Helen and Judy's Excellent Eastern European Adventure: Guten tag, Berlin!

We left Vienna in pouring rain to fly to Berlin, fortunately enjoying some great weather. Once again, we are renting an airbnb, this time a 2 bedroom apartment up four flights of stairs with no lift (elevator)! We are in the Wedding neighborhood, with a great ethnic mix of Middle Eastern, Greek, Turkish, and Indian businesses and families. We haven't seen much diversity thus far, except for apparent tourists and immigrants, so this is a welcome change. Photos of the hood and apartment coming tomorrow...

We settled in and found a great little restaurant around the corner, along with a local supermarket.

In the morning, we set out to explore Berlin. We walked about a half mile to find a U-bahn (subway) station, and made our way to what we figured was a central stop. It was pretty funny--we walked and walked looking for a hop-on/hop-off bus, and finally flagged one down in an intersection. When we got on, we realized we were the only ones on the bus, the driver didn't speak English, and we could have been headed anywhere, but it turned out to be just what we wanted, a cruise around the city from West to East Berlin. Whew!

We covered a lot of key sites on the bus tour (apologies for bus photos):

The tiger entrance to the world famous Berlin Zoo

Kaiser Wilhelm Church, bombed in WWII

Spree River in Tiergarten Park

West Berlin has many modern buildings

French Cathedral

Berlin State Opera House

Rotes Rathous and TV Tower

Our tour name was Stradtrundfahrten, which translates to City Tours. We've seen a lot of signs with the word "fahrt" in them (okay, we know we're regressing to being 8 year old boys)--ausfahrt, einfarht, and gut fahrt, which translates to exit, entrance, and good ride (must lose something in the translation). This is how we amuse ourselves as we walk.

We wound up our bus tour at the new train station, and took the S-bahn (high speed, above ground train) to our next stop, a walking tour! We were determined to get a handle on the highlights. Jonathan, our tour guide, is an Israeli with a German father and French mother, and gave us a great introduction to German/ Berlin history along with a 4-hour hike around town.

Checkpoint Charlie, a touristy re-enactment of one of the US East/West Berlin checkpoints

Double cobblestones mark the route of the Berlin Wall

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, built by Peter Eisenman

One of the few remaining Nazi buildings; originally housed the Luftwaffe Officers, then after the war the Soviet government, and now, the German tax office!

In memory of the 20,000 books burned by the Nazis in this plaza, Micha Ullman constructed this suberranean exhibit of empty shelves --hard to see, but there are enough empty shelves below ground to house 20,000 books

Berlin Cathedral

The Reichstag (Parliament)

Humboldt University, founded in 1810

Our tour ended at the Brandenburg Gate, the trademark symbol of Berlin. Built in the 18th century by King Frederick of Prussia, the gate was damaged in WWII but restored, and is an important symbol of Germany's history.

German history is long and interesting, as various empires and divisions redesigned its borders. German unification in terms of its current identity did not take place until 1871. Not surprisingly, much of both tours referenced World War II and the Nazi regime. We visited the spot where Hitler and Eva Braun killed themselves in his bunker, as well as monuments in honor of Jewish, Romani, and gay victims of the Third Riech. Evidence of the Cold War and construction/destruction of the Berlin Wall are also very present to visitors. Since some 80% of Berlin was destroyed during the war, the unified city has experienced much new construction along with restoration of some of the damaged buildings. We had heard that East Berlin is vibrant and growing (although the city is experiencing major debt), and we have found that to be true--lots going on, lots of creative art, lots of interesting neighborhoods. We wish we had more time here!

We ended the day by waiting in line for tickets to tour the Reichstag (Parliament Building) Dome tomorrow, grabbing some dinner, and returning to the best chocolate shop in Berlin (and some say in Europe!) for a little shopping before taking the U-Bahn home. Chocolate-loving friends, and you know who you are, put this place on your list.