Berlin; Friday, 22 December, 2017

Thankfully the fire system commissioning had been completed successfully so I was able to have a bit of lie-in, as did quite a few people in the hotel and breakfast was much busier than it had been the previous morning.

After breakfast I walked the short distance to the Nordbahnhof and picked up the S-Bahn South West through the city to the botanical garden.

I had a long walk around the Botanical Garden, following the suggested Winter Walk to see the parts of the gardens that are best in the winter months before heading over to the glass houses and having a look around them – including the spectacular, and beautifully warm, Großes Tropenhaus (Large Tropical House).

From the glasshouses I walked the short distance to the Botanical Museum and had a brief look around that before leaving the gardens and making my way back into the city centre, getting off the train at the Hauptbahnhof.

At 3pm on the last Friday before Christmas the Hauptbahnhof was spectacularly busy with people trying to get away all over Germany and trains all looking packed. I decided to get away from the station as quickly as possible and headed back over to the hotel, and after dropping off some of my stuff, heading next door to the Natural History Museum.

The museum has a massive collection, with pride of place being given to their substantial collection of Dinosaur skeletons – how a Natural History Musuem should do it! Along with the usual collection of stuffed animals there is also the ‘Wet Collection’ – thousands of specimens preserved in formaldehyde in glass jars all stacked on shelves in an enormous glass cube – it makes for quite a creepy exhibition.

Having done the museum I headed back to the hotel to freshen up and then headed back out into town to get some dinner, before heading back to the hotel and having an earlyish night.