Berlin

Thursday-Monday, August 14-18, 2014

We decided to take one last long weekend trip away before our baby girl arrives in 7 weeks or so. We chose to go to Berlin. Jackie went there 9 years ago with her friend Emily in cold late November 2005 while they were studying abroad in Prague. She recalled feeling like with all the construction going on in the bombed out city that it would be pretty cool to go back and see one day years later to see all the new development of the rebuilt city.

Thursday morning we dropped Chance off at the kennel for the duration of our stay. This was her second visit there in the Mierlo countryside (first was while we were in Turkey).

30 minutes later we were in Germany. We stopped for gas and McDonalds for lunch along the way.

We stayed at Art’otel in Berlin Mitte just south of Museum Island and Alexanderplatz across the Spreekanal and Spree River.

We began to walk over to Brandenburg Gate once we arrived. There was still construction EVERYWHERE.

Konzerthaus Berlin, a 19^th century concert hall 

Neue Kirche 

Old building in Berlin Mitte 

Berlin sewer cover 

Brandenburg Gate from Pariser Platz as the sun began to go down 

Jackie at Brandenburg Gate 

We grabbed dinner at Hopfingerbrau im Palais. Joe had beef goulash and Jackie had schnitzel.

Reichstag, renovations and dome by Sir Norman Foster in 1999 

Jackie had unfortunately misread somewhere that you could only sign up to tour the Reichstag dome 2 days before and once she looked into it, there were no openings to tour the Reichstag while we were there. It was the highlight of Jackie’s time in Berlin 9 years ago and was sad that there would be no Reichstag tour for Joe.

We walked by the Holocaust Memorial to the Sinti and Roma victims (some 500,000 European gypsies), designed by Israeli artist Dani Karavan and opened in 2012 has a round reflecting pool surrounded by broken slabs of stone. In the central triangular platform, which shape represents the badges worn by the concentration camp prisoners, has a single rose that is replaced daily when the stone is retracted. There is an inscription of the poem “Auschwitz” by Roma author Santino Spinelli in bronze letters surrounding the round reflecting pool.

Brandenburg Gate from the backside in West Germany 

Holocaust Memorial (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) by Peter Eisenmann 

Holocaust Memorial with Fernsehturm TV Tower in the distance in Alexanderplatz 

Holocaust Memorial with the sun setting in the distance 

Fashion shopping building Gallerie by Jean Neuvel 

Checkpoint Charlie 

Friday

We went to Cappucino, a delicatessen near our hotel for breakfast. Joe had a typical European breakfast of lunch meat, salami, cheese and rolls and Jackie had a ham and cheese croissant.

We bought a daypass for the Berlin transportation system on the U-bahn and S-bahn. At the price of 6.80 euros for a day, 3 rides paid for the ticket for the day.  

Potsdamer Platz 

Sony Center 

All throughout Berlin, you can trace the outline on the pavement of where the Berliner Mauer (Berlin Wall) once stood from 1961-1989. 

Berlin Wall Memorial representation of the border wall 

Here is the orientation model. We began walking the Berlin Wall Memorial along Bernauer Strass at Gartenstrasse outside the Nordbahnhof S-bahn station. 

Berlin Wall Memorial former inner wall 

Original Berlin Wall 

Berlin Wall Memorial representation of the inner wall, signal fence and patrol road 

Reconstructed monument of the death strip with inner wall, border lights, patrol road, watch tower and the 12 foot tall concrete wall 

Chapel of Reconciliation 

We walked the Berlin Wall Memorial until we reached the Bernauer Strasse U-bahn station.

We took the U-bahn to see Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

The damaged spire of the old church remains and the ground floor is now a memorial hall. The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church ceiling 

Model of the original Kaiser Wilhelm Church prior to WWII 

Model of the current Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church today 

The new hexagonal tower was covered in scaffolding for renovations so I didn’t take any photos. The new church has octagonal walls of concrete honeycomb with stain glass inlays, predominantly in blue.

The exterior of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church 

An interior shot of the church from the internet since I didn’t want to pay entrance fees for photos.

The new buildings are nicknamed the lipstick and the powder box by Berliners.  

Next we walked over to the south end of the Tiergarten, near to the Zoo to the biergarten at Café am Neuen See. We even got to see a few llamas and other animals through the fence.

Joe enjoyed a beer at the Café am Neuen See while Jackie had fresh squeezed juice. We split a wood-fire baked bruschetta pizza and a milkshake for lunch. 

The biergarten setting was wonderful on the Neuen See (a small lake) in Tiergarten.

