We started off our last Friday in Germany by catching the train to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof. First we visited the Reichstag which is Germany's government building. The Reichstag is very spectacular on the outside and inside. It has a very interesting history as it was built in 1894 and used untill 1933 when it fell into disrepair due to a fire. It was then renovated in the 90s by an architect named Norman Foster. Throughout the Reichstag on some of the walls remain the names of Soviet soldiers. These soldiers helped to capture the building so they scrawled their names and hometowns all over the walls. The main parliament building has a massive glass dome over the top to make the building look more modern and to let as much light in as possible. We walked right to the top of this to get an impressive view of Berlin. Afterwards we went to the Holocaust memorial where we had a guide explain about it in lots of detail. She told us that the artist did not have a specific meaning for the memorial but left it up to you to decide. I found it interesting when she told us different people's perspectives on the memorial. For example she said it could represent the graves of the Jews or a concentration camp . We went to the exhibition below the memorial which was very sad for all of us. It showed infomation on Jewish families that were murdered and letters written before they were killed. It was another interesting day in Berlin. We now have one last weekend to spend with our host families.
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