REASONS TO: VISIT BERLIN

Next on my whistle-stop-tour of holidays that I never blogged about... Berlin! It seems like a lifetime ago that Jack and I hopped on a plane and flew circa 700 miles to the capital of Germany. We still called Manchester our home, I hadn't yet been blonde, and the pair of us were only 22. A lifetime ago, I tell ya!

Hand on heart, Berlin is one of the best places that I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. Jam-packed with more history than you could ever fit into one city break (and home of the best hot chocolate I've found to date), Berlin won me over, fair and simple. And here are the top five reasons why:

The TV Tower – or Berliner Fernsehturm, if you will. Jack and I (and my dad, for that matter) have a thing for going to the highest point that we can to ~really~ take a city in. In Berlin, that was the TV tower. We had breakfast here on our first morning and looked out as the German city rotated around us (or as we rotated around it, should I say). Plus, it was a great point of reference whenever we got lost. If we could see the TV tower, we knew how to get home!

The Berliner Dom, i.e. Berlin's Cathedral. We had to pay for the pleasure of going inside but boy oh boy am I glad we did. I remember walking into the central room and just stopping in awe at the breathtaking beauty of the ceiling. I bloody love cathedrals, I must say. Better still, we climbed to the very top and waked the 360° around the building. The views weren't quite as good as from the TV tower, but I would 10/10 recommend.

The zoo – and if you're shocked by that statement, you don't know me from Adam. Berlin's is by far one of the best zoos I've been to (are you sensing a theme here?). Jack and I found the hippos particularly fascinating... that is until they started to eat their own poo. Yep. Hippos are p-r-e-t-t-y gross. My only regret is not getting a picture in-front of the incredible elephant entrance gate to the park. But there's always next time...

The history. Having focused on WWII and the Cold War for most of my history education, Berlin sure was interesting. The remainder of the Berlin Wall (albeit heavily spray-painted) was a heart-dropping thing to see, along with the bright pink pipes near Checkpoint Charlie that symbolised where the wall once stood.

And last (but ~certainly~ not least), the hot chocolate. It was to die for. And, in true Forrest Gump style, that's all I've got to say about that.