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Published: December 28th 2009
We took a train from Prague to Berlin, it took a few hours, but was a good trip to just relax. We arrived at Haupbanhauf rail station and had to transfer to the inner city trains to go to our hotel. After we checked in our whole group took a quick walking tour where we saw the TV tower that is in Alexander Platz we were going to take a trip up to the top, and I would recommend it because you have very good views of the city, but it is kind of pricey. Next we made our way to Museum Island. We had to take a tram there, but once we arrived we were showed around the museums, there are over 30 museums in Berlin and they all looked great, but unfortunately I only made it to one. One museum Simon, our tour guide pointed out to us was the History Museum, there are still bullet holes covering the outside columns and statues from the invasion during WWII. Hard evidence like that is really difficult to ignore. I couldn’t imagine living in a city that was under siege. On our walk we also saw the Berlin Opera House and
Pergamon Museum
they were working on the outsidethe book burning memorial in the plaza next to it. There is an underground room that has empty book shelves that would hold as many books as those that were burned. The memorial is across from Humboldt University that housed the library where the books were stolen from. Further down the street in Paris Platz we saw Hotel Andel where Michael Jackson hung his baby out of the hotel window over a balcony, the US Embassy, a Kennedy Museum (which I thought was an interesting thing to have in Germany), and a subway stop called Unter den Linden that was opened by Adolph Hitler. The Brandenburg Gate stood at the very head of Unter den Linden (the street we were on). The Brandenburg Gate is more than just an iconic figure. The Gate itself is massive and the bronze statues of Greek gods on top are even larger that I would have ever guessed. The Berlin wall was built right in front of the Brandenburg Gate. One of the last things we saw that day was the Reichstag. While walking to the Reichstag we saw the running memorial for the Berlin wall; there is a metal plate that runs the
full length as the original wall through the city to mark its original location. The Reichstag is a large building and serves as the Parliament building. There is also an observatory inside the dome that is free to the public. The first night we had a group dinner at a restaurant near our hotel.
Our second day in Berlin was also another group tour day. This day we followed the path of the old Berlin wall. Walking through the city we came across the Holocaust memorial. It takes up an enitre city block and is filled with different size cement blocks. It is a pretty interesting design, but the thing I found wrong with it is there is no mention of what the memorial actually stands for. There is no mention that it is the Holocaust memorial. They could have at least placed names on the cement blocks or something. We walked a bit further to teh center of an apartment complex. One area of the complex was just a patch of grass and is the location of Adolph Hitlers old underground bunker. The only thing that is there to mark its place is a bullitan that had a
map of what it looked like before it was blown up. The city members did not want the location to become a shrine. Also along our walk we saw the June 17th Revolt memorial. The memorial is for the workers of Berlin that revolted and went on strike in 1953. We also saw remains of the Berlin wall where Simon told us what it was like in Berlin when the Wall came down; he was in the city when east and west Berlin were united. On our walk we also saw Checkpoint C or, also known as, Checkpoint Charlie which was the entrance to American Occupied Germany. Another thing we saw were a chocolate store called Fassbender and Rausch which is supposed to be the best in Berlin. There were chocolate creations like a model of the Reichstag, the Titanic, and a chocolate volcano. Near Stradtmitte station we also saw the German Dome and a theater. We had a bit of free time that afternoon and I really wanted to see the Pergamon Museum. Emily, Allison, John and I decided to spend the afternoon there looking at the old Greek statues and temples that had been transported into the museum.
For this we had to head back to Museum Island. I had learned about these temples in one of my art history courses and really wanted to see it in person. Trust me it is worth it! There are entire rooms that were built to recreate the temples! Entire rooms were set up to resemble the temples so the looked just like they did in there original place. Statues and friezes were erected and restructured to show what they looked before they broke down.
For dinner that night a large group of us jumped on the tube and picked a random direction to find food. We ended up walking for quite a while when we got off the tube, and it was mostly random walking just trying to find something that we would all enjoy and agree to. We ended up eating in a Mediterranean restaurant and it was really cool because we were able to sit on cushions on the floor around a long table. Later that night Allison and I had to enroll for classes and it was pretty hectic because even though we found an open internet café, our ‘enroll and pay’ home page wouldn’t let
us log on because we were logging on from a foreign computer. We were very stressed out for awhile, but then we finally called someone in the states to enroll for both of us. After that stressful event we called it a night.
