Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Wednesday : Fine with few showers
Got to catch up on some sleep last night, the hotel is super quiet. It advertises that its got blackout and silent rooms. Perfect! It's nothing special this hotel, just a cheap three night stay in the centre of Berlin.
We got ready and went downstairs to the coffee and bagel joint next to the hotel for breakfast. We then made our way onto town on foot, the walk took about 20-25mins. We were heading to the Brandenburg Gate to meet the free walking tour group.
We had a walk around Pariser Platz, and by the time it was ready to meet the group, a very large number of people had formed. Maybe 200 plus, lots of people taking advantage of the free tour. Thankfully we were all split up into groups of 20-30 and then the tour started.
The guide (Sophie) was from Wales and has lived in Germany for four years, and worked as a guide for three years. I think she studied modern history specifically about the Cold War. So she was full of info about the history in Berlin.
She lead us through the Platz telling us about all the buildings, and that amazingly the Brandenburg Gate survived the wars over time and is from 1791. Well Napoleon did take it to France but it was returned after the battle of Waterloo. the gate, was part of 18 gates surrounding Berlin, and was a main stage for when the Berlin wall came down. She also said that the big pipes that run above ground in the streets, are for pumping the swamp out from underneath Berlin. Very strange to build a city on top of a swap . I didn't ask her why, but there has to be a reason.
Just on the other side of the square was the holocaust memorial, a very different type of memorial. There are no signs, no plaques on the slate coloured concrete blocks, no indication as to what it is. It is a large area with a grid pattern formed by 2711 differently sized blocks forming pathways that are undulated. As you walk through the memorial you are soon towered by blocks as the ground goes up and down. We were told that the designer came up with the idea, when he was in Prague and visited the Jewish cemetery. The ground in this cemetery is very uneven because they weren't able to buy more land to extend the cemetery, instead having to bury more and more bodies on top of one another, sometimes up to 15 people deep. The Prague district is one of the last remaining old jewish districts in Europe too. We will have to go and visit when we are there in the next week. The reason it's one of the last Jewish districts is because Hitler liked Prague, he wanted to keep Prague and use it as a summer holiday destination an use the Jewish quarter as a Jewish museum. Just gives you a little more insight into hitlers insanity.
We crossed the road south of the memorial and stood in a gravel car park, there we were told that under our feet was the bunker that Hitler and Ava committed suicide. It was filled in with concrete by the soviets and there are no plans to excavate. We then headed over to Checkpoint Charlie, along the way we went past a large section of still standing wall, there was a museum next to the wall too. Sophie said its worth a look, we might have to come back here.
It started to rain at the checkpoint, so the group had a bit of a break. Kim and I went for a walk around the tourist trap instead. The place was pretty busy, there were people lining up to have their pictures taken with the two blokes posing as US MPs. We had a read of the panels set up displaying information on the wall. The info was telling us how Berlin got split up between the big four allied countries in WWII. Then that brought on the wall being built and the conflicts happening for the time it was up, and to the time it came down. Very interesting stuff.
We then headed up to Gendarmen-markt, which is a beautiful square. the square has the Konzerthaus (a concert hall) and two perfectly restored Cathedrals. One was German and the other French. The French church was built for the French protestants who fled to berlin and other protestant strongholds throughout Europe, because of religious persecutions in the 18th century.
Babel Platz was next, built by King Frederick II (as are most of Berlin's historic buildings) is another square and it has The State Opera building which was being restored, the Old Library now part of the Humboldt UNI (Berlin's oldest UNI and used to be part of the royal palace). The soviets didn't destroy most of the square and even restored the library because Stalin went to the UNI. Albert Einstein also studied there. The pretty St. Hedwigs cathedral was in the corner and it was the first catholic cathedral built in Prussia. Prussia used to be a German kingdom. Bebelplatz was also the scene of Nazi book burning, and in the square is a window on the ground that we could only faintly look through and see a library with empty shelves.
We then went over to museum island, and as the name says its an island with museums on it. It Berlin's treasure island! I think there are 4 or 5 museums there. This is were our tour finished. It was a good tour, we had a nice walk. I picked up some info about the Berlin Wall, which was good because I didn't know too much about it.
After Kim and I had a bit if a walk around the island and rest on the grass, we made our way back over to the Brandenburg Gate. We passed through the gate and went for a walk through the park of the other side. It's a very big park, and pretty dense but has some nice clearings, with fountains, statues and ponds.
We walked up to the victory column, which was built for the Prussian victories over Denmark, Austria and France in the 19 century. We then turned around crossed the road and went back through the park to the Reichstag building, Germany's Parliament House. I think it fair to say that this building looks a bit better than our one in Canberra.
We had a nice break laying down on the grass in the sun, the reschstag is a great looking building. Eventually it looked like it was going to rain again so we headed home.
It never did rain but better safe than sorry. Once in the our room we got cleaned up then made our way down through the trendy little streets near the hotel to a restaurant for some beer and snitzel! We have been hanging for some snitty, they don't do it in the UK or its very hard to find.
After the snitzel with a twist of lemon we went back to the Irish pub for some more drinks and to use their wifi. We booked a tour to Sachsenhausen concentration camp for tomorrow.
When we had finished down at the pub, we picked up some breakfast for tomorrow and went back to the room to get ready for bed. First or second impressions of Berlin are good. I don't think I have seen a city quite like this before. It's a mish mash between the old and new, mostly new. The area where we a staying, just to the north of Brandenburg Gate is a very trendy area. Lots of bars and cafes and funny looking shops, heaps of graffiti or street art some might say. I don't think tagging your name is art but anyways. Berlin definitely is on the mend still, trying hard to rebuild itself, and it seems to be doing a good job. In the centre they have restored many old historical buildings to there former glory, and they stand adjacent to new buildings where the architect has gone crazy. We will be checking out a couple different areas tomorrow so we will see what they are like.
- comments