October 2015 - Germany - Berlin


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November 5th 2015
Published: November 5th 2015
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Berlin is a huge city with so many interesting places to visit and see. We opted for Berlin for its history and to find out what it is like. I throughly enjoyed my short time we had here.



From the airport the public transport is easy to navigate, if you can read and follow a London tube map you won't have any trouble in Berlin. We decided on purchasing a welcome card. It gave us a 4 day travel card for all public transport and discount on lots of museums, sightseeing tours and restaurants. The U-bahn and S-Bahn can get you pretty much everywhere in the city, I downloaded a handy app before I left which works offline and tells you easy routes via the train system, it's called Berlin subway.



Our hotel, Golden Inn Angleterre, was situated near Checkpoint Charlie. Considering this is near the centre of the city the road outside was very quiet. In the evening it was silent with an odd bike or person walking by. With the police station across the road I guess crime is low and we felt safe. The restaurants around the area were sparse but with a short walk North or South or jumping on a train you can find something!



The first, second and third day we were blessed with cold wind and rain! Perfect weather for spending all your time outside! However this did not ruin our time and we did pack for the cold! Our first day we walked into the city centre and stopped at Gendarmenmarkt just to look. Here there are three landmark buildings, two churches opposite each other and the Konzerthaus. The churches are practically identical to each other one being a french cathedral and the other German. The concert hall is impressive with a red carpet going up the stairs to the entrance. The whole area was quiet and peaceful and we could spend time wandering and comparing the churches to see what was different, we couldn't find a lot!



We walked from the square to Unter Den Linden towards the museum island. We stopped of on the way at a small memorial called Neuev Wache. Walking in through the tall pillars we entered a grey concrete blocked room. In the centre is a statue of a mother with her dead son, the
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East Berlin wall
memorial also has ashes of an unknown concentration camp victim and an unknown German solider. Looking up the grey continues and in the centre of the ceiling is a hole that is directly above the statue. This allows a symbolic stream of light to enter the room and exposure to the elements. After a short walk from the memorial we arrived at the cathedral. It is very beautiful from the outside. It was intended to be an equivalent to St Peters basilica in Rome and from the outside it does look impressive although the inside does not compare. It is nice inside and has lots of interesting parts to look at. One of which is the crypt. Here there are coffins of past kings, queens, princesses and princes. After leaving here we walked down Unter Den Linton to the Brandenburg gate. As you walk through the gate and to the right you get to the Houses of Parliament, The Reichstag. The building is huge and has a large dome you can go up and have a view of the city. You have to book way in advance if you want to do this, we tried but had no luck.

Jewish memorial



We decided, as the rain wasn't easing, to go into the Checkpoint Charlie museum. Here we learnt all about the border gate and how people tried to escape East Berlin to the West. They had on show suitcases people hid in, cars that were used, flying contraptions and stories about tunnels people would dig. Learning through real life stories of people who were trying to better their lives and see their families by traveling dangerously to the west was eye opening. I never realised the extent of the divide and how awful it was for Germany until the early 1990s.



The next day we took the train out to the east Berlin memorial. Here they have part of the wall still standing showing the clear divide between east and west. There are information boards posted all along the green area between east and west. Here we learnt the sad truth of what would happen to people as they tried to leave. The east side soldiers would shot to kill, the lives lost are celebrated with their names and some photos posted along a wall. This area is quite somber but again opens your eyes to
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Check point charlie
the extremes.



We headed on back to the centre of Berlin to the Jewish memorial. The memorial itself consists of hundreds of grey concrete slabs all positioned at different heights. As you look from the edge it looks like waves and never ending although it is quite ugly. But underneath is a very impressive museum to celebrate Jewish lives. There was a short wait to get in but it was only because of the security checks. The walk through the whole museum told us the the sad truths of the terrible holocaust that took place. 6 million lives were taken.... 6 million, I really struggled to comprehend this amount and understand why. It's just so sad. There are extracts from diaries and letters left by those who knew they were going to face a tragic end along with information about Jewish family lives. There is a room that reads out all the names of some of those people who lost their lives and those who are missing. To present all the names would take around 6 years. This museum and tribute was heart wrenchingly sad.



To cheer us up we stopped and had some delightful Apple cake and tea! we had this a lot! We sat in a small Cafe and warmed up. Still cold outside we walked towards the Topography of Terror. This museum is free and sits on the land where the Secret State Police office was located along with Reich security building. Part of the wall still stands here with indoor and outdoor information boards. The good thing about this museum it does not focus on just Hitler being the main contributor to the terrible acts the Nazi's committed. It looks at the head of police, police officers, Drs and people who believed the propaganda that was given to them. The crimes that were committed against people were terrible. One thing got me was that when a child was ill or if they had a special need they would use 'euthanasia', kill the child, and tell the parents they were helping them out as there lives would now be easier. The displays and photos are graphic.



We thought it would be good to learn some history of the German Royal family by visiting Schloss Charlottenburg. The palace is not quite what we were expecting. It didn't give a
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Festival of lights
lot of information about the past royal family it looked more at the furniture and decoration. Although some of this was interesting I don't think I would recommend anyone going there unless you are particularly interested in decoration from the 1700s. Many of the rooms were destroyed in the war so what you see here may not be the original features which is understandable. The museum has worked hard to getting it back to how it looked before but, some of the rooms have just been painted white. The best room was the ball room situated in the new wing it is laden in gold, beautiful.



The last day in Berlin we decided to take it easy and go out into the Tiergarten. Here we really couldn't miss the Siegessaule (victory column). It was put up to commemorate the Prussian victory of the Prussio-Danish war. The monument is located on the 'great star' roundabout, to get to the monument you have to use the underpass or risk your life by dashing across the road!



The park near the centre (Tiergarten) is very pretty. We had a lovely walk through it looking at the autumnal colours. Earlier on in the week we stumbled upon a small memorial for the Roma families who were also subjected to the holocaust. As you walk through the gate there is a large pool, dark in colour with small stepping stones sunken into the grass with the names of the all the concentration camps engraved into them. It was very peaceful.



I mustn't forget the local delicacy of currywurst, sausage in a ketchup and curry sauce. I think this is an acquired taste! On the evening that I tried this we went out to look at the Brandenburg Gate lit up. We were lucky to be in the city for the Festival of Lights. Many of he big buildings were lit with projections of pictures and animation along with music. Great fun!



The best thing about the trip was enjoying it with my mum and her yelling what she wanted to eat, drink and which ticket she wanted to buy! It was extremely funny!


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