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Berlin

December 2019
Visiting Berlin as our first stop on a Europe vacation with Dylan and Polly Read more
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  • Berlin
    Day 2

    Bebelplatz

    December 18, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    This square is notorious for being one of the locations where the academics faithful to the Nazi party burnt 20,000 books from any author that was dismissive of their ideals and doctrine.
    There is an amazing sculpture under glass in the middle of the square which depicts a series of book shelves that are all painted white and that would have held 20k books.
    The shelves are empty and painted white to symbolize the fact that this knowledge will never be replaced and that it is lost forever...it is a very powerful image and our tour guide informed us that a dutch philosopher 100 years earlier said that first you burn books and then you burn people and in the case of the holocaust this became a prophecy.    Read more

  • Berlin
    Day 2

    Gendarmenmarkt

    December 18, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    This was our first experience with a traditional German Christmas market and it is quite an experience!
    There are a variety of traditional German foods such as crepes, bratwurst, turkey, raclette, gluweine and other Christmas paraphernalia like baubles, wood carving, leatherwork and coats and jackets etcRead more

  • Berlin
    Day 3

    Berlin Wall & Museum

    December 19, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 4 °C

    Walking with my beautiful wife in Berlin and off to see the TV tower which was curiously constructed in the East German sector as it represents modern technology and architecture something the GDR was not exactly renowned for. We decided to walk directly to the Berlin Wall though due to the fact it was quite foggy and our view of the city would have been shrouded in fog.
    The traffic light crossings are curious as they represent a link with the past and the old GDR regime. They have become so popular that they are replicating them throughout Berlin hence my photo.

    In this section of the wall some of the wall has been preserved including one of the old watchtowers as well as some new architectural sculpture pieces (steel rods) which represent where the wall once stood. There are many stories of the extraordinary lengths people found in their attempts to live a life of freedom.
    In all some 190 people died trying to cross the wall including through tunnels, jumping from windows and simply making a run for it.    Read more

  • Berlin
    Day 3

    Berlin Wall (cont’d)

    December 19, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    This is a compilation of some of the other attractions of the German Wall visit.
    The four upright vertical steel girders represented the site of one of the GDR guard towers. We also visited the Berlin Wall museum which profiled the type of people who tried to escape some of which were successful and some of which perished.
    There was a well documented section of the wall called the “death strip” which was 80-100 metres wide between both walls and was patrolled by the GDR soldiers with orders to shoot to kill anyone who was attempting to escape from the East.
    The wall was constantly being upgraded over a 30 year period so counteract more sophisticated attempts to escape by the increasingly frustrated people of the GDR whose rights were being increasingly stripped and also by the fact that families and relatives had been separated since the wall was constructed.    Read more

  • Berlin
    Day 3

    GDR Museum and Christmas Market

    December 19, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    On our way to another Christmas market we visited a memorial to commemorate the futility and sorrow of war as well as the GDR museum to get a glimpse of what life was like living in the GDR (German Democratic Republic). The irony behind the name is breathtaking as the GDR had no democratic processes in place in any part of their political or societal decision making.

    One of the amazing things for me is the Christmas spirit and the amount of gluhwein being drunk at these markets. There is also an amazing array of different traditional German food which adds to the atmosphere from sweet bakery treats to smoked salmon and large BBQ’s cooking bratwurst sausages, steaks and burgers.
    Some of the food combinations are amazing for example large bowls of spinach with a bratwurst sausage plonked on top and potatoes filled with all sorts of toppings as well as gluhwein that has different spirits added to it like Cointreau and Vodka. Perhaps the highlight for me in the food stakes was a crepe that was cooked in front of me and topped with cinnamon sugar and the folded into four...so good to eat. The potato fritters were also especially good. The German diet is very largely biased toward carbohydrates and a meat protein of some description.    Read more

  • Berlin
    Day 4

    Potsdam Schloss Cecilienhof

    December 20, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    We decided on a guided tour atop a double decker bus to sightsee around Potsdam. Potsdam is located on an island and has 130,000 inhabitants and is the capital of Brandenburg.
    The oldest building in Potsdam was originally a greenhouse and then turned into stables as they were seen as being more important especially by Frederick the Great who was a great conquerer and believed in powerful armies. He lead Prussia to become one of the most powerful countries in the world at the time.
    Potsdam has always been a city of soldiers and has a replica Brandenburg Gate interestingly Potsdam is renown for many fantasies with its architecture.
    Potsdam like so many cities of the day has a city wall for defense and safety.
    We first visited a palace where the famous Potsdam conference was held at the end of WW2 between Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt to decide on important territorial issues at the end of the war.    Read more

  • Berlin
    Day 4

    Palace Sansoucci

    December 20, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    SanSouci palace was the palace built to indulge the kings whim for a carefree life.
    As with all palaces it is grandiose and lavish. The architecture has a baroque influence and atypical of the rest of the style of the area.Read more

  • Berlin
    Day 4

    Neues Palais

    December 20, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    This was built by Frederick the Great as result of an unforeseen victory against the Russians.
    He spent so much money on the palace that he almost bankrupt himself.
    He used the palace to greet important people however he didn’t live in the palace very much as he preferred the palace called Sansouci.
    The kaisers took over living in the palace after Frederick passed as the whole area is grandiose and palatial.    Read more

  • Berlin
    Day 4

    Eastside Gallery - Berlin

    December 20, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    The East Side Gallery is an open-air gallery in Berlin. It consists of a series of murals painted directly on a 1,316 m (4,318 ft) long remnant of the Berlin Wall, located near the centre of Berlin, on Mühlenstraße in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.
    The gallery has official status as a Denkmal, or heritage-protected landmark. According to the Künstlerinitiative East Side Gallery an association of the artists involved in the project, "The East Side Gallery is understood to represent a monument to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful negotiation of borders and conventions between societies and people", and has more than three million visitors per year.

    The Gallery consists of 105 paintings by artists from all over the world, painted in 1990 on the east side of the Berlin Wall. The actual border at this point had been the river Spree. The gallery is located on the so-called "hinterland mauer", which closed the border to West Berlin.    Read more

  • Berlin
    Day 5

    Berlin TV Tower

    December 21, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    Situated in Marien quarter (Marienviertel), close to Alexanderplatz in the locality and district of Mitte, the tower was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the government of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
    It was intended to be both a symbol of Communist power and of the city. It remains a landmark today, visible throughout the central and some suburban districts of Berlin. With its height of 368 metres (including antenna) it is the tallest structure in Germany, and the third-tallest structure in the European Union.    Read more

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