Berlin Day 2

The remainder of our trip was just as exciting as the first day. Our plan was to see as much as possible in as short a time a possible. A few of the books we had read suggested that we visit sections of the city in a day. Berlin is quite large (remember it used to be 2 cities) and traveling from one spot to another could be very time consuming.

We woke up Saturday and cooked breakfast (one of the benefits of renting an apartment). Our plan was to meet Colin and Maria in the morning at a flea market/farmers market then visit Mitte which is the central borough of Berlin. We read that the line to the Reichstag grows quite long in the afternoon so our plan was to start there and continue on.

We took the U-Bahn to Colin and Maria's apartment met them and walked to the market. This was a very interesting place. Apparently this is a weekly event and there are all sorts of vendors set up in this square. From florists and fresh produce to jewelry and crafts and prepared food. I assume that many of the apartments in Berlin are about the same size as ours and kitchen space is pretty limited. This means that appliances, like refrigerators, are small. It seems that people rely on fresh produce picked up a couple times a week rather than our habit of trying to make it to the store once a week or so to get food for a while.

The market was filled with people and each stand had something interesting to look at. We all decided to try a local sausage which was a foot long thin sausage served on a very small bun that was essentially a handle. I tried some fresh OJ which was very good. Kate, in an attempt to reconnect with her roots, tried an Alsatian flat bread with cheese on top. It is similar to a pizza. We were getting ready to leave when a jewelry vendor caught Mary's eye. We stopped there for a few minutes and ended up with a very nice necklace with a black pendant. It was a great beginning to day 2 and it was still early!

Colin walked us to over to the Zoo and we hopped on the 100 Bus which is a great way to see the city. This bus route stops at a lot of the major attractions and really gives you a great feel of the city. Unlike riding a subway you get an idea of where things are in relation to each other. We hopped off at the Reichstag and got in line. The line wasn't too long, but there was a wait. Fortunately we had lots of entertainment while we waited. First a group of mime/puppeteers performed for us. There were about 6 of them and they were moving this stick figure human character thing. They would make the character dance and interact with the line. It was interesting to watch. At some point they moved on to another location.

As we got closer to the steps we saw something pretty interesting. A group of people stormed the steps and posted a whole bunch of banners on the pillars of the Reichstag. Of course they were speaking in German and their fliers were in German so we really had no idea what was going on. But it was pretty moving to see an act of democratic free speech in a different country. The "disruption" was over pretty quickly and everything returned to normal. The short wait in line was worth the view from the top.

There is a glass dome one top with a spiral ramp that goes to the top of the dome. The entire structure is beautiful and fun to be inside. There are great views of the city both as you circle up the dome and from the roof deck of the Reistag. You can really see from this vantage point the Berlin is a growing city as there were a lot of construction sites visible.

We left the Reichstag and continued onto the Brandenburg Gate which was originally built as an entrance to the city but now pretty much sits right in the middle of the Berlin. The gate became an icon during the years of the Berlin wall because it was right in the middle on "no mans land". Not much exists of the wall, but in parts of Berlin there is a brick path that traces out the old footprint of the wall. It is easiest to find on the street between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate.

From the Brandenburg Gate our plan was to walk along Unter der Linden and over to Bebelplatz which was the site of the book burning. On our way to Unter der Linden we passed the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The memorial was pretty amazing and it is fairly large. The site takes up a city block and it is an arrangement of stone pillars which look like a cemetery. The pillars are not all level or true so it give the appearance of an older cemetery. At the edge of the monument the pillars are rather short, towards the middle the pillars get taller and you are completely surrounded. It is a very interesting place. Beneath the monument is a museum which is dedicated to telling the stories of different Jewish families who were deported during WW II. In the last room in the museum the names of the Jews who perished are projected on the wall and read allowed. It is a very moving exhibit.

We left the museum and it was getting late. We decided to grab lunch (although he sun was setting) and continue on our way. We walked along Unter Der Linden for a while stopping at a few trinket shops and just taking in the street. We finally came across Bebelplatz and we hit it about the right time. The monument here is a room below street level. The room is a "library" with empty book shelves that are painted white. The entire room is lit brightly. You look down into the library from street level through a window in the square. We continued on to Check Point Charlie and out last stop for the evening.

Checkpoint Charlie was an interesting place. As with many location where the wall once was there is an interesting mixture of construction, ultra modern building and older buildings. The checkpoint itself is completely gone. A replica of the American shed is in the middle of the street at the checkpoint location. There are a lot of trinket shops nearby. There is also a Checkpoint Charlie museum which I had mixed feeling about. I think the idea of the museum is great and the collection of items that were there were interesting. However it seems as if this museum was created without much thought to the layout or perhaps the "curator" never received any formal training. There seemed to be a number of repetitive exhibits throughout the museum and the layout and flow was rather confusing. At one point I had gotten totally lost and couldn't figure out if I had been in this room before. I then went to Find the rest of the group and I found myself in a completely different part of the museum which I may have missed if I were by myself. Maybe over time this museum will be refined or redesigned. The exhibits are worth while as they are it just doesn't have a coherent flow.

Well it was getting late and we needed to have dinner. The Sony Center is located in east Berlin neighborhood of Potzdammer Platz. It is a very new area which contains an outdoor mall/entertainment center. We decided to head over there for dinner. We ended up at the Hofbräuhaus which was an excellent choice. We tried some "authentic" authentic German chain restaurant food and had 1 liter beers. We even got a pin for ordering the "medium" size. Of course I immediately regretted not ordering the large, only because I wondered what bauble I missed out on. Alas after a liter of beer I was not ready to have any more. So after a very long day we headed back to the apartment. For another viewpoint to this days activites check out Troy's Blog.

