My feet were starting to feel the pain.

We first went to Niederkirchnerstrasse, where a 200 m segment of the Berlin Wall is kept as it was 15 years ago.

A closer look at the wall segment.

And a straight on view. It looks as if there was some destruction of this part before it was preserved.

There was a large display, called 'Topografie des Terrors,' about the courts of Nazi Germany, and we spent about an hour here.

We then headed down the street to Checkpoint Charlie, one of the former Wall crossing points controlled by the Americans.

The famous sign, 'You are leaving the American Sector.' This is actually a replica, I think.

The checkpoint hut is a replica, but an exact one.

After that, we took the metro again, this time to Bernaurstrasse, which has a Berlin Wall Memorial, and another portion of preserved wall.

The Memorial has a vantage point, on the west side. The Berlin Wall was actually two walls, one of the east (top) and one on the west (bottom), with a 'Death Zone' between them.

Anyone trying to escape by jumping over the east wall had to run through the Death Zone. I believe several people were killed here attempting to flee East Germany.

In this area, much of the land through which the Wall ran is still empty and unused.

Another view of the area around the wall segment.

Eric in front of the Berlin Wall.

Me in front of the Berlin Wall.

After that we decided to do something a little happier, and went back to KaDeWe, the huge department store. Here's a small part of the toy section.

The store directory. It was absolutely the largest single store I've ever been in.

Eric bought some candy.

Afterward, we hopped on the metro again, which was pretty empty. Actually, we went the wrong way.

We ended up at this terminal stop in northern Berlin. It wasn't hard to get on a train going back the way we wanted.

After a series of trains, we ended up at the 1936 Olympic Stadium in the western part of the city.

Another look at the stadium, which is still used, mostly for football, by which I mean the kind everyone but Americans play.

A closeup of the Olympic rings.

And a closer closeup.

The train station serving the Olympic stadium.

The next day we decided to take an Express train to Cologne. We boarded it at Berlin Ostbahnhof, the train station in former East Germany.

On the train, Eric once again worked on his thesis.

And a few hours later, we arrived in Cologne, which I will continue to spell as 'Cologne,' rather than this way, since I don't have that funky 'o' on my keyboard.

Eric mailed home some dirty clothing from the train station.

The departing train schedule for Cologne's train station.

Right outside the train station was the main attraction, this huge old gothic cathedral.

The cathedral was built over the course of about 600 years.

There was a plaza surrounding the cathedral, which was full of people on a Saturday.

These musicians were really into it, and were very good.

We booked a hotel, which was right downtown, and then walked down to the Rhein river nearby.

Lots of people were strolling along the river.

Or playing in this fountain.

Or lounging on the grass.

After finding some food, we headed back over to get a better look at the cathedral.

A look at the front of the cathedral. The tiny little spires on the top (best seen on the right) are each more than four meters high.