Berlin, Day 2

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Hello everyone!! Day 2 of our trip, we finished up some more sights in Berlin, then headed south to the Rhine River region.

Early in the morning, we headed back to East Berlin to the Checkpoint Charlie museum. Although the items in the museum are kind of jumbled, there is SO MUCH information and exhibits. It is inside of an old apartment right next to the checkpoint where “helpers” would assist people trying to escape. The museum has the full history of the wall, the checkpoint, and the numerous escape attempts - everything from special cars made to hold people curled up in the front, trick suitcases, hollowed out surfboards, hang gliders to fly across, and even a hot air balloon (it successfully got two families across)!

After that we went for a closer look at the Reichstag building. Reichstag was the parliament building built in the 1890’s. In 1933, it burned in a fire. Hitler blamed it on the Communists, but some believe that Hitler planned the fire himself to gain power (because the building was burned, Hitler was given special emergency powers - one of the first things he did was dismiss parliament). In WWII, the Nazis made their last stand here, but it fell to the Allies. The building was unused until 1999 when it was rebuilt with a huge glass dome on top. It houses the parliament again, and you can see down on to the proceedings so Germans can “keep an eye on their government.”

Outside of the Reichstag is a row of slate slabs which is the Memorial to Politicians Who Opposed Hitler. There are 96 names, each labeled on a slab, who were murdered by Hitler for having dissenting views and advocating democracy.

On the way back to the hotel we also saw the Victory Tower. This used to be in front of the Reichstag, but Hitler moved it to the Tiergarten Park at the end of a long street so that his Nazi parades could end there.

We loved Berlin - it is very beautiful and has so much history, and it is changing FAST. There is so much construction going on, the whole city is in a period of renewal. I can’t imagine what it will be like 10 years from now.

So, we said goodbye to Berlin and hopped a train to the Rhine River region. We arrived in the evening, and our home base is a small town on the river named Bacharach (pronounced, as we were corrected, “ba-chhhh-uh-racchhhhh” - that’s ba-phlegmsound-uh-ra-phlegmsound”). This town is ADORABLE - filled with the cutest little buildings that look like gingerbread houses. In its prime, Bacharach was a major wine trading village. Now I think it is maintained by tourism. We had a great meal at a cute little German restaurant, and called it a night, because tomorrow is going to be a busy day! Two castles and the Rhine River... Talk to you soon!!

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Comments

[karshena]

looks really nice
it looks amazing over there!!!!

[Bon]

what up
What up chicken butts!!!! Or is it German chicken butts?