Today is yet another public holiday here. So we took the bus and a train into the Mitte - the centre of Berlin. This is near Tim's workplace so he knew the area a little.
In the muggy heat of a June day we went for lunch at a very mediocre café.
Across the road was a mass of rectangular blocks. Hundreds of them. It's the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe aka the Holocaust Memorial.
19,000 square metres of 2,711 concrete slabs. They look like slate - dark grey and very smooth to touch.
We weren't allowed into the information centre as it's not open to children under the age of 14. Understandable, but tricky to explain to Rhiannon why is was unsuitable for her. I feel everyone should know about the Holocaust and I've explained a little to her, but her young brain cannot conceive the unparalleled horror of it. Neither can mine, really.
You can wander around amongst the stelae, as the slabs are called. They are arranged in a grid pattern on sloping ground and are of varying heights. Undulating paths lead through the slabs. According to Wikipedia they "are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere".
That description is not wrong.
Just after I took the photo above, I was overwhelmed by the largest dark cloud and burst into tears. I sobbed "I can't stay in here" and ran out to the edge.
I'm not claustrophobic. The thought that popped into my head was something along the lines of "these look like the huts in the concentration camps".
At least I could leave.
I can't explain my reaction. I'll try another day.
Once I'd composed myself and met up with Tim and a concerned and slightly confused Rhiannon we went to see the Brandenburg Gate.
This is where the Berlin Wall used to be. Only marked by the right-angle of bricks in the road.
And a slightly wonky photo of the Reichstag.
Then we went home.
I feel weird.