Berlin: Brandenburg Tor (Gate) & Tiergarten

Brandenburg Tor (Gate): Inspired by the Acropolis in Athens and now symbolizing German reunification, it was completed in 1791 as the Royal City Gate; on top is the Quadriga, the sculpture of the winged goddess of victory piloting a chariot drawn by 4 horses; went there our 1st morning to begin our walking tour and also walked by/through it many times later; very impressed by its magnitude on one of Berlin's many massive boulevards.

Tiergarten: Rulers used to hunt boar and pheasants in the park which is one of the world’s biggest urban parks, located in what was West Berlin; we walked for at least 3 hours through the park and still didn't see many of its sculptures, gardens, memorials, etc; the park is located in Central Berlin on both sides of a huge boulevard beginning at Brandenburg Gate and extending for several miles west to Charlottenburg (more on that area in an future post); it was so serene and peaceful walking through the park on its countless trails and paths jutting off in every direction; as throughout Berlin, there were lots of bike riders and quite a few joggers.

Can't describe a garden the magnitude of the Tiergarten without
beginning with a flower picture, I figure!

So glad we brought with us our ultra cheap rain ponchos
we got last year in Cambodia as it drizzled the 1st 2 afternoons.

Memorial to 2000 plus Soviet soldiers buried here in Berlin. 

 

Part of the Soviet Memorial at the Tiergarten;
this one's for you, Zachary.

 

Steven at the Sinta/Roma Memorial:
'the black water serves as a mirror and reflects the sky.'

Victory Column was erected as a national monument during the unification wars; the Golden Victoria, later added at the top, is referred to by Berliners as the Gold Elsie; the column is now a symbol of Berlin's huge gay community; Obama spoke to 200,000 Germans from this spot as a presidential candidate in 2008.

The Rose Garden was particularly lovely; pictures below
but not of any roses!

This color has always reminded me of touring Scotland
40 years ago this summer - yikes, do I feel old saying that!

Memorial to Queen Luise of Prussia.

We popped into the Adlon Hotel just on the East Berlin side of the Brandeburg Gate to relax
 (and coincidentally use the sumptuous facilities) our 1st afternoon after walking for
miles and miles; you may remember the famous photo of Michael Jackson
dangling his young child from the balcony at the Adlon?

We went back to the Tiergarten the next day: this is the Musicians' Memorial. 

Berlin: Reichstag Dome, Topagraphie des Terrors & Checkpoint Charlie

Reichstag (Parliament) Dome: Most visited sight in Germany according to a tour book; I was unsuccessful getting reservations in advance but we were very lucky to get in quickly after arriving at the ticket kiosk at 8 as we’d expected to have to return several hours later for the tour; loved seeing the giant glass beehive and walking on the 230 m long ramp as it spiraled around a mirror clad dome that deflects daylight into the plenary chamber below; cupola at top is completely open year round to reflect ‘openness and transparency in German politics.’ 

Views of the Reichstag  Dome

Totally open at top 24/7- when it rains, or snows, 
the precipitation falls into the cone below it.

                                                                                 

Views from outside 
the top of the Dome.

A

Love the red luggage tags, Mindy - thanks!

Topagraphie des Terror: Built on the site of former Gestapo and SS headquarters, it traces the stages of terror and persecution during the 1930's and 1940's; now hemmed in by a 200 m stretch of the Berlin Wall as seen on the right in the picture below.

Some remnants of the Berlin Wall located by Topographie des Terrors.  

View of the wall from East Berlin, i.e. from the Topographie des
 Terrors. Picture below shows view from outside the Wall,
 i.e. the West Berlin side.

Tourists were accused of taking samples of the Berlin Wall. As Sam, our English tour guide humorously described the situation, only in Germany do you see a fence or wall built to protect a wall!

Checkpoint Charlie: Saw larger than life photos of an American soldier facing west and Soviet soldier facing east at only spot where you could cross from East to West Berlin and vice versa between 1961 and 1989; 2 rows of cobblestones run throughout the city and even through some buildings indicating the line between what was East and West Berlin.

One foot in the former East Berlin and one foot in the
former West Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie.

Dates the Berlin Wall (Mauer) was up.

