Berlin

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We joined our tour of the Baltic States in Berlin. We were lucky to be staying right in the centre of the city and within walking distance of many attractions. We were able to walk to the Brandenburg Gate and Tiergarten, a huge park in the centre of the city, as well as many other attractions such as Check Point Charlie.

We had a full day tour to Potsdam, a residence of the Prussian kings and the German Kaiser until 1918. On the way to Potsdam we stopped at the famous Glienicke bridge where until the political change in 1989, the crossing was not only a prominent border but also a point of exchange for secret agents of both political systems who had been taken prisoners. We were lucky to visit Cecilienhof where the Potsdam Conference was held in 1945. Participants at the conference were the Joseph Stalin for the Soviet Union, Winston Churchill and later Clement Attlee for the United Kingdom and S Truman for the United States. They had gathered to decide how to administer punishment to the defeated Nazi Germany and the dividing up of Germany which had agreed to unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier on 8 May (V-E Day).

Later in the day we stopped at Sanssouci the palace of the summer residence of Fredrick the Great. The palace was built in 1745 above terraced vineyards. The palace is considered the major work of Rococo architecture in Germany and is surrounded by beautiful gardens

The following day we visited the Reichstag, the home of the German Parliament. The building was renovated in 1999 with plans by British architect Norman Foster. The roof is an entirely glass structure and contains energy efficient mirrors, the natural light from above radiates down to the parliament floor. A large sun shield tracks the movement of the sun by GPS and blocks direct sunlight.

In the afternoon went exploring with another couple by train out to where a long section of the Berlin Wall was left standing. Artists were invited to paint the wall representing hope and violence, it was sad to see some of the art work damaged by graffiti. We found some of the paintings very moving and it was hard to comprehend that the wall had divided the city from 1961 to 1989.

We also walked through the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe, also known as the Holocaust Memorial. It consists of a 19,000 m2 site covered with 2,711 concrete blocks arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The memorial is designed to produce an uneasy confusing atmosphere as you walk through it and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason.

We found Berlin easy to walk around and it never seemed to have many vehicles unlike the traffic in Melbourne. You had to watch out for bikes when crossing the road as the majority of the city workers seem to cycle to work at a great pace. The city now united appears to be prospering and from a tourist point of view a great place to visit.

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Photos

Berlin
Tiergarten

Reichstag
Mirrors providing light for the parliment

Berlin Wall
Eastside Gallery

Climbing the Victory Momument
After 285 steps made it to the top

Cecilienhof
Venue for the Potsdam conference