A Most Significant Patch of Dirt
Today (Thursday) we spent the whole day touring Berlin. Probably not enough time, but we did our best to see it all. Karen started out with a lovely bath in the elegant bathtub. After breakfast at Starbucks, we headed for the underground to meet up with our prearranged 4-hr walking tour of Berlin. Once you learn how to use the underground in one city you pretty much know how it works in all cities, so we bought our metro pass, jumped on the train and found our meeting place quite easily.
Barnaby, an English guy who lives in Berlin, was our tour guide. He turned out to be quite informative and entertaining. We started out on Museum Island and enjoyed the beautiful buildings and stood in the plaza where Hitler gave some of his speeches to thousands of people.
Barnaby gave us a great history lesson of Germany during and after the war and then we moved onto Humbolt University buildings. He told us of the distinguished people like Eienstein who studied and taught there. We stood in the spot where the Nazis burned 20 thousand books and they have a nice memorial to that event with a window in the ground on the very spot where you can look down into a room with empty bookshelves.
Around 1pm, we passed the Fassbender & Rausch Chocolatiers. They had lovely window displays of large monuments in solid chocolate. Don't lick The chocolate please!
We went around the corner to a bakery to take a break and while the rest of the group had bakery goods, we backtracked and went into the chocolate shop and made a few purchases. Then we managed to eat what we bought. Bill bought Karen a special heart shaped, dark chocolate with the words "I Love You" on it.
After our break we walked to Checkpoint Charlie, which Barnaby called Disneyland because it is a bit of a tourist circus and the signs and building are not the real thing.
We walked on to see the real thing - the Berlin wall. It is located near the SS bunker where many attrocities were planned and executed. There is a double stone line in the ground where the wall was located throughout the city.
We walked along the street where several Nazi buildings were located and then walked by an apartment building and onto a car park with a patch of grass and dirt. We stood on the grass while Barnaby told us that we were standing where Hitler's bunker was located. He gave us the layout and then told us about Hitler and wife Eva Braun's last days. They got married in the bunker and then 32 hours later committed suicide because the Russians were very close and it was all over for him. He then told us how the bunker was destroyed and filled us in on what happened to Hitler's body. It was a very common and ordinary patch of ground yet very significant -a most significant patch of dirt.
We walked into the abstract Holocaust Memorial that we visited yesterday. There are 2,111 different sized concrete rectangles in the ground meant to represent the Jews who were murdered. He told us that the company who developed the invisible coating to protect the concrete from tagging was the same company who developed the gas used to murder the Jews. He then had us walk through it and meet him on the other side and give our impressions. Our impression was that the monument illustrated the slow slide that a society can fall into darkness without realizing it at first. Then they must find their way out of it into the light.
It was interesting to hear the many meanings that people found in the monument. It was very thought provoking.
We then walked past the American Embassy to the Brandenburger Gate which served as the end of our tour. Good news for us as the Ritz was only a few blocks away.
The weather was great for our 4 hour walk around town and we got to see a lot of Berlin and gain insight on what is was like prior to the wall coming down. It was also moving to think that we were walking where the wall once stood and where people died trying to get to freedom.
We have been privileged to visit several countries (Estonia, the former East Germany, the former East and West Berlin, and the Soviet Union) who haved moved away from communist rule, places we couldn't have imagined visiting many years ago. We have been very blessed.
One last interesting tidbit just across the street from the Ritz Carlton is worth mentioning. Please look at this picture and look closely. The entire building is made up of a canvas facade attached to scaffolding. The reason is there is no record of who owns the property and they can not build on it as the real owner may someday show up. Wierd.
The other tidbit are trees. They planted 412, 000 trees in the city, and leave it to the Germans, they cataloged everyone of them and each has a number. For example, here is #5.
This is our last blog as we depart Berlin tomorrow morning (Friday, August 29th) for our 16-hr flight home. We hope you enjoyed following us on this adventure and thank all of you for your best wishes and prayers.
Barnaby, an English guy who lives in Berlin, was our tour guide. He turned out to be quite informative and entertaining. We started out on Museum Island and enjoyed the beautiful buildings and stood in the plaza where Hitler gave some of his speeches to thousands of people.
Barnaby gave us a great history lesson of Germany during and after the war and then we moved onto Humbolt University buildings. He told us of the distinguished people like Eienstein who studied and taught there. We stood in the spot where the Nazis burned 20 thousand books and they have a nice memorial to that event with a window in the ground on the very spot where you can look down into a room with empty bookshelves.
Around 1pm, we passed the Fassbender & Rausch Chocolatiers. They had lovely window displays of large monuments in solid chocolate. Don't lick The chocolate please!
We went around the corner to a bakery to take a break and while the rest of the group had bakery goods, we backtracked and went into the chocolate shop and made a few purchases. Then we managed to eat what we bought. Bill bought Karen a special heart shaped, dark chocolate with the words "I Love You" on it.
After our break we walked to Checkpoint Charlie, which Barnaby called Disneyland because it is a bit of a tourist circus and the signs and building are not the real thing.
We walked on to see the real thing - the Berlin wall. It is located near the SS bunker where many attrocities were planned and executed. There is a double stone line in the ground where the wall was located throughout the city.
We walked along the street where several Nazi buildings were located and then walked by an apartment building and onto a car park with a patch of grass and dirt. We stood on the grass while Barnaby told us that we were standing where Hitler's bunker was located. He gave us the layout and then told us about Hitler and wife Eva Braun's last days. They got married in the bunker and then 32 hours later committed suicide because the Russians were very close and it was all over for him. He then told us how the bunker was destroyed and filled us in on what happened to Hitler's body. It was a very common and ordinary patch of ground yet very significant -a most significant patch of dirt.
We walked into the abstract Holocaust Memorial that we visited yesterday. There are 2,111 different sized concrete rectangles in the ground meant to represent the Jews who were murdered. He told us that the company who developed the invisible coating to protect the concrete from tagging was the same company who developed the gas used to murder the Jews. He then had us walk through it and meet him on the other side and give our impressions. Our impression was that the monument illustrated the slow slide that a society can fall into darkness without realizing it at first. Then they must find their way out of it into the light.
It was interesting to hear the many meanings that people found in the monument. It was very thought provoking.
We then walked past the American Embassy to the Brandenburger Gate which served as the end of our tour. Good news for us as the Ritz was only a few blocks away.
The weather was great for our 4 hour walk around town and we got to see a lot of Berlin and gain insight on what is was like prior to the wall coming down. It was also moving to think that we were walking where the wall once stood and where people died trying to get to freedom.
We have been privileged to visit several countries (Estonia, the former East Germany, the former East and West Berlin, and the Soviet Union) who haved moved away from communist rule, places we couldn't have imagined visiting many years ago. We have been very blessed.
One last interesting tidbit just across the street from the Ritz Carlton is worth mentioning. Please look at this picture and look closely. The entire building is made up of a canvas facade attached to scaffolding. The reason is there is no record of who owns the property and they can not build on it as the real owner may someday show up. Wierd.
The other tidbit are trees. They planted 412, 000 trees in the city, and leave it to the Germans, they cataloged everyone of them and each has a number. For example, here is #5.
This is our last blog as we depart Berlin tomorrow morning (Friday, August 29th) for our 16-hr flight home. We hope you enjoyed following us on this adventure and thank all of you for your best wishes and prayers.
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