Behind the Iron Curtain - A View From The Side (1)

    Can't believe we're actually sitting in Solidarity Square - Gdansk, Poland. Just spent 4 days visiting Berlin and a day in Poznan (Poland). Berlin was amazing - just a touch bizarre seeing Checkpoint Charlie with actors as soldiers and people getting their pictures taken - I remember watching on tv the tanks facing each other across the checkpoint during some crisis, practicing "duck and cover" drills in school and watching a neighbor starting to dig out his bomb shelter.
     Hard to imagine that just 1 year ago at this time we were visiting Iceland and Estonia and getting ready for our trip across Russia. We are so blessed - to have such good friends, to have each other and to be able to travel as we do.

Berlin: Our 1st stop on Big Trip 2

Great to be on the road overseas again with Steven at last!  After months and months of planning our second Big Trip, and with oodles of help from so many posters on Trip Advisor, particularly Denver based Liz T. for the Hungary portion of our adventure, we left Denver on August 3^rd and aren't planning to return til November 6^th, 97 days later.

We spent the first 5 days in Berlin since that was a natural stopping off point for what we wanted to see and do in what we grew up knowing as Eastern Europe. For a while I was hesitant about going to Germany on this trip as it was a country I had forever thought I would never step foot in. Growing up in Ottawa, Canada as the daughter of an Englishwoman who had spent the war years doing her part to defeat the Germans who were wreaking havoc on her homeland, I knew always how she felt about Germany and its people. Even though decades ago I had spent more than a year living in Europe and had seen much of the continent, I had consciously not wanted to go to Germany. Interestingly enough, Steven felt exactly the same way as he was brought up listening to his mother continuously talk about how much she hated everything German, especially the people.

General Observations: We were both amazed at how little traffic there was in Berlin for a city of 3.5 million people; very quiet even on the main streets; lots of bikes being ridden all over and more spots to rent bikes than you could shake a stick at; also surprised seeing so many flower shops throughout the city. 80% of Berlin was destroyed in the war so basically all new architecture and even now, new construction everywhere you look.

Our hostel was located in the heart of Central Berlin so easy to walk everywhere since most of the sights we wanted to see were in that area as well as in the former East Berlin.We figure that we certainly walked about 8 plus miles a day, not quite at my normal Denver early morning walking pace with you, Mindy and Darlene, but fast enough with backpacks in tow to be good and tired at the end of every day.

Steven and Annie on our front porch ready to hit the road on 8/3/14.

 Natalie - took one look at the graffiti by the doorway and thought this HAD to be our hostel as it reminded us of where we stayed in St. Petersburg last year!  Our hostel was just across the street and had no graffiti - phew!

Our tiny room in the Berlin hostel

No kitchen in the hostel so we 'had' to go out for dinner our 1st night- I didn't complain about not being able to make dinner after travelling from Denver to Reykjavik to Copenhagen to Berlin for the last 20 hours.  Loved flying nonstop to Reykjavik but NO snacks en route, nary a bag of pretzels. BTW - Saw more Italian restaurants in Berlin than I ever thought possible outside of Italy.

Our first morning we took a 3 hour 'free' walking tour of the city - discovered them last trip and hope to go on lots more this trip as they're a great way to get a sense of a new city and what we want to go back and see on our own.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe: 2711 stelae or concrete blocks of various heights; only when walking through do you actually know that those in the middle are hugely taller as the ground in the middle of the Memorial descends several feet; we were told there is no apparent significance to 2711 stelae number; also a very informative underground Information Center which brought to life through pictures and text, stories of some who perished; 2^nd most visited sight in Germany.  

Us at the Memorial

Brandenburg Tor (Gate): Inspired by the Acropolis in Athens and now symbolizing German reunification, it was completed in 1791 as the Royal City Gate; on top is the Quadriga, the sculpture of the winged goddess of victory piloting a chariot drawn by 4 horses.

Humboldt University: 1^st university in the world, according to our walking tour guide, where the 
PhD was 1st introduced, lectures were given and peer review was instituted; 29 Nobel Prize laureates; on May 10, 1933 Goebbels decreed that 20,000 books by Jewish writers be thrown out. There's now an underground 'memorial' directly across the square visible only from above through a piece of see through plastic comprised of a large room comprised only of empty bookshelves

Us at the French Protestant Church in the big square also containing the German Church and Koncerthaus

Steven at the Koncerthaus.

 The building above was originally built in 1818 as a guardhouse, then became a Memorial to the Victims of World War I, then a Memorial to Victims of WW II then finally to the Victims of War and Tyranny. Sculpture/statue below is the only item in the memorial; it's of a German woman holding her dead soldier son in WW II after losing her husband in WW I.

Berlin is a city of rivers; liked seeing this on one of the many bridges we crossed.

Anyone have a clue as to what colors are in Germany's flag?!!