Berlin

Friday, February 18 - Sunday, February 20 2011

We. Love. Easyjet.  How else can you book 5 round trip flights for less than $1000?!  Yes, that means less than $100 per person round trip to places like: Berlin, Rome, Nice, Budapest, and Brussels.   First on the docket – Berlin!

Berlin is one of those cities we knew very little about when booking our trip.  The more research we did, the more exited we got - so many interesting and historical things to do and see!  We left Geneva on Friday morning around 7am (part of the reason the flights are so cheap) and were in Berlin a couple hours later.  Like most major European cities, the subway system is fantastic so we just hopped on and were in the city center in less than an hour. 

What to do first?  We quickly discovered through our research that Berlin is a museum city - so many that you can’t do them all in a weekend.  We decided to choose a few based on research and recommendations from co-workers living in Berlin.  Our first museum stop was the Jewish Museum.  The claim to fame for this museum is both its tribute to persecution of Jews in WWII, but also its unique architectural design.  While overall it was interesting, we were both put-off a little bit by the architect’s explanation of his “style” throughout the museum.  For example, there is a room in the museum that is all dark except for a sliver of natural light in the ceiling (below left).  The architect basically said he created this room for people to interpret it in their own way.  Come on dude, just admit that you winged it and didn’t know what to do with the room so you cut a hole in the roof and told people to think what they wanted.  The little things aside, it was a worthwhile visit to see and learn about very personal accounts of a dark time in modern-day history—and was our introduction to learning more history about Berlin.  

Shalachet ("fallen leaves") exhibit,
consisting of 10,000 iron faces

 P.S.—They had an odd display of yarmulkes that cracked us up.  Yarmulkes with Batman, Superman, even Friends characters.  The best might have to be “Obamica ‘08”.

 

Next stop – Checkpoint Charlie (CC).  It’s interesting because people tell you not to visit CC necessarily, as it will be a letdown compared to other historical sights in Berlin.  But most people are familiar with CC, so we had to do it.  Dave’s Aunt and Uncle Bonnie and Brian visited CC in the early 80’s and snuck a picture while it was still an active guard post – it would be interesting to compare that picture to today’s version, which is now awkwardly out of place (McDonald’s anyone?) and overly exploited for tourism.  It’s great to keep the history alive though. 

 

Our next museum was actually located in a shopping mall.  It was called The Story of Berlin, and it walked through Berlin’s history from very early times (1200’s) up through the fall of the Berlin Wall.  One of the highlights of this museum was touring a nuclear bomb shelter (photo on right) located underneath the mall (that explains the location, huh?).  This shelter was HUGE, having the capacity to hold about 3,000 people (that’s a lot of cots).  It was one of a handful of active shelters in Berlin and is still maintained today, just in case…

The next morning we experienced yet another style of museum, The East Side Gallery, which is a long stretch of the original Berlin Wall that was transformed into a canvas for numerous painters (painted after the fall, not during Soviet occupation).  Most of the art was a little too abstract for us, but below are some notable/famous pieces. 

On the subject of the Wall, one interesting exercise you can’t help avoid in Berlin is trying to determine which is former East Berlin and which is former West Berlin.  We learned an interesting fact – the streetlights today still mark former East and West Berlin.  Look at the difference between the green and red lights in the pictures below.  The more cartoony-looking lights (the green man with the hat and the red man with his arms outstretched) are still in place in former East Berlin.  West Berlin had their lights switched out with the standard design for all of Western Europe. 

Ang in East Berlin

Ang in West Berlin

  

Recently we’ve been more and more interested in river cruises.  They are a perfect way to see a lot of sights from a unique angle and in a relaxing way.  We heard that Berlin is an excellent place for such a river cruise.  The only problem?  We didn’t come across a tour in English.  “Oh well, we’ll try it out anyway.”  For future reference, we definitely recommend river tours in a language you can understand… but the views were great! 

Before we rushed to get on our river tour we stopped quickly at the Berliner Dom, a huge Cathedral.  We wish we could have spent more time there – it was one of the most impressively ornate Cathedrals we have seen to date.  Don’t miss it if you are in the area. 

Grounds of the Nazi Headquarters

The next museum was probably the most disturbing one in Berlin.  It’s called the “Topography of Terrors”, which was constructed on the remains of the Nazi and SS headquarters.  It gave a chilling account (including actual photographs) of the timeline leading up to, throughout, and the aftermath of the Nazi regime.  We were astounded to learn that many of the people involved in the heinous acts against innocent people were never prosecuted or were released early from prison (after 5-10 year sentences, for example).  Appalling.

  

On a lighter note, the Pergamon Museum was our last museum of the trip and had nothing to do with Berlin or its history.  This museum contains ancient artifacts, most notably a Pergamon Altar which was built in the first half of the 2nd century BC, excavated in the late 1800’s in Turkey, and transported piece by piece to Berlin in the early 1900’s to be reconstructed in the present-day museum.  That must have been really difficult…  We also saw the Market Gate of Miletus which dates from around 120 AD and the Ishtar Gate which once lead to the inner city of Babylon, constructed around 575 BC.  It was mind-boggling to see these huge structures in remarkably good condition, considering how ancient they are.

Pergamon Altar - 2nd Century B.C.

A model of the full altar

 

Market Gate of Miletus - circa 120 A.D.

Ishtar Gate to Babylon - circa 575 B.C.

 

We also saw a few notable monuments and points of interest around the city.  The first was the Daimler-Chrysler tower.  Known as one of the better viewpoints of the city, we went to the top and indeed were granted an incredible 360 degree view of Berlin.  Next was the Holocaust Memorial, which consists of thousands of uneven cement blocks that you can walk around and through (almost like a maze)—while walking through the middle of it, it was so eerily void of any sound, even though the monument itself is in the middle of a bustling city.  We also checked out the Brandenburg Gate which has been a notable symbol of Berlin (and the whole country of Germany) since it’s construction in the 1700’s—it now stands as a monumental entry point of that part of the city.  Lastly, we walked over to the historical German parliament building, the Reichstag, a key landmark in the rise of the Nazi party.

Holocaust Memorial

 

Brandenburg Gate

The Reichstag

Berlin isn’t all about museums and monuments though—the food is spectacular!  Our first stop in Berlin was to try out the famous Currywurst, which is German sausage in a special tomato sauce with curry powder sprinkled on top.  Yum.  Our first night we went to a fantastic Italian pizzeria which was located in an old building under the train tracks—delicious food, great service and what a wonderful atmosphere.  Berlin is also known for their breakfasts.  As you can see from Ang’s expression, the anticipation is half the fun!  Our last night in Berlin we visited a “traditional” German restaurant; less touristy and what the real Berliners eat.  While the food we amazing, we’re pretty sure eating a huge plate full of Weiner Schnitzel (breaded and fried veil) every night is not the healthiest thing to do.  The best part of the evening was the waitress who knew we were tourists and showed us the ropes to ensure we got a “real German experience”.  We were first greeted with a “welcome beer”, received great suggestions on what food to order and then she brought out a complementary after-dinner Schnapps shot for each of us, as it is a “German custom” she told us.  She sat down at our table to take one, too—all 3 of us gagged afterward, but well worth experiencing customs! :)

We had a great time in Berlin, regardless of the fact it was freezing cold while we were there (low 20s without factoring in the severe wind chill).   We were too stubborn to be hindered by the cold, though—too much to enjoy to stay indoors the whole time!  If you are a 20^th century history buff and ever have the opportunity to visit, we recommend you spend a few days to soak it all in.