Weekend in Berlin! Part One

I have a few minutes now to let you know a little about our weekend in Berlin.  On Saturday we were up early to have another delicious breakfast at the Berlin Hilton Hotel.  Delightful buffet but I also had freshly made French Toast and Elva ordered Eggs Benedict that she thoroughly enjoyed.  At about 9:30 we left the hotel on a still cloudy morning to take the Hop On bus to the Museum Island.

After a pleasant tour with a live guide who added additional info to yesterday's lessons, we arrived just as the Altes Museum opened.  This is the 'old' museum which Elva had missed on her previous visits.  We bought our tickets at 10 Euros each, checked our bags, and entered the Greek Exhibition.  The museum has two floors and the exhibits are changed every now and then.  The statuary and artifacts were quite lovely but also quite typical of a Greek display.  Our Audio Guide gave greatly detailed explanations of what we were seeing and the whole museum seemed quite quiet and very scholarly. 

On the second floor there was a beautiful collection of Roman antiquities.  We spent quite some time there having our memories refreshed as to who did what to whom and when as expressed through art.  In the last room was a very details explanation of the differences between preserving and restoring art such as clay pots.  Etruscan pottery was red clay with black paint incised into it with red or white incisions for details back about 700 BC.  Very beautiful and much more skill to accomplish.  About 400 BC they began to leave the red clay bare with black, red, or white details painted on and black paint to fill all the blank space.  Possibly easier and more ability to mass produce.

If a piece is restored then a duplicating detail is created to fill the missing piece of a broken pottery and a cat scan will show evidence of stapling.  If it is preserved then black or red matting replaces the missing parts as obviously but still unobtrusively as possible.  It can never be mistaken as anything but what it is, a repaired piece. A restored piece may be passed off as an original to an untrained eye causing much monetary fraud.

We visited the spacious rotunda with its glass dome allowing light onto the marble floor.  The ornate decorations included the signs of the zodiac.  Each row of symmetrical boxed decoration became increasing smaller as the eye traveled upward giving the impression of even greater height than it was in reality.  We then stopped in the small cafe for a snack and Elva noticed that Plum Cake was available so I ordered that and a Coke Light.  Not a great combination to the taste buds but definitely a treat for my psyche.  Elva had coffee and her sandwich.

We walked around the island and viewed the exteriors of the other museums some of which were under renovation.  Our time didn't really allow us to enter another and spend enough time to make the cost worthwhile.  We enjoyed the view of the Spree from the bridge and as we walked around the complex we saw several brides and grooms having photos taken while patient wedding parties held jackets, long veils, flowers, and extra shoes for themselves and the brides.  Always fun to watch and on what turned out to be a beautiful day in a classic location it was extra nice.

We took the bus back to the hotel in time to get a little cleaned up before meeting the whole group for the first time.  As we gathered in the lobby Sebastian handed out the QuietVoxes and ear phones that we will use for the whole trip.  This 'whisperers' allow the guides to speak in a normal tone of voice so as not to interrupt others around our group and yet we can all hear well.  We also then do not to all need to huddle together and try to crowd forward but can look around and enjoy the sights we are there to see.  He introduced us to our local guide, Lother.

Lother, he said we probably pronounce it Luther,  led us on the Orientation tour since only 8 of our group of 78 arrived early and 70 had arrived on Saturday itself.  Lots of tired people.  The walk about is designed to familiarize us with the neighborhood of the hotel, give dinner and sight suggestions and a little history.  He did such a good job that we were delighted to know that he would be the guide for our half of the group on the next day.  Elva and I were so surprised to see how close everything of importance was to our hotel.  On the bus trips we wound around so many streets and zig-zagged through the city that we had not known that we were less than a mile from each of the major points of interest!  I guess I should have studied up more before beginning this long journey!

We left the walk about when we were only a couple of blocks from the Berlin Dom.  We followed Lother's recommendation and went to join Vespers there.  During a service there was no admission fee.  We enjoyed the service which was in the vernacular and especially the extensive but excellent organ music.  The church itself, the largest Protestant church in Europe, was beautifully decorated.  Many of the Frederichs who ruled Germany over time are buried in the crypts below but ornate faux-sepulchers just to show their importance and to let the unlearned early parishioners know of the importance and wealth of there monarchs.

Our Saturday ended with a beautiful sunset as we made the five minute walk back to the hotel.

I do have several pictures to share with you but slow internet, a late hour, and a dying computer mean I will have to give them to you, hopefully tomorrow!

First Day in Berlin

Friday, the 24th, was our first full day in Berlin and how the weather was when it dawned, we don't know.  We had slept for 12 hours and because this was to be a day on our own - erroneously called in the brochure 'at leisure' - we took our time getting ready for the day and enjoyed a delicious breakfast in the sunny dining room be fore setting out to join our Hop On Hop Off  Bus just across the street and down the block across from the Konzerthaus.

Before I tell you about this exciting day permit me to show you just a couple pictures from our arrival day.