Our third day in Berlin we actually left Berlin for nearby Potsdam. It only took 30 minutes to get there by train from Berlin and then we had a nice walking tour of the town during the morning. First entering the city it didn’t look like much because there is a lot of construction projects and the large church is also being restructured, but there is a nice Dutch area of town that is filled with shops (mostly for tourists) and there is also a second Brandenburg Gate, though I’m not sure why. There are also canals in Potsdam that were used for drainage, but now are just for looks. It was really funny because our tour guide dropped part of his head set in the water and he went in after it! It was very shallow, but we were afraid he wasn’t going to make it back out because the sides were very tall. Some
of the guys in our group helped haul him back out. That was definitely our entertainment for the day! Our next stop was to the palaces in Potsdam. Potsdam has several palaces that were homes to the royalty; they are arranged kind of the same way Versailles is arranged. Each palace is decorated in a different national theme so the royalty could ‘travel internationally’ without having to really travel. Since it took a long time to travel, the royalty just brought their travel locations to their own country. We started in the Sanssouci Gardens and Palace where there were large fountains and terraces of enclosed cabinets for roses and grape vines. Different roads spoke out in all directions that lead to the other palaces. We were able to see a summer tea house that was fashioned with Chinese décor which was covered by gold leaf and gold painted statues. Further down the path we reached our main destination, the largest palace complex; the New Palace, or Neues Palais in German. There is a large circular drive out front that is very impressive to walk up; it leads to the main palace that is connected to two smaller palaces by underground
Bowls in front of History Museum
This bowl is covered in bullet holes tunnels. The smaller palaces hold the kitchens and I think a chapel. When we went into the larger New Palace we had to put on slippers over our shoes so we didn’t scratch the marble floors. The slippers were really fun because the floor was so slick! We slid on the floors for fun! The rooms were all still arranged with period furniture and the great hall was completely decorated with sea shells. The walls and fixtures were all covered in shells so it looked like an underwater space. That was all we had time to see in Potsdam.
After heading back to Berlin, we had a bit of free time before dinner so a couple of us headed to west Berlin to see what the city was like there. Among all of the shopping centers that are now part of modern Berlin there is a lone church that still stands as a reminder of WWII. The Protestant Kaiser William Memorial Church was bombed and never rebuilt; it stands as a memorial to those lost in the war. After our walk through the west we went back to meet our group for dinner because we were going to the
Round Table Restaurant, a medieval themed place. We had to eat with our hands and this large dagger that we were given! The whole experience was fun and it was nice to have one last meal with our whole group. The next day was our last day in the Berlin area and we could basically do whatever we wanted, but one of our options was to go with Simon to a concentration camp that was north of Berlin. There was about ten of us that decided to go, so we set out for Sachsenhausen concentration camp, which is located near Oranienburg, Germany in the morning. We arrived at the camp around 1pm and I got a listening guide to hear more about the camp. There are barracks still standing, but mostly they were burned down and now only markers stand in their place. There is also the ‘infirmary’, the prison, the laundry and kitchen still standing. It was a very sobering experience visiting Sachsenhausen. It was very difficult to understand why people could ever build them in the first place. Parts of the crematorium were still standing along with a monument for the dead and patches of ground were set
aside where the ashes had been spread. One of the creepiest things to view was the shooting trench that was still there. Visiting Sachsenhausen concentration camp was one of the most rewarding experiences of my trip to Berlin because it was a visual to all the history I have always heard.
After the train trip back to Berlin I had to head to the airport immediately to catch my plane to Oslo, Norway. After making it to the airport via subway I got checked in and had to go through security. During my pat-down I must have flinched or stumbled or something but I got a lecture from the security guard who very sternly informed me that if I move they can assume I am trying to run and they have the right to tackle me. Awesome. So after I was almost taken down during my security check, they decided I was clean and allowed me on the plane. Stay tuned for Oslo updates!
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