We arrived in Berlin around noon. Using the detailed directions we received from Rick Steves, we navigated bus, S-Bahn and Tram to reach Hotel Kastanienhof in the Prenzlauerberg neighborhood, located in former East Berlin. We were pretty proud of ourselves for this accomplishment given our jet-lagged state! We were able to check into our room and drop off our luggage before setting out to check out the neighborhood. We were hungry, and we learned from our last trip not to put off eating. We found a nice cafe near our hotel and enjoyed lunch at a sidewalk table. As we learned, this neighborhood is FULL of restaurants, and we rarely saw one that looked empty. We felt comfortable in Berlin immediately. We loved the fact that people were out with their children and dogs. The dogs, for the most part, were off leash and trotted obediently alongside with their owners, all next to streets busy with bike, car, and tram traffic. Our dogs would not have survived for 5 minutes in this environment! We stayed 4 nights in this neighborhood and found it to be laid-back, friendly, and lively. We could seriously see ourselves living there (well except for the obedient, off-leash dogs thing)! We were approached more than once by people speaking to us in German, so perhaps we didn't have "American tourist" tatooed on our foreheads.
Following our Rick Steves book, we popped in to have a look at the Nordbahnhof S-Bahn station, which became a "ghost station" during the Cold War. Western trains were allowed to travel through, but East German guards were posted outside to make sure that no one got on or off of them. We walked back to what we already thought of as "our neighborhood" in a light rain shower. The cool, dreary evening was the perfect backdrop to our Wall visit, and a welcome respite from the heat and humidity of the St. Louis summer we had left behind. We topped off our first night in Berlin with ice cream from Kauf Dich Glucklich. Greg was delighted when the young man behind the counter affirmed that he spoke English. Minutes later he was enjoying a Belgian waffle topped with vanilla ice cream and strawberries, while I nibbled on a cone, surrounded by German families chattering away at white bistro tables. It was a "sweet" ending to our first night in Berlin!
After eating lunch, we walked to the Berlin Wall Memorial, which was not too far from our hotel. We made it to the Documentation Center in just enough time to climb to the top of the tower that looks down on the last remaining section of the complete wall system and the "death strip" in between the inner and outer walls. After snapping some pictures, we climbed back down to explore the exhibits in the park, including a photo memorial of those who died trying to make it across to the other side. We overheard American parents trying to explain to their young children that building a wall was not a good way to solve problems and contemplated the fact that we had a presidential candidate back home who promised to do just that if elected. The implications of that promise were particularly sobering in this space.
Pre-Tour: Saturday, June 18
Tour Day 1: Sunday, June 19
On Sunday morning we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and ran into some of our fellow tour members who had just arrived. After wishing them a good day, we took a picture of the schedule our guide Jana had posted for our first tour day, then set out for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The tram stop was conveniently located across the street from our hotel. We waited for several minutes without seeing or hearing a tram, then decided we should double check the schedule to make sure they ran on Sundays. We both looked and agreed that we were in the right place and the tram should be coming. ​
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A few minutes later a couple with a toddler in a stroller stopped and the woman began speaking to us in German. Apologetically, we asked if they spoke English. Of course they did! The woman looked at her phone and told us that the trams were not running that morning due to a bicycle race through the city. This was the first of several instances on this trip of friendly locals going out of their way to help us out. They said we should just walk to the memorial, that it wasn't too far. We thanked them, Greg studied the map, and we started walking. This was also the first instance (but certainly not the last) of us taking the "long way" to our destination! We finally got on track and were strolling down Unter den Linden.
We crossed over the Spree River to Museum Island. The Lustgarten, with the Altes Museum as a backdrop, was a serene scene of couples cuddling on blankets, sunbathers reading, and children playing. It was hard to imagine that we were in the same place where in the 1930's The Fuhrer gave fiery speeches to mesmerized Hitler youth while SS men goosestepped in formation. I looked over at the magnificent Berliner Dom and pictured Hermann Goering, his bride Emmy, and their entourage standing on the grand staircase following their nuptials, flanked by rows of swastika banners.
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We continued on, stopping at an arts and crafts fair to buy our first souvenir--a tiny glass dachshund figurine. We passed Humboldt University, where Einstein had worked before fleeing to the U.S., and the Neue Wache, where the Nazis once held ceremonies commemorating their fallen heroes. The building now houses a sculpture by Kathe Kollwitz, "Mother with Her Dead Son," and is a memorial to victims of war and dictatorship.
We Made It to Berlin!
Berlin Wall Memorial
Visiting a "Ghost Station"
A stroll down Unter den Linden
It's the Brandenburg Gate!
We were excited by our first view of the Brandenburg Gate. Unfortunately the view was somewhat obstructed by the "stuff" set up for the World Cup festivities. We walked around and spotted the American Embassy. Along the walkway, there was a memorial to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting, which had just happened a week before. It was a touching thing to see so far away from home and reminded us that people stand together across the world in the fight against terrorism. We also passed the famous Hotel Adlon, where Michael Jackson dangled his baby son Blanket over a balcony in 2002. The original hotel was largely destroyed during WWII and rebuilt on the same spot in the 1990's.
Holocaust History
We finally made it to our destination--the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This was not a site covered by the tour, and was on our "must do" list. The memorial consists of over 2700 concrete pillars of varying heights. Of course we knew this before arriving there, but I never really "got it" until we started walking among them. Looking ahead, you would see someone; then a second later, they were gone. Imagine millions of people, disappearing in much the same way. We went underneath the memorial to the information center and purchased the 4 Euro audioguide. We highly recommend this, as it personalizes the Holocaust by introducing you to individual families, describing what their lives were like before the war, and then letting you know who survived and who did not. It was not always easy to listen to (I cried more than once), but important for trying to understand this chapter of history.
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After grabbing a bite of lunch, we went to the Topography of Terror, which documents in great detail the perpetrators of the Holocaust instead of the victims. There is an indoor museum, where we spent most of our time, and outdoor exhibits, all situated on the site of the former SS and Gestapo headquarters (which were largely destroyed during the war). If you are interested in this history, we highly recommend a visit here--and it's free. It is a lot of reading, but quite interesting. We spent a couple of hours here and did not even get to the outside exhibits. We cut our visit short so we could get back to the hotel and freshen up before meeting our guide and our group at 5pm.
