Berlin

Today was so full I don't even know where to begin!

Ok so firstly, we obviously got up. Our free walking tour I popped our name down for yesterday started near the Brandenburg gate which was 3km away.
Bloooody colddddd!!
My face was freezing! *say in Scottish accent*
Even Will now wants to buy a scarf every though its super un-butch.

Right so we were running out of time and dunken donuts were the only pre made food available near our start point.
They were stale. Donut king is where it's at.

Our tour group was quite small - about 10 and our guide was Max. He is from New York but married a German.

So first talking point was the Brandenburg gate. It is the symbol of Berlin. He was an interesting guide as he didnt just state facts but rather talked about the symbolism and what the monument actually means to the Germans.
It has changed meaning through time.

So many important significant players have walked through it. Originally the middle slit was reserved for the King alone.
Napolian and Hitler later walked through it. Again, symbolism.
The horses and person dude on top was at one time taken by France. They took it back and it now stares at the French embassy haha

He talked about german history from all their different wars from when the gate was built to the complete shitstorm they got themselves into. What daily life was like after WW1 and very briefly how Hitler came into power.

The gate is a symbol of strength. The entire city destroyed but it remained standing.

We walked through the gate and stopped on the other side. He showed us parliament. It has a glass dome on top where anyone cane go watch the parliament working.
a symbol to say we don't have any secrets. They are trying to recover from their past.

We then went to the Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. It took over 15 years for them to decided what to build. Nothing they could build would be worthy and yet to build nothing was worse.

It's 300 odd grey concrete blocks.
It's actually very powerful.
There is no signage on purpose. They didn't want to tell you what to think and feel as you interact with it.

We walked through it. It is designed so the gaps are wide enough you don't feel trapped but small enough that you can't walk through side by side. You must walk through alone with your own thoughts.
As you walk in the blocks get taller and taller and unever.
It's like a maze of grey doom.

I actually really like it but the city has mixed thoughts.
But in reality, like what our guide said - nothing will be good enough to symbolically represent what happened and the horror.

Some girls was doing a photo shoot on them which I though was pretty gross.
I take a lot of pictures but this was not the spot to get your new dp at.

We then went to a car park. Underneath is Hitler's bunker and if the recorded history is the correct one then it's also the location where he shot himself.

They didn't know what to do with the space. They didn't destroy it, it's still underneath but they are not ready as a country to do anything with it at the moment.
But they could.

There is a small sign that was put In for tourists when the World Cup was on. People don't it.

If he died here then it's important. A sign is needed.

We then went to the only nazi head quarter building not destroyed.
It was originally thought they just missed it but it's come to light it was left intentionally because there was info inside they wanted. Nuclear plans or something I can't remember 🤔
It was the Air Force base.
After ww2 the socialist party moved right in and its where the east Berlin stuff was founded.
It's still standing because the west wanted to knock it down and even though the east also dislike it they said out of spite no you are doing it as an attack on the east and not on the nazis.
So it remains standing and is now the tax office lol.
You can see on the front door where swastikas were removed.

We then stopped in at a cafe for a 15 min break.
Will sampled a beer. He didnt rate it.

We saw a remaining section of the Berlin Wall. There is a line that carries on on the floor to show where it was.
The wall was way way thinner than I thought it was.

We then went to checkpoint Charlie. Nothing there is original but in that location a lot of stuff happened.
Classic Cold War stand off between Russia and America because some bloke wanted to go to the opera on the east and he should have been allowed across because he was from west Germany.

A McDonald and KFC rightful sit at the American crossing side. Hahah

We then went to a square with more Christmas markets that had some French religious building in it. He talked about how advanced Germany was in different aspects of tolerance towards other and how if you had to guess which European city would be responsible for ww2. No one would have picked Berlin. He said it seems an obvious choice now but back then no one would have picked it.

We then Finished our tour in a square with 4 buildings.
1 was the the opera house. The first public opera house where people and not just royals were able to go. The same opera house that the dude at checkpoint Charlie was trying to go to.

Next was a big religious building. It was important because of more reasons about being tolerant...
I was listening, promise.

Next was a big public library which was used to educate everyone and not just the upper class and lastly was the university which is where Einstein taught.

In the middle of the square is where the nazis burned the 20,000 books.

There is a memorial in the floor.

You go up to it and the floor is transparent and you look down into book shelves that would have accommodated the 20,000 books.

A genuinely Fantastic tour.
Probably the best speaker we have had. Or it could be that it's just such a fascinating city. I can't believe how much I enjoyed it and want to learn more about germanys past.
I kept thinking the whole time that dad would bloody love this.
Not sure if he had ever been but he needs to.
Captain history buff.

The traffic lights are from the communist times too so they are pretty cute and funny. A lot of souvenir stuff have it printed on them.

There is this big church in the middle of the city that is beautiful. It's blackened at the top which Will made a comment that he thinks it would look better if they cleaned it but I disagree. I think it adds legitimacy to it.
It looks as if it's been burnt... we have learnt this trip that every city has had "a great fire" lol maybe Berlin too? Lol

Hamish and Andy did a gap year episode and ate a hot sausage and so naturally Will wanted to try. The shop they went to is closed so we went to a different one. It wasn't as hot as he would have liked but he still really enjoyed it.
We were tired so we walked home.

We had some food in the lobby and eventually ventured out to the Christmas markets but we learnt yesterday to bring our gloves!

OH BUT BEFORE WE LEFT I BOUGHT STAMPS IN THE LOBBY AND FINALLY SENT THOSE DAMN POSTCARDS. 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

We went to the one from yesterday but eventually ventured on to the one we walked past on tour. We were told it's a rare one with an entry fee but worth it - only 1 euro anyway.

The line was big but moved quickly - stocked because we even got entry tickets so I can staple them in my book.

I know it's statistically less likely for a woman to lead an attack but only Will got patted down when entering the market which I think it a lapse in security but whatever.

We stopped in at the first store to get some feuerzangenbowle. It's like hot wine but not the famous type we though it was 🤔🤔 still, a very german drink.
You had to pay a 2.5€ deposit for your mug. We decided to only return one.
😝😝😝

AND THEN MAGIC HAPPENED. As we were freezing, sipping on our hot wine it started to SNOW ❄️🤗🤗
I was so giddy with excitement.
It was only the ice snow BUT STILL!
I have never seen it fall from the sky before.

We walked around and found a live carol performance which was just so jolly. They had the books in front of then and everything.

Magic 💫💫💫💫

We walked home through market number 3 and bought a sausages.
Well done Germany. 👏🏼👏🏼

We are both really, really REALLY impressed with Berlin.
It is so much cleaner and more spacious/open than I expected.

Love it tbqh.Read more