Berlin, again
Trip Start
May 24, 2007
1
19
Trip End
Jun 22, 2007
Berlin, Germany
Monday, June 11, 2007
hot. Our guide was an English transport. She was really good, spoke
loud, and was really well informed of Berlin history. We saw quite a
bit on this tour, but these were the highlights for me. Bebelplatz-this
is where htey burned 20,000 books that didn't fit with the Nazi regime.
They have this memorial in the center. It's a bunch of empty shelves,
supposedly enough to hold 20,000 books below ground. Next to it is a
plaque that translates to "Where they burn books, people will follow".
Another highlight was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It's
a bunch of concrete slabs of different sizes in this giant area. The
slabs are so close together, there's not enough room for 2 people to
walk side by side. This was done on purpose by the artist. He also
wanted to let people write their reactions to the memorial on the
slabs, but the German government didn't want that, so they sprayed the
slabs with an anti graffiti agent. Only thing is that the company that
supplied the agnet also supplied zyclon-B used to kill Jews in the gas
chambers.
The German government met with the Jewish community to ask what they
thought. They figured to use them because nobody who worked for the
company then is even alive, and nobody who works for them now was even
born then. We walked through the memorial and it was a very surreal
experience. The artist didn't give any interpretation of his creation,
so I think it's only fair that I don't give you mine either. This way,
if anyone ever sees it, they can make up their own mind about it.
After hte tour, we went for lunch and then headed to Checkpoint Charlie
museum. It's all about how people managed to escape the wall, how they
hid in the secret compartments of cars, in suitcases, used other
passports, etc. It was pretty interesting. After we left the museum, we
schlepped to the Neue Synagoge. It used to be the hub of Jewish life in
Berlin, but it was damaged during Kristallnacht and then even more
destroyed during WWII. The outside has been rebuilt and it's now a
museum of Jewish life in Berlin. We climbed the dome (stairs!) and
wanted to go to the synagoge, but the small part they use for services
was closed.
When we left, we decided to walk to Alexanderplatz for some reason. It
looks close on the map! But it is a very decieving map. I don't even
know how long it took us. But it took us a long time. When we got
there, all we did was check the internet. From there, we went on the
train to the Zoo station. Only, we got there really early. We wanted to
try a Berliner, so we went to a pastry shop, only they didn't have any.
But we got some other yummy pastries. We just sat and chilled for a
while. After some time, we saw a bunch of people carrying bags from
Mango. We started to follow where they were coming from, only we never
did find it. Instead, we found these giant elephants in front of the
zoo, so we just took some pictures. By then, we had to head back to the
Macca's to meet those going to Joe's Beer Hall.
We walked over there with a small group and Selina and Arond. It was
really good food. I had steak, Dana had weinerschnitzel. I also tried
hte beer, but I didn't really like it, so I gave it to this guy James,
from Singapore. After that, we went back to the hotel. I still needed
to pack as it looked like a small explosion happened in my suitcase.
