In all our trips to Germany, we have never been to Berlin, and Carl was bound and determined not to let another opportunity slip by. In spite of the inclement weather, we took a four hour walking tour called “Hidden Berlin” which was excellent in spite of having to use our umbrellas several times during the tour. Our guide, Nickolai, was Bulgarian whose family emigrated to the United States when he was a child, lived in Santa Cruz, California, and went to college in the Midwest.
 
The tour we took hit the highlights of Berlin: the Berliner Dom, Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, the Holocaust memorial (I was amazed at the vast size of it all) and the Brandenburg Gate, 

The last part of the tour was at the Hotel Adlon overlooking the Brandenburg Gate from which Michael Jackson dangled his infant son.