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Our trip began on Friday morning, long before any of us would have liked to be up on an inset day. Nonetheless we all successfully made it onto the coach for the 5:15 am departure to London Gatwick. By 8:45 am we were on a plane, high up in the sky and excited to touch down in Berlin later that morning. 

By lunchtime we had arrived at the Aletto Kudamm hotel and were greeted by our wonderful and very enthusiastic tour guide, Sean. He had lived in Berlin since he was in his 20s and was more than happy to tell us everything we could want to know about the city and its fascinating history. 

First on the itinerary was our walking tour. After a short ride on the Berlin U-Bahn, we hopped off at the Bundestag building (formerly the Reichstag Parliament building). Here we were told about the history of Germany and how the parliament had evolved since Germany had become its own independent state in 1866. We then continued our walking tour, visiting the memorial for the Roma people who were murdered in the holocaust and the Brandenburg Gate where we were introduced to the history of the Berlin wall. 

From there we visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe where we were given the opportunity to walk through it, which was a surreal experience. The penultimate stop on our walking tour was the area in which Hitler’s notorious bunker once was buried. Here we learnt about Hitler’s last days and his final evasion of justice. 

Our final walk to Checkpoint Charlie took us past the old SS headquarters and also a part of the Berlin wall; here we were told of just how desperate people were to escape East Berlin, one man ziplining with his wife and son from the top of the building to escape. 

After a quick stop at Checkpoint Charlie, we made our way back to the warmth of the hotel. Once at the hotel we settled into our rooms, had some dinner and a cosy night in, playing board games and chatting before getting to bed and concluding the first day of our trip. 

Day 2 was focused around the Berlin Wall. We started our morning with a walking tour of the Berlin Wall memorial. It was a chilly day but we were all so interested in the history of the wall, how one day some people woke up and were unable to leave again. It was fascinating but also so moving to see the sacrifices people had made for a better chance in life and how many people were willing to help them. The most touching part of the memorial was the photos of those who had lost their lives trying to escape; 140 people had died whilst attempting to escape East Berlin, the youngest of them only 1 year old. 

After the tour of the wall memorial, we made our way to the so-called ‘Palace of Tears’, the border control for those coming back into East Berlin after visiting the outside world. Our tour guides gave us their first hand accounts on living inside East Berlin at the time that the wall had stood and showed us around the exhibits. The museum still has the original identification booths and even parts of the original Berlin wall. Having a tour guide who grew up during the events that we’d learnt about really put how close the history was into perspective. 

The final part of the day was taken up by a tour of the Reichstag building, we saw graffiti preserved on the wall from the Red Army’s capture of Berlin and we were allowed to sit in the Bundestag where the main parliamentary debates take place. Before leaving, we made our way up into the glass dome at the top of the building and saw a bird's eye view of the (somewhat cloud covered) city. 

The day ended with a Dinner at the Route 66 Diner before coming back to the hotel again for a much needed rest. 

Day 3 was an early morning: breakfast at 7:30 and on a coach by 8:30. We set off to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp for a guided tour. The tour was absolutely amazing, yet so harrowing. We were told of the atrocities committed by the SS and Nazis who ran the concentration camp, as well as how the concentration camp was run. Although most of us previously knew the statistics and death tolls, it suddenly became so real as we were standing in the same place where these crimes against humanity had been carried out. The camp was mostly ruins but from a rebuilt bunker, well preserved prison cells and the ruins of ovens for cremation we were able to see the level of monstrous mistreatment that those who the Nazis targeted had received.

After a heavy morning we set off back to the city, where our next destination was the Stasi prison. This prison was used to hold political prisoners of the Soviet Union for the duration of their occupation of East Berlin after WWII. The conditions were awful; there were group cells with up to 20 people in when they were designed for only 6 and standing isolation cells, which people could be left in for days. We learnt that all it took was one ‘wrong’ comment and you could be subjected to months rotting in these cells. 

Thankfully we ended the day on a lighter note as we went bowling, certainly a contrast to the rest of the day.

Our final day began with a return to Checkpoint Charlie. In the museum there were cars that had had their engines remodelled to fit someone inside so they could be smuggled past the authorities at the border between East and West Berlin. There were a multitude of different inventions that people made in an attempt to escape the communist rule, demonstrating just how desperate people were. 

The last museum that we visited was the Topography of Terror. Here there were exhibits explaining Hitler’s rise to power. The museum acts as a tangible reminder and warning of terror to people of today and the future, with the aim that history won’t repeat itself. 

 After this, we made our way to a shopping centre where we were all delighted to be able to get our final German Mcdonalds meals (they had curly fries!) and do a quick bit of shopping before we departed to the airport. 

Before we knew it the long weekend had passed in a flash and we were in the air again on our way back to London. 

The final thing to say is a massive thank you to Ms Sowerby, Mr Walker, Frau Doyle and Frau Wheeler for organising the trip and putting up with us as well as they did. I hope they enjoyed it as much as we all did.

Bea Rowbottom