Berlin

On the 6^th floor of an apartment building in the Charlottenburg area of Berlin, we made ourselves at home in Hotel Amadeus. We had already learned from people on the train coming into Berlin, the more English a German knows, the friendly they are. We had a very nice young lawyer (or judge?) sitting by us on the train from Brussels and he gave us some recommendations for dinner. We took a walk, explored our surroundings and settled on an excellent Chinese dinner as we watched the rain.

The next day, we went for a free tour of Berlin. We luckily had an amazing Australian tour guide, named Katie, who worked solely off tips. She was very passionate about Berlin and we were excited to hear what she had to say since we knew very little about the city. First of all, Berlin is huge and this walking tour was 4 hours! We began our tour at the Brandenburger Gate, which has a whole history of itself, but it is pretty much a massive structure that survived the bombings of WWII and is in front of many embassies. During most of the tour, it was raining, but our rain gear kept us dry and easy to spot. After hearing a pre-WWII history of Germany, we head over to the Holocaust memorial for Jews in Berlin. In my opinion, it looks like a massive cemetery of huge concrete blocks. There are many interpretations of the memorial, but it definitely provokes the thoughts of darkness, confusion, and loss. I thought it was very powerful and impossible to miss. After wandering around the concrete blocks, we headed over to the site where Hitler’s bunkers were (the place he committed suicide). You can no longer see them, but there is a dog park above them where people from Berlin come to “let their dogs shit.” From there, we walked over to the German Tax Office, which is actually a former Nazi building that survived the bombings. The Nazi architecture was extremely forbidding, but there was also a mural of socialism left on one of the outside walls. The propaganda in the message was very happy, but it was clear at this point, the city of Berlin and its people have suffered a lot throughout history. Behind the building is where some of the only remaining portions of the Berlin Wall still exist. The graffiti and the holes were left untouched. At this point in the tour, we started learning about the entire division of Berlin for almost 30 years as East Berlin and West Berlin, divided by the wall. Families, neighbors, and daily lives in Berlin were interrupted by the Communist regime that ruled East Germany. We began to learn how people escaped and were fascinated at the lengths people would go to leave their “imprisonment” in East Berlin behind the Berlin Wall. Many people died and if you were caught even planning an escape, the Stasi (secret police of East Germany) would most often make you “disappear.” The next spot, was the site of the book burning in Berlin. 20,000 books by Jewish (and other people the Nazi’s targeted) authors were burned to make a statement. The surprising thing that happened while we were there was that there were several Weddings taking place across Berlin the same time as the tour. A motor-brigade and motorcycle line-up came straight across the square and made laps honking their horns, etc for the people who were going to be married. It was a happy scene among a very horrible site from history. It just really hammered home that time has passed and things have changed very much in Berlin, although history must never be forgotten, which they made very clear. There were many more things that were discussed in the tour, really too much to even write, but if you ever get the chance, you should definitely visit this VERY historically relevant city.

After the tour, JJ and I spent about an hour walking through a gigantic park in the middle of Berlin that were formally the royal hunting grounds. We could not believe how large and empty this park was. A perfect place to throw the Frisbee we forgot at the hotel! We had dinner on our long walk back at a very good Thai restaurant. After dinner, we headed to a local bar that we noticed the night before. Apparently, this awesome local dive bar had a “toilet” theme and the beer was even served in hospital urine containers. They delivered the beer on zip lines and there was a professional “heckler” who commented on every person who walked into the bar. I really think that is where the Fragles from Fragle Rock have been hiding out all of these years. It was a very crazy place and one of the most memorable bars I have been to so far. We had a nice chat with some guys from Denmark and Swedish girls there.

The next day we slept in very late and then headed back to Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous checkpoint between East and West Berlin. We read all of the display boards about the history of Berlin and the area where this checkpoint was. We learned more about the Death Strip and the Berlin wall as well. There were also a few pictures of the memorials to the people who lost their lives trying to get across the border. From here, we walked all the way into the area of Orangiburger and found a perfect dinner spot. We enjoyed sitting in an outdoor courtyard filled with flowers and Christmas lights, while JJ sampled famous German Schnitzel. On the way back to the train station, we found a very nice park to throw the Frisbee in. We threw around until it got too dark to see and then followed the sound of music we had heard. Around a few corners in the park, and we walked into a Flamenco Guitar concert! We parked ourselves on the cobblestone bridge and listened to the beautiful music until the end of the show. We were very happy to have stumbled in on this live open air concert, it was very beautiful and right on the Museum Island of Berlin, with a river and skyline in the background.

So there you have it, Berlin “das good”. We are now on our way to Prague! I am so excited to explore this city! Although, JJ just pointed out an amazing castle on the hills in the German countryside we are passing as I write this. Amazing!