Dan and Nancy's Travels: October

October 11

Thanks to Chris Columbus, Michelle had a long weekend available so we headed off to Berlin! And since this was a week before Nancy's birthday, this trip did double-duty.

It was 4.5 hr drive on the Autobahn with just a couple of complete traffic stops due to road construction (trust me, nothing is more frustrating (aka terrifying) than buzzing along at 90mph only to confront a bank of flashing brake lights ahead ... then the rain started which added a whole other dimension of fun to the drive b/c the autobahn is not lit at all, so where the lane markers are is anyone's guess ... mostly you just try to stay clear of the big semi-trucks).

Day 1 of our trip was gray and cloudy, but at least the rain held off until evening. We used this time to take the Hop-On/Hop-Off bus that tours Berlin, letting you get off at over 20 major stops. A pretty slick way to get oriented to the city. The only downside is that the commentary is supposed to be in both German and English, but our experience was that the guide either forgot to insert the English version, or, you'd hear 5-minutes of German (complete with laughter from the crowd) followed by "that's the Berlin Cathedral" in English! And from the picture below, you can see that we figured out it was the Berlin Cathedral all on our own ...

Berliner Dom

The most amazing part of the "old" buildings in Berlin is that they are all 'recently' reconstructed but looked quite aged and historic. Such was their rebuilding plan. You have to remember that Berlin was virtually leveled during WWII so all their history was reduced to rubble. As part of the treaty agreement, the Allies (including the Russians) offered assistance in rebuilding the city, with the condition that the buildings be restored to their original form. Originally completed in 1905, the Berlin Cathedral was severely damaged in WW2 and was not reopened for worship until 1993. The final touches of reconstruction were completed in 2002. They made the building look much older primarily by aging the stonework (burning the blocks to darken them) and by recovering what they could from the rubble. Also, we can thank Hitler for the efforts he did make before the war to secure the blueprints, sculptures and much of the art work of Berlin.

Cathedrals in Europe never disappoint.

Another reason we are glad to be in Europe before we get much older ...
LOTS of stairs to get to the top of the cathedral for panoramic views of the city.

Yeah, we were hoping for a big burst of sunshine at the top, but we are in Germany after all ...

At least the bottom of cathedral held a very nice surprise! We stopped in the café for bottled water and settled for a Belgium waffle with cherries and whipped cream instead! Damn good idea ...

and yes, it tasted as good as it looks!

No one visits Berlin without the heaviness-of-heart knowing what happened here starting in 1933.

What totally knocked my socks off was what Hitler accomplished in the first 4 months of his reign. That's all it took ... February, March, April, and May,1933. Book burning. Jewish boycotts. Detainment centers. Secret Police. The rest, as the saying goes, is history. Hitler continued to build on the same strategies of fear, force, hatred, and propaganda for the next 12 years.

The Berlin Wall.
You're in Berlin, so you know you're going to see it. But, still you are not prepared. This second longest surviving section of the Berlin Wall is also the site of the former SS and Gestapo headquarters. If brought to Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8, chances were that you would never be seen alive again. This is also the site of the Topography of Terror and chronicles Hitler and the Nazi's rise to power.

The wall started as simple barbed wire, installed virtually overnight. Next came the bricks. Then the reinforced concrete. And finally, pipe was laid on the top of the wall b/c the barbed wire was too easy to scale. And so it stayed for 28 years.

This map displays the hundreds of concentration and extermination camps used before and during WWII.

Check Point Charlie.

One of the handful of places where people were allowed to cross from East to West Berlin.

Yes, it's a cheesy tourist spot now.

But after viewing the Topography of Terror, you still wanted to shout out "Rah America!"

One of the many things we learned on the bus tour is that food in Berlin is predominately Turkish ... as Berlin has the largest Turkish community (200,000+) in Europe (another bit of trivia: Berlin has the 3rd largest gay community in the world ... 1st is Sydney and 2nd is San Francisco ... go figure). With that bit of knowledge in hand, we settled on a Mexican restaurant near our hotel for dinner. Yum! Nancy has been hankering for some good Mexican food for awhile (actually, ever since she left So California) and this place did not disappoint).

After dinner, the rain started. We cuddled under our umbrellas and headed over to the REAL reason why we came to Berlin this weekend (vs. Porto Portugal where the temps were in the 70s): Michelle bought us tickets to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for Nancy's birthday.