Berlin Part 1

I created this image from one of my Berlin Pictures. What is amazing is the guy on the bench isn't even visible in the original jpeg. I really liked the way this turned out.

Now onto the Adventure.... We loaded up the family wagon and headed to Newark Airport to get our cheap flights to Berlin. The trip had been a few months in the making. Troy and Christa had heard through the grapevine that cheap tickets were available to fly directly from Newark to Berlin and it just so happened that Christa's cousin was going to be in Berlin too so it seemed like a really good idea to go. We started by looking into places to stay in Berlin.

Shortly after Kate was added to the attendee list and the total traveling group would be 5. I quickly realized that we would need at least 2 hotel rooms and that the cost of such an endeavor would we rather high. I, at some point, stumbled on a business week article regarding renting vacation apartments. I realized that if the cost was right then this would probably be cheaper than 2 rooms for a week. A bonus is that we would have we would have more room and a kitchen to cook if we wanted. So we settled on a site and an apartment we were all set of our trip.

Back to traveling day.... Which was pretty uneventful we made it to the airport with time to spare. I had never been to Newark before and quickly realized why the flights out of there were so cheap. You have to drive half of the way to your final destination just to get to the long term parking lot! Well obviously not really but you get off the highway south of the airport and have to drive around the entire airport to get to long term parking. When you finally get to long term parking lot you are almost right next to the exit ramp. So we check-in eat and board the plane. Land in Berlin after a fairly long flight.

Upon exiting the airport our adventure begins. Problem 1.... none of us speak German. Problem 2.... it is really hard to fit 5 people in a regular cab (4 would fit without luggage). So we wander over to the taxi island and stand around like silly Americans not really knowing what the correct way to hale a cab, and not really seeing a cab that could accommodate our party. After a few minutes a van drops some people off and we manage to flag him down. The good news for the cab driver is that he got to circumvent the taxi line which was full of smaller cars. We get in and get to the apartment very quickly.

Now I will admit that this was my first experience renting an apartment and I was a little stressed about being the one responsible for booking the apartment. We also had to pay cash when we got there. I have visions of us walking into a dirty dingy apartment that looked nothing like the pictures on-line and finding the landlord to be some smarmy guy who was going to demand the full rent plus a few fees for things like running water. But all of my fears were assuaged when we arrived at the apartment. First off it was right on the Spree and the neighborhood was wonderful. Full of residential flats with restaurants and shops at street level.

We rung the bell and the owner answered right away. Then came my first surprise. I had assumed that there would be no elevator and I knew we were on a high floor. I was prepared to make a few trips up and down with the luggage. But right in the lobby was a small elevator which let us get to the top without effort.

We got the the apartment and the place was amazing.

A breif commericial intruption.... if you are looking for an apartment in Berlin check out this place. I'm not getting any money for this ad. But the apartment is great and the owner is very nice.

It was 2 bedrooms with a living room/bedroom a dining room and a kitchen. Plus the view from the balcony was just as advertised! It was truly an amazing place. The owner was very friendly and lived right upstairs so we would be close should we need anything. We quickly got settled in and started to plan our first day out. We knew from advise and experience that taking a nap now (even though it was like 4 or 5 AM back home) would be a bad idea. We we headed out. Our first stop was shopping for breakfast food. Upon our return we decided to take the bus to the Hard Rock Cafe to ease into the German cuisine and get our required souvenirs The bus rid was a great way to see the city. The one down side to traveling by subway is that you get no relation to where this are. The buss allowed us to get a good introduction to the city and allowed is to view some places that interested us.

We made it the the HRC for lunch and some shopping. Then walked around a bit. We had plans to meet Christa's cousin for dinner so we wanted to make sure we got back and dropped our stuff off at the apartment and cleaned up. We had been up for almost 24 hours now and we were deffinalty feeling it. We left the apartment for a 3rd time to locate Christa's cousin at their apartment. It was actually fairly easy to find them. We were already getting fairly good at navigating the public transit system. We hung out with Maria and Colin for a while then headed to this African restaurant Masai. I wouldn't call myself and adventurous eater, but I am willing to at least go to strange restaurants and try and find something. I was not disappointed here. I think I ordered chicken (they did have Ostrich and some other beasties that sounded tempting, but I chickened out (pun intended).

We then walked around the neighborhood (near Viktoria-Luise Platz) for a while. and learned a great deal from Colin and Maria who had been living in Berlin for a few month already. While walking around we toured a neighborhood project that probably isn't listed in any tour book. This neighborhood has posted on street lights a number of signs. The signs contain different laws that were passed by the Nazi party that restricted the rights of the Jewish people in the community. It was interesting and moving to stroll around the neighborhood and read some of the laws that were enacted.

We ended our evening in the Nollendorf Platz which Mary and I had a small connection to since we are theater people and the musical Cabaret takes place at least partially in this neighborhood. We sat out side on a perfectly marvelous evening and ate Ice Cream. It was getting late and we were all fading fast we made it back to our apartment and all fell quickly asleep. We planned to meet Colin and maria the next morning at a farmers market to walk around and see what there was to see.

Well it seems that I have only made it through the first day here and were in Berlin for an entire week! I guess I will have a lot for writing to do and you fellow reader will have a lot of reading :-) Fortunately while the next few days were exciting to us, they consisted of mainly touristy things so I won't need to provide much detail.

European Adventure

A bunch of us went to Europe last week of a little vacation. I will provide more details in some later posts. I was not the official people picture photographer so I will leave you with a taste of one of the places we visited.

The rest of my pictures can be found on my picasa site