Berlin has been described as ‘poor, but sexy’ by none other than its own mayor. This poor, gritty city however, oozes character. In order to learn more about the city, we chose to do it in style – a bike tour! We spent the day riding around the city with our guide Francis. He was a cool Kiwi with a mind like Wikipedia! It was a fantastic way to get to know the city.

We stopped every 5-10 mins and Francis gave us a thorough explanation of the sights. It was a thousand times better than the bus tour! Berlin has been such an important part of modern history, the bike tour really did the city justice and was able to show us how much history it has seen. On the bike tour, we stopped at many of Berlins most famous places: Museum Island, the Tiergarden (nudist park included?) and the Holocaust memorial.

The city still shows signs of the war. Obviously, there are still large parts of the Berlin wall standing, monuments affected by shrapnel and completely reconstructed buildings. Jez was amused/bewildered at how flat the city’s skyline was, until we visited the viewing deck of the TV tower and saw the sprawling city from above. Jez and I haven’t worked out if Berlin actually has a Graffiti problem, or if it is just an accepted part of the city. There are hardly any blank walls! The city is covered in graffiti, or what some may call street art.