We had a long stopover in Berlin on our way out of Belgium.

Germany is not my first choice of a country in which to spend the day due to its dark history, but since I found myself there anyway, I wanted to see the historic New Synagogue in Berlin. 

When we arrived at the airport in Berlin we stored our luggage with a luggage hold service and took the train from the station in the airport to a stop close to the New Synagogue – Centrum Judaicum, a restored 1800’s Synagogue with a museum within it. After visiting the Synagogue and the displays within, we continued down the street to the Monbijoupark where we sat down to eat our lunch and continued along the waterfront promenade and headed back to the train.

Our next stop was the Brandenburg Gate, a restored 18th-century gate and landmark, which seems to be a tourist hot spot. The area around the gate had many government buildings as well as consulates from many countries.

Around the corner, just down the road  from the Brandenburg Gate is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

The Berlin Wall was on my list to visit but we didn’t want to risk getting back to the airport too late so instead we took the train back to the airport just in time to retrieve our luggage before the luggage hold service closed for the night.