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Berlin 2005 - I had enthused about Berlin for a few years so it seemed natural to suggest to my wife that we could go there for a long weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary. However we had been married in February 1968 and I was concerned to see by how much the temperatures varied from Reading to Berlin here in 2005. We set out to catch a lunchtime flight and were in Schonefeld two hours later. It was bitterly cold and there was snow on the ground. We arrived in the Berlin Zoo station, caught a bus to the Reichstag and walked into Berlin through the Brandenburg Gate ! By now the snow was coming down and we could hardly see across the road. I had booked into the Westin Grand Hotel which was very impressive and was beautifully lit up with thousands of little white lights. We staggered into the reception covered from head to foot in snow and dripped on the floor as we signed in. We were allocated a lovely room looking down onto Friedrichs Strasse and we were glad to be able to change into dry clothing and proceed to the dining room for our evening meal. The next morning it had stopped snowing so we decided to take a full morning tour of the city in a nice warm bus. We enjoyed the sights with a commentary given to us in English through earphones.
We enjoyed Berlin so much that we returned in December for the Christmas Markets. We stayed in the same hotel.
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