Berlin

We had a really great time in Berlin the last few days! Here's an overview of what we did and saw. We did so much in just a few days. We probably walked over 10 miles a day so when we got home yesterday we collapsed for the rest of the day. We left for Berlin on Saturday evening, so we had Saturday to do some last minute work, last minute packing, and some last minute bunny readying for our trip. We got in a bit late Saturday night and took the S-Bahn (above ground train) and U-Bahn (below ground train) to our hostel. The hostel was incredibly nice. We were in a room with three other people, but as we like to sleep at night and get up in the morning we had pretty much the opposite schedule from them and didn't see them much. Sunday morning we had breakfast at the hostel and took off walking. Our first stop was the Berliner Dom, a presbyterian church that has been on that site since 1895, though that site has had a cathedral on it for considerably longer. It was damaged (as was almost everything) during WWII and has since been refurbished. Then we spent a couple hours at the nearby history museum. Around noon we took a train ride out of town to the small town of Potsdam, the site of the palaces of the German monarchs and chancellors (and later the East Berlin officials).

Die Berliner Dom (with Kelly in front)

Arriving at the Palaces in Potsdam

At Potsdam we met our college friend Amy, her friend Abbey that she is traveling with, and their friends Jon and Kristen that live in Berlin. We spent the afternoon wandering the expansive palace grounds and looking at the different palaces.

Meeting Amy in Potsdam

Another impressive Potsdam Palace

That night Jon and Kristen graciously prepared dinner for us at their place (about a 3 minute walk from our hostel) and we spent the night playing cards. The next morning we again had breakfast at the hostel and again took off walking. Our first stop Monday was the church at which Dietrich Bonhoeffer was ordained and preached.

Ryan in front of Die evangelische Zionskirche

We then walked a long way down the Unter den Linden, the main street through East Berlin to arrive at the Brandenburg Gate at the other end. The gate is a former city gate and has been a symbol of Berlin for centuries. The Nazi party marched through this gate in their power takeover in 1933. The allies also marched through the gate in the overthrow of Berlin 1945. The Berlin wall passed right in front of the gate and it is where President Reagan ordered Gorbachev to tear down the wall.

Ryan in front of the Brandenburg Gate

We continued walking down the same street through the Tiergarten Park. We happened upon a Russian war memorial to the Russian soldiers that died during WWII.

Kelly in front of Russian War Memorial

Next we visited the Reichstag building, the capital building where the Reichstag government meets. We took the lift up to the top of the building and had great views of the whole city. The Reichstag building was set on fire four weeks after Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor, an event the Nazi party used (possibly orchestrated) to get German civil liberties revoked .

The Reichstag Building

We again met up with Amy, Abbey, and Kristen and next walked to the holocaust memorial. It is several hundred large stone blocks set upon a deepening and uneven brick walkway.

Amy, Abbey, and Kristen in the Holocaust Memorial

We were walking toward Checkpoint Charlie, but stopped at a place with a large section of the Berlin wall still standing. It was the site of the previous SS headquarters (the foundation and part of the building was still there) and there was an in-depth exhibit there with many pictures of the workings of the SS during th Holocaust. Hard to stomach, but it was a really interesting exhibit.

Largest section of the Berlin Wall still standing

We made it to Checkpoint Charlie, one of the gates between the American Sector of West Berlin and East Berlin. There was an exhibit of the stories of successful and unsuccessful attempts to flee East Berlin through the checkpoint.

Sign from East Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie

We were struck by how recent this history was compared to most of what we have been seeing. I can't imagine what it is like for those who lived in East Berlin during communist rule and now can freely pass over the place where the wall stood. We next went and had ice cream at Potsdamer Platz, which is an area that was left a wasteland during the cold war. It was directly beyond the "Death Strip" very close to the wall. Since the wall fell the entire area has been built up and now is full of new buildings and skyscrapers. They have a double brick line through Berlin that traces the line of where the wall stood. We went out to eat at night and then left back for home on Tuesday morning. It was about 85 degrees and bright sunshine the whole time we were in Berlin (totally not used to that kind of heat anymore!) and when we got home it was back to the normal drizzly cold we're used to.