My Russian Life: Trip to Berlin

I mentioned in my last posting that Pat & I visited Berlin recently. It was one of those cities on our "must visit" list, but we hadn't gotten around to going there. We finally made the trip and I loved it.

The weather wasn't great, but what do you expect for November in northern Germany? I took a lot of pictures! So I'm going to split this into two separate posts. Hope you don't mind :))))

Let's start with where we started - dinner on Friday night after our "short" flight. I call it short because we left Russia at 6:30pm, and arrived in Berlin at 5:45pm. The magic of time zones.

Dinner was Dicke Wirtin, which we found on the Internet. And it was a great find! On the West side of Berlin, and classic German food & beer

Although I went with a Riesling........

Smoked pork chops with gherkin & onion sauce for Pat

And a ridiculously large Wiener Schnitzel for me.

We stayed in West Berlin, but spent most of our time touring around East Berlin. I'm not sure that they refer to their city as "West" and "East" anymore, but it's hard not to think about it that way. There are such clear differences between the architecture, development, and overall vibe of the two sides of the city.

Our 1st stop was the old Checkpoint Charlie. One of the Berlin Wall crossing points between East and West, and probably the most famous. It was the single crossing point, by foot or by car, for foreigners or members of the Allied forces. And the location of a tank stand-off in October 1961 between US and Soviet forces.

It's a bit of a tourist site these days. But still cool to see, and there is a really interesting display nearby that walks you through the entire history of the wall, from its creation in 1961, all through the Cold War era, and finally to the tearing down in 1989.

Here is a nearby section of the Berlin Wall that is still intact, near the old Gestapo headquarters (more on that later).

As you would expect, most of the wall has been town down throughout the city. But there are still spots where you can find sections or memorials. And in a lot of cases, it has been turned into art exhibits or other memorials.

And there is also a Berlin Wall Trail that you can follow. In the areas where it's already been removed, they've marked it on the streets and sidewalks, and there are picture displays of what the area looked like. It's a little eerie to find yourself walking where people were once banned, or killed for trying to cross.

On the Eastern edge of Berlin's main park, Tiergarden, we happened upon this monument to individuals who died trying the cross from East to West over the wall. The exact number is unknown, but they have been able to verify that at least 136 people died - either through a shooting, in an accident while attempting to cross the wall, or a suicide after an attempted (but failed) crossing.

The 1st recorded death was in August 1961, and the last in March 1989 (8 months before the wall fell, or was torn down by the people of Germany

Then, it was time for a beer after our morning walk!

Oh yeah, and a Brat at a Christmas Market.

We also spent an afternoon walking through Tiergarden. It's a great urban park (5 square km), in the central part of Berlin

It also has a zoo!

The Victory Column. Originally built in 1873 to commemorate the Prussian victories in the Danish-Prussian, Austro-Prussian, and Franco-Prussian wars of the late 1800's. The Nazis relocated the column in 1939 to the Großer Stern (Great Star) intersection, which leads to the Brandenburg Gate, as part of their redesign of the city. It survived WWII without much damage, and the French wanted to tear it down after the war, feeling that it was now too closely linked to the Nazi's vision. But the British and Americans were against it's destruction, and it still stands today.

Have you ever watched the German movie Wings of Desire? Good movie set in Berlin, from which a not-so-great US movie starring Meg Ryan & Nicolas Cage (City of Angels) was based. Watch the original, and you'll see the column is where the angels in the movie congregate

This was very interesting. This is one of over 500 displays throughout the city of Berlin for their 2013 "Diversity Destroyed" exhibit. This year is the 80th anniversary of the Nazi's accession to power. The exhibits tells the stories of the people of Berlin & German of those times, to highlight the cultural diversity and to commemorate the loss of so many Jews, Homosexuals, Romas, and other marginalized people by the Nazi's during their reign. Let's hope we learn from history...

Time for another beer. Love this tap

Next we visited Berliner Dom, or the Berlin Cathedral.

Built between 1894-1905 (only 10 years!) during the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II. It's still a "working" protestant church, available for any city resident to join & attend.

Is was severally damaged during WWII in May 1944 by a bomb. The dome burned down & collapsed, destroying a large part of the interior and naves. And because it's located on the eastern side of the city and was under Soviet control from 1945-1989, only minor repairs were made. But in 1993, the main church was rededicated & reopened, and the last of the restoration work was completed in 2002

The organ is apparently the largest intact organ worldwide with pneumatic action, from the German Romantic Period (I didn't make this up)

8 mosaics on the dome, depicting the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount.

The oak pulpit

The altar area of white marble and yellow onyx, and gilded iron candlesticks

Heartbreaking. We just stumbled across this statue near the Friedrichstraße main train station. More than 2 million children lost their lives between 1933 and 1945 due to the Nazi regime.