While Dan knew about the birthday surprise (planned before we even left the states in August), Nancy was completely caught of guard! The next surprise happened when Michelle presented our tickets at the entrance, only to discover that the wind quintet we were to see was performing on Sunday night, not Saturday! So, off we went in the rain, with dessert and cappuccino on our minds. However, eagle-eye Dan spotted at sign directing us to another theatre performance in Berlin that night so we made our way to the Blue Man Group where we were able to score good tickets at a discount.

Yes, they served champagne! My birthday, of course!

We have seen Blue Man Group in Chicago, Las Vegas and now Berlin. Michelle had never seen them, so we told her if she didn't like the show, we'd pay for her ticket. Well, that didn't happen! If you've never seen them, add it to your Bucket List. Quite a performance.

Day 2 of our trip was clear and sunny and cold, but who cares about the temp b/c the sun was shining! And we had planned a Fat Tire Tour of the city. What a blast! A guided bike ride tour to all the historic places, with a fantastic guide who shared so many historic stories that our 4-hr tour easily stretched to 5.5 hrs. I never knew how many gaps I had in my understanding of WWII.

Hitler used the Reichstag fire on 27 Feb, 1933 as a pretext to legally dissolve the Weimar Republic weeks later and for the Nazis to assume control of Germany by summer. While a Dutch Communist arsonist was convicted of the fire, there is still controversy, a tunnel led from the basement of the Reichstag to Goring's office building.

Now, that's a blue sky with sunshine!

German Parliament Building. The Reichstag was rebuilt between 1961-64, but it wasn't until reunification in 1990 that it became the 'Bundestag'. The clear dome was completed in 1999 and in addition to providing natural light to the Parliament chamber below, symbolizes the transparency of the German government as the people climb and circle the dome, looking down on their representatives at work.

5 separate political parties occupy that building, and they still manage to get work done.

(BTW, this was day 7 of the US government shutdown).

Yeah, we were bundled warmly for the bike ride.

Absolutely fantastic tour! By the end, we knew each other by name and country and were even buying beers for each other! Fat Tire Bike tours are offered in Berlin, London, Paris and Barcelona -- we plan to do them all!

The Berlin Cathedral in the sunshine!

The Holocaust Memorial.

It seems that all German cities have a memorial to the atrocities of WWII. The Berlin Memorial was striking in its size and solemnness. No names. Just a maze of blocks of varying sizes to be interpreted by the individual. Very quiet. Very moving.

After visiting the Holocaust Memorial, our spirits needed some refreshing so we continued our bike tour through the Berlin Tiergarten. Not as large as Central Park, NY, but close. It was not destroyed during the war and it's history goes back to the royal families that used it as hunting ground. The Nazis also camouflaged their tanks and artillery under the canopy.

Final stop of the bike tour: The Brandenburg Gate. Used by Prussian royalty to enter the city, it was also in the widest part of the 'No Man's Land' of the Berlin Wall.

Note that the space in the middle is wider - reserved for the royal family.

We only had time for one major museum tour. And we chose well from the large selection at our disposal. The Pergamon Museum. A mind-blowing, awesome reconstruction of the Pergamon Altar from the 2nd century BC in Asia Minor (Turkey).

It also contains the Ishtar Gates of Babylon which were constructed by King Nebuchadnezzar II around 575 BC at near the current city of Hillah, Iraq.

With such a full day under our belts, we were both physically and emotionally exhausted. And, oh yeah, we've got tickets to the Berlin Philharmonic tonight! We skipped dinner to make the performance in time. But the music is just what we needed to revive our souls.

An amazing venue. An amazing performance.

It was a wind quintet featuring a flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and french horn with piano accompaniment. The Berlin Philharmonic is one of the best orchestras in the world and travel frequently, so it can be difficult to catch them ‘at home.’ The stars aligned for this weekend for a birthday surprise at the philharmonic, and they did not disappoint! You could actually hear each instrument during the performance.

Night lights at the Brandenburg Gate.

Michelle didn't arrange this for Nancy's birthday, but it was still pretty awesome to arrive in Berlin during their annual Festival of Lights. Each of the main pieces of architecture was light up with a customized light/art creation. You can see the images glistening on the wet pavement.

Our last day in Berlin was both sunny and warm, so we were naturally reluctant to pack up and leave. Most museums are closed on Monday, so we spent the morning walking the last longest remaining stretch of the Berlin wall. In 2009, the city invited several artists to paint sections of the wall, so the one-mile walk is a collection of both symbolic and graphic artistic impressions. Unfortunately, there is also a ton of graffiti marring most of them.

Equally moving was a temporary display on the back side of the wall. It displayed photographs of walls in existence today, used for both political and religious reasons to separate people from people. Least we forget that Berlin was not the only wall.