 Elva stands under a pink ground water removal pipe.  Berlin is translated as 'swamp!'

 All around the city are these narrow double brick lines.  They define the location of the Berlin Wall.  This one confirms the dates 1961 to 1989.

 Checkpoint Charlie is a must see tourist stop, hence the KFC and McDonald's.

The pseudo soldiers make the site less important and more of a 'fun stop.'  

They are actors doing a job and not too well in my opinion.

Now back to today's story!
 
We had purchased a two day ticket and it was good for both the guided and audio-guided tours and for all routes currently running.  The plan was to do one and then the other but to do our best time wise we began on a red bud, switched to a green bus at Aleksanderplatz, and when green returned there switched back to red to finish the route.  This way we had seen all the possibilities and saved ourselves from an over long return the next day.

We didn't do a lot of off and on because most sites can not be entered.  To just walk around looking at buildings didn't appeal to us, maybe we were still hung over from arriving the day before.  Since our hotel was at one of the major sites, Gendarmermarkt, we got off and returned to the room to get our second wind.  It turned out to be a good plan.  We set out to see the Brandenburg Gate at night.  Our guide, Sebastian, showed us a photo he had taken the night before and shared it with us.

As is becoming the all too necessary custom, the landmark was lit up with the injured country's flag.  Ironically this Gate is next to the British Embassy.  

The attack in London happened just hours before we boarded our flight.

 Thursday night, though, this was our view.

The Brandenburg Gate is not, I repeat not, part of the Berlin Wall.  The Gate has been standing for centuries and was where tariffs were paid when traveling into or out of Berlin to or from the State of Brandenburg.  Brandenburg surrounds but doesn't include Berlin.  Berlin is both a city and a state.  The Wall did run just ten feet behind the Reichstag separating it from this iconic landmark in West Germany.

I am by the Brandenberg Gate. Across the street, down the block you see the back of the Reichstag.

As I said, we set out, map in hand, to go to the 'nearby Gate.'  However one misheard direction took us a couple miles in the other direction.  The Topographie of Terrors caught our eye.  We walked along some preserved Berlin Wall and then entered the museum.  It was a history of the Third Reich beginning in 1933.  A zigzag of  walls filled with carefully organized photos, news stories, personal letters was arrayed before us. Most fascinating and we would have spent even more than the one hour we spared there but we were trying to find the Gate.  A couple of helpful people turned us back around and soon we were there.  Quite lovely and many tourists enjoyed the sight.  One protester was upset with something going on in Italy and was loudly letting the world gathered here know it.

 The Reichstag through the bus window.

 This beautiful bridge with the S-Bahn crossing it allowed for traffic on the River Spree to move goods between Sectors.

This is the last remaining actual guard tower overlooking the Wall from East on that side to the West on this side.  Notice that the Wall is rounded.  We have seen many pictures of barbed wire topped walls.  That was more easily accessed.  People were will to cut themselves to escape.  With the rounded cement tubes on top there was no way to get a grip to boost yourself over the wall in the quick time you would have had to do it.

Here this section of Wall is called the East Side Gallery but the painting is on the West side of the Eastern Wall.  The paintings were done by invited artists after the Reunification to express the emotions of the city that had been separated for so long. 

No one on the East side could get anywhere near it to paint or even scrawl graffiti.  

There was a broad swath of No-Mans-Land. Here there was also the Spree.

The amazing thing is that the wall was not straight.  It followed the lines of the Sectors of the Division by the Allies.  All these years, in my head, I just thought it was a sort of straight 50/50 division.  Perhaps in my youth I knew better..  Even  more amazing is that the border was sealed overnight!  The Soviets began laying barbed wire at midnight on August 112th and by morning of August 13, 1961 the East Berliners were trapped!  Less than a day.  then construction began with cement blocks and eventually re-bar reinforced cement.

I have a friend, Helga.  I met her on a trip years ago.  She told us her story of escape.  With her brother and parents she lived in East Berlin but she and her brother crossed the border every day to work in a factory in the West.  They were considered lucky and also 'safe.'  She and her older brother planned for months to escape to West Berlin and then to Montreal, Canada where they had an uncle.  Every day they would wear extra clothing to work and hide it in a drawer with a false bottom or a cabinet with a fake back.  They would not eat lunch because in their lunch pail were hidden money and things they would need and that was the only way to bring it in, hidden under some particularly smelly cheese or sausage so that if it was checked the Officer would quickly close it.

The day came and she was extra nervous.  That day she quietly gathered their small stash of supplies in a grocery sack. Just before the factory shut down and Helga's office in it closed for the day, her brother came to her and told her to go but that he could not leave the parents.  He would bring them when he could.  Helga didn't want to go but the brother practically pushed her along the street knowing she was not on the route home and time was limited before someone would realize she was gone.  Helga was 18 and on that hot August day she was scared and alone.  She was setting out on an adventure she did not want to take by herself.  But she did.  She risked it all, her life and her families lives, on August 12, 1961, just hours before the chance would be gone forever.  Just hours before her whole family was encased in barbed wire and she was safe outside, looking in.

