Day 6…Tuesday 14th June
We woke up and went to find a Tesco in Prague, again searching for the elusive sandwiches. Still no luck so I grabbed us some croissants and fruit instead and we headed toward Prague zoo. We love zoos and this was no exception. Before we knew it, most of the day had passed.
There were so many different animals, including babies and even polar bears!
There was a viewpoint at a high point in the zoo which meant that we could see over all of Prague. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful view.
My god how young do we look!!! Satisfied we had explored the zoo, visited the polar bears about four times and dodged death by peacock (I’m not kidding, it actually had us cornered in part of the zoo and there was nowhere for us to go, until we threw a stone to distract it and had to sprint by it). Yes I have an insane fear of peacocks!!
We got back to the car (you can park for free outside the zoo) and put our next destination in the sat nav. Berlin. It was another 200 or so miles to Berlin. By this point we had driven about 2800 miles. Surprisingly, it didn’t take that long to actually get between countries, or it didn’t feel like it was that long anyway. First stop was to be the Brandenburg Gate.
Wow. We entered the city and I can safely say I have NEVER seen so many roadworks. I mean literally it was possibly the most confusing place ever and because of the roadworks and diversions, we got so lost because we didn’t actually know where we were going and the sat-nav couldn’t reroute quick enough. To top it off, the road to the Brandenburg Gate was completely shut off.
So, we decided to find a car park somewhere and check out Hard Rock Cafe. Not dressed for rain, we got absolutely soaked running from the car into the restaurant. It was only a brief downpour but a torrential one at that. After we’d eaten our weight in burger and fries, we found a Magnum shop where you could actually create your own ice cream!!
Hard Rock Cafe and the Magnum shop were in a sort of shopping precinct, where there was also a Pandora shop. Nathan went and got me the Brandenburg Gate charm because we were unable to see it and then we set about seeing some of the historic sites that we could actually get to. First place we saw was the Berlin Victory Column which opened in 1873 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Prussian-Danish war. It is situated on a huge, busy roundabout and you need a ticket to go to the top to have views of this amazing city. There are tunnels going underneath the road in order to reach it via foot.
Charlottenburg Palace was next on the list but the whole thing was as per my usual luck, was covered in scaffolding and a sort of tarp covering the beautiful exterior. I know they have to restore these buildings and all that, but it always seems to be when we visit.
On our way to locate the Berlin Wall, we passed by the Reichstag building, the stunning seat of Germany’s Parliament. First completed in 1894, renovated and reopened in 1999 it is now the second most visited landmark in Berlin. Berlin was such a bustling, friendly city with things to see everywhere. We located the Berlin Wall but not before driving past it about four times, without realising we were actually right by it.
It was a weirdly hauntingly beautiful, tranquil place. The Berlin Wall was a physical barrier erected in 1961 until it was opened in 1989, with work taking place from 1990. It separated West Berlin from all of East Berlin and East Germany. 
We wandered round the wall for quite a while, looking at the graffiti on it and the signs that gave us information about it. The wall is 70m long with a visitors centre and a watchtower. Many people died at the wall, numbers sit at about 140 with a further 250 or so being killed as they passed through the checkpoints. There is so much history and information within the visitor centre about this time in German history. The memorial is definitely somewhere to visit if passing through the city.
We began our exit from Berlin to head to Malmö, Sweden. The downside was that there was no internet signal on either of our phone for quite a while and I needed to book the ferry from Gerdser in Denmark, for us to then drive across the Øresund Bridge. Eventually, we managed to book the ferry, slightly extortionate at one hundred and two pounds (my pound sign button is not working yet again) and before we knew it, we had arrived at the ferry port in Gerdser. Nathan at first overshot the ticket booth, then we ended up in the wrong lane to go onto the ferry and then a few arguments followed meaning that I ended up sitting on the ferry writing in my journal, searching for wine, whilst he ended up getting stuck in a separate part of the boat.
I’m not joking when I say there was literally nothing to do on the ferry. I had two guys sat behind me talking extremely loudly and generally just being annoying, so I was grateful by the time about two hours had passed, we finally hit land. So why were we going to Malmö?? One of my best friends, Matt, got me this book back a couple of years ago…
which we intend to use to visit all 100 and the Øresund Bridge is one of the landmarks mentioned within the book. So of course we had to go! So what is the Øresund Bridge? The bridge links Sweden and Denmark, is about 16km long and connects a road/railway bridge, a tunnel and an artificial island. When you look at pictures of the bridge, it literally disappears underneath the sea. The whole concept is so cool. The downside is that there is a €54 toll fee to pay in order to cross it! Still, we thought it was worth it.
Because it was pretty much dark by the time we were able to cross the bridge (above is NOT the Øresund Bridge, just another random bridge we cross on our way to Malmö) we couldn’t really see anything except for lights. We hoped to have better luck the next day.
Until next time…