Victory Column 

Next we walked over to take the S-bahn Tiergarten to Alexanderplatz. Our lack of knowing very little German showed its true colors when we were forced off the train at the Friedrichstrasse stop. The line here was under construction so we had to take a bus from here to Alexanderplatz.

As soon as we got off the bus, it started to rain so we ducked into a large shopping mall to wait it out. It passed shortly thereafter.

We walked by Berliner Fernsehturm, the Soviet TV Tower, an icon of East Germany which could be seen from just about everywhere in Berlin. 

We snacked on some currywurst before heading back to the hotel for a short nap before going out for dinner.

For dinner we went to Zur Rippe for traditional German cuisine. Joe had beef roll with red cabbage and mashed potatoes and Jackie had a bratwurst. 

We walked around after dinner. We strolled by the Berliner Dom and wished we had remembered our camera tripod to take night photographs. 

Ampelmann, the Berlin green crosswalk man 

Ampelmann, the Berlin red crosswalk man 

Chairs outside the Ampelmann souvenir shop 

Ampelmann shop signage

They had everything you could imagine with these figures, but no shot glasses. Joe and Jackie collect shot glasses from each of the places they have visited together and they really wanted to this one for Berlin.

Saturday

We began our morning having breakfast again at Cappucino. Jackie had fresh orange juice and a chicken and onion quiche while Joe had a cappuccino and breakfast sandwich. We shared a lemon cake.  

We bought another day ticket to ride the public transit. We rode over to S-bahn Tiergarten stop to go to the Strasse des 17 Juni Flea Market. We have been looking for older maps of cities we have been to. We found 6 good ones while in Maastricht in June. Today we waded through boxes and boxes of maps, to find one worth buying of the northern provinces of the Netherlands including Groningen, Friesland, the North Sea coast and the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The mapmaker is 200+ years old, but not sure on the date of the actual map print.

Next we headed back east for another flea market near the Berlin Wall street art piece along the Spree River. We made plans to eat at Burgermeister which is right under the U-bahn Schlesisches Tor stop. It wasn’t too busy when we walked by at noon, so we went to the East Side Gallery first. 

We crossed the Spree River looking south 

The East Side Gallery was painted from February-September 1990 after the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989 and repainted in 2009. 

We crossed back over the Spree River looking north at the East Side Gallery on the right and Alexanderplatz TV Tower. 

Burgermeister was in full swing for lunch at 1pm. We patiently waited for our amazing burgers.

The line stretched to the street corner by the time we finished our lunch

We walked over to Hallentrodelmarkt which was so overloaded with stuff that it was overwhelming. We moved along to the S-bahn Treptower Park stop to go to the Jewish Museum for the afternoon. The weathermen were predicting rain.

Jewish Museum exterior by architect Daniel Libeskind completed in 2001

Holocaust Tower 

Garden of Exile, 49 concrete pillars containing earth and olive willows are arranged in a square (the only completely rectangular form in the building) but on a slanting foundation. 

I think Daniel Libeskind’s quote sums it up well: “One feels a little bit sick walking through it. But it is accurate, because that is what perfect order feels like when you leave the history of Berlin.”

Three intersecting slanting corridors named the “Axes” 

Our complaint about this museum is that you have to always look at the map to know the correct way to go and then follow the arrows on the floor throughout the exhibits on the upper floors. You could never really get a good handle of where you are within the zigzag building.

Interior windows of the Jewish Museum 

The museum had more of an emphasis of Jewish history in Germany, but it helped give a good explanation of how anti-Semitism grew so strong before the Nazi regime thus leading to the Holocaust. 

Staircase at the end of the axes 

Stair landing windows 

bios [torah] by the artist group robotlab has an industrial robot scribe the Torah like a specially trained Jewish scribe on an 80m long roll of parchment paper 

Looking down into the void from an upper window at the Fallen Leaves 

In the “Memory Void” there is an exhibit by Israeli artist Menashe Kadishman called Shalekhet or Fallen Leaves, which has 10,000 faces punched out of steel and distributed on the ground 

Lit from just one window 

Visitors are invited to walk on the faces and listen to the sounds created by the metal sheets as they clang and rattle against one another.

It felt very odd walking on the metal faces. 

Jackie walking on the metal faces 

This part of the exhibit was definitely our favorite.

We rested for a bit in the courtyard of the older Jewish Museum building. 

Jewish Museum exterior 

After all the German food we were craving some Asian food. Joe found a good Taiwanese restaurant on Tripadvisor, Lon-Men’s Noodle House. We had shao long biao, beef with noodles, and pickled vegetables. It wasn’t that great, but it was better than anything we have had for Asian food in Eindhoven. 

