Berlin - Day One

Germany….a nation of automobiles, sausages, beer and efficiency. Lou was so excited after a long week she could barely keep her eyes open and nodded the whole way there.

We arrived in Berlin after a quick flight on the prestigious Ryan air and landed about 10pm on a refreshing Friday night. We hit a bit of an obstacle trying to work out how to get into the city centre but this was soon overcome when we realised the ticket machines had an English language setting - shot Germany!

On our express train we were joined by a big group of very loud Berliners on their way back from a football game, the German language is actually quite amazing, especially at the volume they were talking at, it is safe to say we had absolutely no idea what they were on about. We also found that you can drink beer anywhere, and 94% of Germans carry a bottle opener in their pockets (not an official statistic but fairly accurate given our informal study).

We finally arrived at our destination tube station and found our way through suburban Berlin to our lovely 4-star hotel (thanks last minute!). By this stage it was midnight so it was off to sleep (or a second sleep for one of us).  

Saturday dawned a beautiful sunny day so Hamish opted to wear shorts. An interesting decision this would turn out to be…

We left the hotel and realised it was about 4 degrees. Nevertheless we powered through and walked the 10 minutes to Brandenburg Gate, stopping at a supermarket for fruit supplies and a local café for breakfast. In Europe, we find breakfast an ongoing battle which usually leaves us eating pastries or sandwiches not the usual NZ fare on the plus side Lou always gets a delicious coffee.

A cold looking Lou and the Brandenburg Gate

We arrived early at Brandenburg Gate and took the opportunity to get some shots of this impressive piece of architecture. The Gate was built in 1791 and like the most of Berlin city suffered extensive damage in World War 2, and was only restored in 2000. The horses on top of the gate were taken by Napoleon when he conquered Prussia in 1806 and put on top of the Arc outside the Louvre, but then the Prussian army conquered Paris and took them back in 1814, so they have been around a bit.

We then met our guide (Mike) for the walking tour around Berlin along with around 30 others, and he took us around the main sights of Berlin describing about 800 years of German history in 3 hours, very interesting stuff.

After leaving the Brandenburg Gate we headed to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a city block of 2,711 concrete slabs in varying heights. The architect has never revealed what the symbolism means but some theories include it represents gravestones, the trains taking Jews to the concentration camps or even the rise and fall of Anti Semitism.

We then moved onto a random carpark where we learned that the area was above the bunker where Adolf Hitler committed suicide when he realised that the war was over for Germany. Interestingly the site is only marked by a small sign that was paid for by the residents of the surrounding apartment block that was put up during the World Cup in 2006 because the residents were sick of people knocking on their doors asking where the bunker was!

Next up we walked to one of the only surviving buildings that the Nazi’s built left standing in Berlin. General consensus in Berlin was to destroy all the buildings that the Nazi’s built after the War, either as a sign of shame and/or remorse. However the old Luftwaffe building was left standing. It definitely looks like a Nazi building, and the movie Valkreyie was filmed here. There is a large mural on one wall that was painted during Stalin’s occupation of Berlin which is meant to reflect the Soviet ideals of communism (everyone working together towards the common goal), and then on the courtyard outside there is a photo set into the ground of the protests of the Berlin people who were unemployed and starving…an interesting contrast between an ideal and reality.

Next on the tour was Checkpoint Charlie. This is the road where the Americans had their checkpoint between the East and West of Berlin during the Cold War. The photo of the American Solider used to be a photo of an American solider who was killed at the checkpoint but is now a random and on the other side is a photo of a Soviet solider. This is meant to symbolise the Americans always having an eye on East Berlin (Communists) and the Soviets always have an eye on the West of Berlin (Capitalists).

Checkpoint Charlie being the 3rd and last checkpoint. Others being - you guessed it - Alpha and Bravo

It is now quite touristy around that area with some locals dressing up in American army uniform to pose with tourists, and lots of random gas masks and fur hats for sale. There is also a good exhibition surrounding the area with the history about how people tried to escape to the West through the checkpoint, either hiding in the upholstery of the cars or even in the petrol tanks. There are 136 recorded deaths of people trying to escape, but most agree there would have been many more.

We then stopped for a break at a café, where Louise finally got to try a German pretzel, delicious. We also had a German “American Hot dog”, which was a frankfurter sliced in half placed on 2 thick slices of pumpernickel bread (which were half the length of the sausage) with some sort of relish, weird. We also shared a hot chocolate which was literally hot foamy milk with a big chunk of dark chocolate at the bottom that gradually melted….amazing.

Grrrrhhhhh

After our brief respite we then headed up to Gendarmenmarkt square where the three main buildings are the German Cathedral, the French Cathedral and the Concert House. The French and German Cathedrals are almost identical, the French Cathedral was built in 1705 for the Hugenot population that made up nearly 25% of Berlin’s population and the German one was built in 1708. The idea was that the French and German populations would worship in their one way and in their own religion and then meet in the square afterwards to mingle and be as one community.

Again, the actual Cathedrals were destroyed in the War and then rebuilt in the 1980s - fortunately Hitler removed all the statues on top of the Cathedrals before the bombing started and stored them in underground bunkers so the building themselves are new but the statues are original (see the colour difference).

From there we walked to the area outside the Humboldt University and the Berlin Opera House. The Germans were quite into their opera and even when the Opera House was destroyed in the second world war, Hitler ordered it to be rebuilt straight away whilst the rest of the city lay in ruins. The most important event to take place here was the infamous Nazi book burning in 1933. Approximately 20,000 books by a list of authors who were deemed as opposing the ideals of the Nazi party were burnt by soldiers from the Third Reich and even more shockingly, students and lecturers from Humboldt University itself. Now there is monument, consisting of a glass square looking down underground where there are empty bookshelves. Next to this is a plaque with the words “where they burn books, they ultimately burn people” a quote from Heinrich Heine, a famous German poet, over a hundred years before the event. Rather deep from old Heinrich but very true.

