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Published: February 9th 2006
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By the Brandenburger Tor
aka the Brandenburg Gate. That's me and Anne Personal Tour
Seeing the sights of Berlin
Seeing East and West.
Anne was kind enough to take me on a tour around some of Berlin. Anne’s parents live in the Southwest part of Berlin so to make seeing things easier Anne took the car out and drove us around to various sights. We drove around a bit and I just started to get a feel for the areas around Berlin. We drove by the Siegessäule or Triumphal Column which was erected to commemorate Victory in the Prussia-Danish war of 1864. It originally stood outside the Riechstag but was moved to it’s current location in the middle of a roundabout sometime in the 30’s by the Nazi’s.
We got out and walked around Schloss Charlottenburg which was the former Royal Summer Residence in Charlottenburg. There were some really nice gardens in the back and instead of paying to go in we just peeked in through the windows. It seemed pretty bare in there and perhaps it was just a few of the rooms we peeked into but it didn’t seem that spectacular to me.
We then drove to one of the major shopping areas (I can’t remember the name!)
Penny by one of the many steales...
at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. and did a little bit of postcard shopping before stopping at Kaiser Wilhelm-Getächtnis-Kirche. This church was bombed during the Second World War in 1943. After WWII the ruins were removed which left only the massive front tower at the base of which Gedenkhale (A Memorial hall) is situated. It was quite striking looking at all of the blues and greens of stained glass squares put together “mosaic” style. This former church serves as a huge reminder of the war.
At some point after walking through the church I got a text message from Penny who arrived into Berlin late yesterday to see where we could meet up. Hmm, where’s the best place to meet? She’s in former East Berlin. Let’s meet at Potsdamer Platz. In the 20’s and 30’s this area was thriving with lots of buildings, entertainment and retail shops etc. A real “happening” place so to speak. In WWII the area was reduced to rubble and after the war left as a wide open space and was a no man’s land beside the Berlin Wall. Since the fall of the Wall, the area with a lot of corporate sponsorship has been redeveloped and is once again thriving. Anne said when the area first opened it was pretty deserted because 1) It felt very sterile (no flora planted yet.) and 2) Resistance to accept the new area. There are still a lot of East/West issues that need to be worked out in the City. Anne says the City is actually really poor since the City used to be two and after reunification there are many things that are duplicated. For example there are two zoos and three opera houses in the City. It would make sense to either combine or close some of the these things but neither East or West want to “budge” so to speak…Debates on which to close etc. So many other publicly funded services have been suffering like closing of community services (eg: pools) which really affect the community more in my opinion. Anne was even telling us about the grand debates that went on about the “walk” signals. In the East the little green men have hats. In the West they don’t…Easy for me to say but the politicians and decision makers need to work together better so that resources are used more wisely (perhaps they should look at the Girl Guide Laws lol) and progress can be made instead of always debating and opposing one another.
Anyhoo, Anne and I made it to Potsdamer Platz and found a restaurant and table to sit at so as soon as we were settled I sent a text message to Penny so that she could find us. Anne and I ordered first since we didn’t know when Penny would arrive I chose a traditional pork and potato balls with gravy dish that also came with cabbage salad. Eventually Penny came and then our food.
Penny hasn’t changed one bit. She’s still really friendly, talkative and good for a laugh. It’s awesome that we’ve been able to meet up again during our travels. It’s interesting to note that I also met Penny during my travels through Cambodia and Laos. So I’ve met up again with two thirds of the people that were on that tour! Pretty amazing. I don’t think I’ll ever hear from the last two since nobody has heard from either of them in our numerous group email exchanges since March. Oh well!
After lunch Anne took us to some interesting and historical sights of former East Berlin. The Regierungsriertel (or Government District) was our first stop. The Reichstag (Parliament) is a massive and impressive building. After reunification (an much resistance) the Capital of Germany moved from Bonn to Berlin. There are many modern buildings around the Reichstag that have been built for Government offices. What luck that where these buildings stand was once No Man’s Land. There were quite a few memorials for those that died trying to get from the East to the West. Really sad and tragic.
Then we went to Unterden Linden which is a huge street that is home to Humbolt University (one of the three University’s in Berlin), museums, memorials and at one end the Brandenburger Tor (or as we call it, the Brandenburg Gate.) There were also a bunch of giant “E’s” along the pedestrian walkway to mark the year 2005 as the year of Einstein…as designated by UNESCO. I never realized that Einstien was from Berlin…
We then headed over to the Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. It was debated for years in regards to having this memorial and what to build. In the end the designer, Peter Eisenman, installed 2,711 steales (concrete slabs) over the designated area with varying heights. He has given no interpretation to his design - it is open for interpretation in other words. The queue to go down into the underground information centre was too long so we moved onto our next destination.
A good point of reference in the former East area to help get you oriented is this huge TV tower, also nicknamed “Telesparge” or toothpick. It was built in 1969 and stands 365m (1197 feet) tall and is an absolute eyesore!
By this time we’d done a lot more walking so we took a coffee and cake refueling break at a nearby café before heading to see the New Jewish Synagogue and an Art Gallery/Old building. It houses a lot of art, graffiti and people wanting to express themselves. I can’t remember the name for the building but they wanted to tear this building down but the “masses” wanted to use the building for art purposes so it’s a thriving yet decrepit building. It was interesting to see some of the graffiti.
We walked around the neighbourhood some more and passed by a few potential restaurants we could go to for dinner before finally settling on Indian. Yum! I ordered curry chicken which to me seemed more like butter chicken. Double yum! The prices were actually pretty reasonable compared to where we ate at lunchtime. Once again before we knew it, it was past 11PM! Where does the time go? It was a pretty long day so Anne dropped Penny off near her hostel and we headed back to the Kleinkauf household.
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