked the beautiful old buildings alongside modern street art with a good cafe culture.

As well as seeing the city we also made a visit to Auschwitz Concentration and Extermination Camps. Out of all of the horrific historical sites we have visited over this year (Killing Fields, Cambodia, Flanders Fields, Belgium, Colleseum, Italy) Auschwitz 1 and 2 were the most difficult to visit. I’m not going to describe or explain the heinous things that took place there and in the surrounding areas. I also barely took any photographs. Spending the day here has reinforced what I have already learned this year, that the past must not be forgotten so that the same mistakes cannot happen again. No matter how much you read or how many documentaries you have seen about the horrors of Nazi Germany, nothing is like standing in the same place as millions of innocent people who lost their lives out of pure hatred. I think visiting the sites was a way of showing our respect to the victims. Another way we can continue to show respect is to stand up against hatred, prejudice and racism in our everyday, very blessed lives to help ensure nothing like this ever happens again.