We stopped by Potsdamer Platz again to see the Sony Center lit up at night. 

Deutsche Bank at night 

Sunday

This morning we tried the Thurmann Café and Bakery for breakfast and grabbed sandwiches for lunch later.

We drove to the Mauerpark flea market for a bit this morning.

We spent the day north of Berlin in Oranienburg to visit the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum.

Sachsenhausen camp was established in 1936 and intended as a standard for other concentration camps both in its design and the treatment of the prisoners. The layout was intended to allow the machine gun post to monitor the entire cast but additional watchtowers were used along the perimeter. It became a training center for SS officers. In 1942 a large number of Jewish prisoners were relocated at Auschwitz as an extermination camp.

The main gate and Guard Tower “A” of Sachsenhausen.

The gate reads “Arbeit Macht Frei” which means Work Makes you Free 

Radiating out from the main gate and tower in a semicircle were the barracks. After the war ended, the camp was dismantled and the building materials were reused in the surrounding towns to rebuild after the war’s devastation.

Morning and evening roll call would happen in the semicircle open space between the main gate tower and the barracks.

There was a marching strip around the perimeter of the roll call ground where prisoners had to march on a variety of surfaces to test military footwear while carrying military packs in shoes often not even close to their prisoner’s actual shoe size.

There was a recreation of the security perimeter which consisted of a 3m high stone wall, followed by a space that was patrolled by guards and dogs that was within the inside of lethal electric fence and then a forbidden gravel zone where a prisoner would be shot without warning. Guards would be given rewards like extra leave for successfully shooting and killing any prisoner. 

The basic barrack layout has a central washing area

and another room for toilets.

The left and right wings were overcrowded sleeping rooms with 3 story bunks with multiple prisoners to a bed.

We took a lunch break on the lawn to eat our sandwiches. 

Sachsenhausen was the site of the largest counterfeiting operation ever. Inmates with skills as artists or bankers were forced to forge American and British currency.

Execution trench 

Station Z gas chamber, now ruins, was put into operation in 1943 (after the Jews were sent to Auschwitz in 1942). Station Z was named such since it was the last place to exit the camp (through execution).

In April 1945 as the army advanced, Sachsenhausen was prepared for evacuation with the SS staff ordering 33,000 inmates on a forced death march northeast.

It was a long day at Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum 

We had had enough depressing history for one day so we head back to Berlin for a little sightseeing, souvenir shopping and dinner.

Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) 

Altes Museum 

We walked to Bebelplatz by Humboldt University to see the Empty Library which is a white room with empty bookshelves underground under a glass floor. The glass was extremely dirty and there was a lot of glare so there was no good way to take a photo of this memorial of when the Nazi’s burned books in front of the university.

We were real hungry so we made our way to Treffpunkt Berlin for dinner. There weren’t any open tables so we sat down to share a table with an older couple who just finished their meal and were enjoying some beers. Joe started a conversation with the German couple who are from a town 50 km from Munich. They were in Berlin for work, where they are basically tour guides for hotels in different cities all around Germany. The man spoke a decent amount of English and his wife spoke some French. They also own part of a farm and make their own chocolate for distribution around the holidays. We made sure to exchange cards and emails so we can order some chocolate and get recommendations for when we go to Munich. 

After dinner, we walked over to the Brandenburg Gate.

Jackie at 33 weeks in front of the Brandenburg Gate

Monday

We enjoyed one last breakfast at Cappucino before hitting the road on our 6 hour drive home.

We detoured through Potsdam.

We drove by Sanssouci Palace of Frederick the Great and the surround park gardens but didn’t bother getting out for photos to ensure we were back in the Netherlands to pick up Chance before 7pm.

Overall it was a good trip, but not somewhere where we feel the need to visit again. We much more enjoy smaller cities with lots of visual history, which Berlin does not. We also realized on this trip how fortunate we are to live in the Netherlands. With so many people comfortable speaking English everywhere, it makes it easy for us to adjust and be able to communicate most of the time. We found it a lot harder in Germany. Typically there was only 1 waiter in the place that spoke enough English and would help the other waitstaff out that might not understand what we were saying. We did find a lot of similar words in Dutch and German. Hopefully the German pronunciation of things doesn’t affect our horrible Dutch pronunciation once our Dutch lessons start back up again after a 4 week hiatus for vacations.

By far our favorite German word is AUSFAHRT, which means exit. EINFAHRT is entrance (pertaining to vehicles only).  We searched for a good arrow shaped sign to take a photo with (I’m sure you can picture Joe bending over acting like he’s farting) but most were at exits on the Autobahn which would not be safe for us to get out of the car for photographs.