Day 2 - Wesel to Berlin

We woke to a glorious sunny morning and met the others for breakfast in the hotel dining room. No one had heard from Kenny and DeeAnne, so we were left wondering what was happening to them in Paris, where they were collecting their car.

We said our goodbyes to Maria and Antoine and thanked them for making the journey from Antwerp to Wesel to see us. Having them here to send us on our way has been very special.

We agreed that we would each do 'our own thing' today, rather than going in convoy. Wendy and I decided to head straight for Berlin and used the autobahns all the way. Apart from one or two roadwork hold-ups we did the 550 kms journey in around six hours. It's amazing to see the speeds that some German drivers do on the unrestricted sections of autobahns. We drove at around 85mph and cars went past us making us look as though we were standing still!

On the way we made contact with the others by text to find out if anyone had heard from Kenny and DeeAnne. The answer was no. Then just as we were driving through one of the road work sections a car came up behind us blasting its horn. For a moment I thought I was being stopped by the police for speeding in the roadwork zone. I pulled over to let the car pass and was amazed to see it was Kenny! We pulled into a service station and learned that they had had problems getting their car and couldn't make it to Wesel.

We drove the final 100kms with them into Berlin and a short distance from the hotel we saw the Victory Tower with its golden winged Victoria at the top.

We then drove the last kilometre to our hotel next to the Brandenburg Gate in the centre of Berlin. We had all sorts of problems getting to the hotel because of a combination of roadworks and security road closures around the hotel owing to a politician staying at our hotel. In fact he is staying on our floor and all our bags had to be screened before they would bring them to our room. We have our own security guard sitting outside our room!

We met everyone down in the main foyer and had a welcome drink after so many hours of driving. We then went outside the hotel and within a few yards is the Brandenburg Gate. 

A very happy group of tourists walking to the Brandenburg Gate.

It has been fully restored and it is difficult to identify it with the iconic pictures of the Russians taking Berlin in 1945 when the gate was in ruins.

We walked past the gate to the Reichstag and luckily we all had photo ID's with us so we were allowed into the building. 

At the top is the Norman Foster designed Dome, a truly impressive piece of architecture, which allows a wonderful panoramic view of Berlin.

We spent about an hour in the dome and then returned to the hotel, when I took this photo.

We met up with Bob & Thelma who had spent the day taking small side roads rather than the autobahn and then we had a snack meal in the hotel.

We heard from Ahmad who has arrived at the Westin Hotel, just down the road from us and tomorrow he will take his car to the local Mercedes dealer to have the inter-cooler fitted.

It's been another great day and we are finally all together, which is a real relief after all the troubles poor Ahmad has had.