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Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
These concrete cuboids are part of Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Not permitted to climb them but Ake did anyway. Sightseeing and running is a great combination
In April this year we went to Berlin over a weekend. This trip was only partly for sightseeing. The other reason for us to go to Berlin was to participate in Berlin Half Marathon.
We both like to exercise and running is the exercise of choice most days. Since we are both lazy of nature we need to have a goal with our training. To join various races is a very good such goal. To compete against each other is an even better. Previously we have only run races in Sweden but this year we thought it could be good fun to run a race abroad. We know from before that Berlin is a nice city and since they have a suitable race for us Berlin became our choice.
We arrived in Berlin on Friday late in the evening. We arrived so late that we didn't have time for more than a quick look into the area around the hotel and have a late dinner before bedtime.
On Saturday we first went and picked up our race numbers and spent some time browsing some of the shops that had set
Fernsehturm Berlin
Berlin TV Tower next to Alexanderplatz marks the city centre of former East Berlin up business selling runners shoes and other sports equipment to the participants in the race. Well Emma was doing most of the browsing, while Ake, as the good boyfriend he is, waited on her.
The rest of Saturday we spent on walking around town. We can't really call it sightseeing, walking around is a better way to describe what we did.
First we went to
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche or Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It's a 19th century church that was heavily damaged in the Second World War. After the war the remains of the church, now looking more like a ruin than a church, was kept and is now a well known landmark in Berlin.
We next went to
Alexanderplatz, the city centre in East Berlin. Next to Alexanderplatz there is another famous Berlin landmark -
Fernsehturm or Berlin TV Tower. Being well over 300 meters high it can easily be spotted from far away.
From Alexanderplatz we walked westwards and soon came to one of the most famous streets in Berlin -
Unter den Linden.
At the end of Unter den Linden we saw the third Berlin landmark of the day
Brandenburg Gate or Brandenburger Tor. Brandenburger Tor used to be right next to the border between West and East Berlin.
Brandenburger Tor
Brandenburger Gate used to be next to the border between East and West Berlin. Today the gate is more than just a gate. It also stands as a symbol of the united Germany.
After Brandenburger Tor we stumbled upon the
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe aka the Holocaust Memorial. This memorial consist of more than 2500 concrete rectangular cuboids of various height covering an area almost the size of three football fields.
The last place we visited this day was
Potsdamer Platz. On Potsdamer Platz the memory of the Berlin Wall is alive and kicking. They have set up a section of the wall here with a fake border station where, if you want, you can get an Eastern German entry stamp in your passport. Along the wall they have put up signs telling about the history of the Berlin Wall. The pieces of the wall on the Potsdamer Platz were part of the original wall but they have been moved from their original spot. If you want to to see a real and unaltered section of the Berlin Wall you have to go elsewhere in Berlin. We will probably go back to Berlin one day and then we might go for a "wall hunt". This weekend we were more focused on the race than on sightseeing.
Pedestrian lights - western style
Lights at a pelican crossing the way it looked in West Berlin - "the Green Man" On Sunday morning we had breakfast and then we went directly to Alexanderplatz where the start of the race took place. We took our position among the other runners. When the race started so did we.
Berlin is a very flat city and consequently the race course is a very flat one. A flat course in long distance running means a very fast course. We both managed to beat our best times for a half marathon. Emma ran in 1 h 53 minutes, beating her previous best with 10 minutes. Ake also ran in 1 h 53 minutes, beating his best with three minutes. To Emma's frustration Ake ran the race 10 seconds faster than Emma.
After the race we quickly went back to the hotel, had a shower and then we went back to Sweden.
On the blog we have added some photos of the lights at pelican crossings (It is light guided crossing of a street. It is short for PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled crossing. Should be PELICON crossing but most of the time called pelican crossing) in Berlin. When Berlin was a divided city West Berlin and East Berlin had different designs of the
Pedestrian lights - western style
Lights at a pelican crossing the way it looked in West Berlin - "the Red Man" lights at the pedestrian crossings. When Berlin was reunited in 1989 they first started to replace the ones in East Berlin with the western style light. But the people of East Berlin started to protest saying that they wanted to keep the eastern style of the lights. Today both kinds of lights can be found in Berlin and the Eastern German lights have become sort of a symbol for Berlin. You can buy T-shirts and other souvenirs with the Eastern German green man on them.
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