Helga made it to Montreal but she never said who helped her or how she did it.  The tears would come and the conversation would be over.  Not until 1990 did she get permission to see her elderly parents and kind brother again!  In Montreal she married, raised a family of her own with grandparents they didn't know.  When her husband died she met Heinz and he has a story of his own to tell but just shakes his head sadly if you ask.

 Near the East Side Gallery Elva pauses on a ramp adorned with modern graffiti.

Riding back toward the historic center of the city we see again the Winged Victory.  Three tiers are adorned with golden cannons to mark victories in three wars by three governments.  The fourth tier has no cannons because the Nazi ruling party never won anything!

 Bet you thought this was a church.  Nope and never was.  

It is a beir hall with dancing and gambling!

 

 This  is the approach to the Brandenburg gate driving past the U S Embassy.

 

 I am closing here on a lighter note.  Aldis sister store but you see the carts lined up to take a Euro!

Please share me with your friends and sign in to comment!  JLH

Berlin to Bordeaux in Four Easy Weeks!

Welkom to Berlin!
Elva Smith and I arrived unscathed in the early morning of March 23, 2017.  We left Hartsfield - Jackson Atlanta International aboard KLM after a swift and hassle free check in.  The flight was smooth, the food was actually good, and movie selections included the latest Oscar winners including La La Land and Moonlight!  Arriving at 6:00 a.m. to Amsterdam's  Schiphol Airport we were delighted to know we did not need to go through customs to transfer to our next flight in the EU. However Passport Control was a long sad story of misdirection and changes after the fact by the rather rude "TSA" types.  Not sure what they are called there but I would call them useless.  Some 45 minutes later we were heading to our gate for the short hop to Berlin.

Again a smooth flight with just enough time for an egg salad sandwich (I declined) and a tiny can of Coke!  On the ground we crossed the rain soaked tarmac to a shuttle bus to the gate.  Arriving directly to baggage claim we waited another 45 minutes before our bags stumbled along the conveyor belt.  It stuttered and convulsed spitting out two or three pieces of luggage and then came to a halt.  The pauses seemed interminable but finally we had bags in hand and headed out the door where we were greeted by the grateful Viking transit person who had been waiting for a painfully long time.

We were the only passengers in the Volkswagen Mini-Van on the long ride from the airport to the Berlin Hilton Hotel centrally located in the heart of the historic Mitte district.  Sebastian, our Viking Program Director, met the car and assisted us into the lobby and helped with check - in.  Our room on the fourth floor is on the quiet side of the hotel not facing Gendarmenmarkt.  This is one of the most beautiful squares of the city and features the old theater which is now the Koncerthaus and two historic churches of twin design.  The German and French Doms were built together so that neither faction of the city would feel less than the other.  Who knew that once about 20% of Berlin was Hugenot!

We settled in and tested the two full sized beds for comfort, made a cup of tea and coffee, and I ohhed and ahhed over the marble bathroom with a long, deep bathtub!  After checking everything out we decided not to waste even a rainy day while on vacation and set out to explore the surrounding neighborhood.  We were the first of the pre-trip group to arrive and so with guidebook in hand and a city map with the hotel circled on it began our adventure.

Around the corner and a few blocks ahead was Checkpoint Charlie!  We were to discover that our hotel has an ideal location and everything you really want to see and do is a short to reasonable walking distance.  At Checkpoint Charlie, so named because it was the third allied crossing of the Berlin Wall (A,B,C etc.) there were two soldiers casually standing guard and posing for photos with anyone who asked.  Turns out they are not retired military but actors from a nearby school who do this as a way to earn money...sort of an acting job but since they seemed to have no particular character to portray, I think it is not exactly good experience.

We looked at several related displays but did not enter any of the 'museums' as they seemed to be rather hokey tourist traps and not genuine.  The nearby McDonalds and KFC were busy with lots of young people going in for familiar food and respite from the rain.  It occured to me that although these young adults knew they should see Checkpoint Charlie they really didn't know why or understand the significance of it.  They gaily donned hats and struck poses, sometimes weirdly, with the acting soldiers.  Lots of laughter and not too much understanding.

As we made our way back to the hotel we checked several small restaurants and decided to stop at a soup bar where we perched at a counter facing the street to people watch.  I had a blueberry scone, not very good, and Elva had excellent tomato and sausage-filled soup, maybe it was knockwurst.  We noticed that we see very many smokers, more than at home.  Also lots of people pushing baby carriages and strollers.  I saw lots of dogs but no dachshunds!  There were not many old people out and about, maybe because of the rain.  Traffic seems well managed but there are not turn lanes so if waiting to make a left (they drive here as we do) horns will be honking and some get quite persistent.

Back at the hotel we were excited to try out the heated pool and sauna.  But the water was not exactly warm and the attendant thought we were not supposed to have the sauna included.  So a hot bath replaced both of those for me!

By 8:00 p.m. we were in bed and it turned out the next  morning that we slept soundly for 12 hours!