Next stop was the Neue Wache (New Guard House), which was originally built as a guard house in 1816 and then made into a war memorial in 1931. It has a statue of a mother with her dying son in her lap, designed by Kathe Kollwitz, and has a circular hole in the roof above so it is exposed to the elements. Quite moving really.

From there we moved onto Museum Island which is the home of 5 museums including the Old Museum, the New Museum, the Old National Gallery, the Bode Museum (sculpture museum) and the Pergamon Museum (art). The Berlin Cathedral is also on the island. All the buildings were damaged in the War and some of the pillars even have bullet holes that have been patched up! The island is also a World Heritage site.

Lou outside the Berlin Cathedral

The tour ended here, so we spent some more time looking around, but as the sun was out we didn’t feel like trekking through the museums.

Yes Hamish is making gun shot noises.

Feeling peckish we sampled another local delight - Currywurst. Basically sliced up frankfurters on a plate with curry powder dumped on with a big helping of tomato sauce. We then headed East to see the East Side Gallery, which is a preserved stretch of the Berlin Wall (1.3km) that artists have taken to decorate. Some of them were very powerful and it showed how liberal and diverse the artists are in Berlin. Its hard to say where the art stops and the graffiti starts, but I guess they are all trying to say the same message - that Berliners are so happy the wall is down.

Mmmm currywurst and curry powder

Hard to believe that's not a mirror image

One of the many murals

We caught the tube back to the city centre and headed back to Checkpoint Charlie for a better look around. It is hard to believe that so much intense stuff happened only 50 years ago, and if a few things had gone differently then the world could be a very different place. We also passed the main shopping district of Berlin, the Friedrichstrabe, and found a few really interesting shops. One that only sold wooden Christmas decorations, and those turning things that Sally has! There were about 10 different sizes you could get, it was awesome. Another cool shop was the Mini shop and the Bugatti shop - Hamish was in heaven.

Pretty much exhausted, and cold (especially Hamish in his shorts - quite a few people commented throughout the day that he must have been cold (really tough) and we think he picked up a unique title; only person in Berlin to wear shorts that day – we never saw other brave enough to get their pins out.

We headed back to our hotel for a hot shower and some more clothes before we braved the weather again. We wanted to see inside the German Parliament building (The Reichstag) at sunset as apparently it had amazing views. Due to the line taking over 90 minutes, we missed the sunset but still got up to the top of the glass dome that was built on top of the original building in 1999. The dome has an internal staircase winding its way up to the top so you have an impressive view of Berlin. It is meant to show that the Parliament is totally ‘transparent’ to the world and that the people are above politicans and always watching and a repeat of Hitler’s reign will never be repeated.

The Reichstag

Rather dark by the time we got up...

After the Reichstag we went to join in the festivities of the 20th anniversary of the Reunification of Germany ( we didn’t know this was going on when we booked our trip, it was a happy coincidence). Just by the Brandenburg gate there was a massive festival with a big stage set up with random people singing in German, and there were lots of beer tents and yummy foods. We bought some beers and tried to enjoy the German pop music.

Lou with 2 beers at Pariser Platz celebrating the reunification!

This didn’t last long.  We then went in search of some hot dinner and found this little German café on the Unter der Linden (The Royal Boulevard - the main road through Berlin). We went all out and had a really nice meal complete with a Stein - don’t worry oldies we shared it. We decided that we were going to have the bread selection for the starter, and Louise confidently told Hamish that the English translation of the name of the dish was slightly wrong and instead of being a “pot of lard and bread” that was written on the menu, this was going to be simply bread and butter. Louise was wrong. It was a pot of lard…mmm lard!

Biggest smile from Hamish all day

Hamish then had pork roast which was incredible, probably the best crackling ever, bread dumplings (weird) and saurkraut (gross/gives you gas) and Lou had the German beefsteak (I think these were patties made out of sausage meat), beans and fried potatoes.

Utterly full we staggered back to our hotel room and went straight to sleep.

Highlight #1: The walking tour - such a great guide and the best way to be introduced to Berlin
Highlight #2: Staying in a 4 star hotel for a change! And everything is efficient and dynamic.
Lowlight: European breakfasts
Interesting fact #1: The fall of the Berlin Wall was purely accidental. In 1989, a radical series of Eastern Bloc political changes occurred, associated with the liberalization of the Eastern Bloc's and the erosion of power in the pro-Soviet governments. There was some civil unrest and the East German government decided to relax travel between the East and West provided proper documentation/permission was held. Günter Schabowski, a spokesperson for the politburo, had the task of announcing this during one of only 2 live international press conferences held in East Berlin however he had not been involved in the meeting about the new regulations. Shortly before a press conference that day, he was handed a note that said that East Berliners would be allowed to cross the border with permission but given no further instructions on how to handle the information. These regulations were to take effect the following day to allow time to inform the border guards however; nobody had informed old Schabowski who just read from the note. At the end of the conference when an Italian journalist asked when the regulations would come into effect, Schabowski assumed it would be the same day based on the wording of the note and replied "As far as I know effective immediately, without delay". This lead to tens of thousands of people gathering at the gates. The confused guards called for orders but none were forthcoming and so in the end the guards gave up and let people through.
Intresting fact #2: That was Bennies Bandits longest interesting fact.