managed to get to Berlin when it was still part of West Germany, and
was amoungst the biggest European capitals that I'd not seen.
We had planned a few days to be here, and stayed really near
Checkpoint Charlie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkpoint_Charlie
We used the bus and metro to get to our hotel (too early again to
check in) and wandered about. We were pretty tired from our crack of
dawn flight, so we fueled up at Starbucks (surprise surprise, they are
all over in Berlin) and then saw Checkpoint Charlie (which is an
intersection now).
More importantly, we went to the Checkpoint Charlie museum, which was
fascinating. If you are in town, definitely go. All kinds of great
stuff about the war, the Soviets and a time gone by.
We were staying along one of the main streets (fredrickstrasse) and
were up and down that thing several times. In case you are wondering
the U6 line of the metro has a stop (Kostrasse) that is right at
Checkpoint Charlie.
We walked around, and did our best to not get lost. Berlin is a big
mix of concepts (since the allies bombed the bejeezes out of it in the
war), over 90% of the buildings are 60 years old or less. It seems a
fairly cosmopolitan city, and also, and uniquely perhaps, it has no
city center, and redundant services, busses and trams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin
Course, the were a city split in half for 40 years, so it makes sense
that they had their own airport(s) and everything else. This means
there is no epicenter of the city, there are like 6 of them. Well, we
found about three of them and liked what we saw.
I got some good German food, although it seems like I think of German
food being Bavarian food, and as any German will tell you, they are
not the same thing. Anywho, I also partook of some of the Berliner
Pilsener, which is quite good, and cheap.
The weather wasn't great for us, but at least it didn't totally rain
on us (oh wait, it did, but only once) and we caught all the main
sites. We did a day trip to Potsdam that I'll also write about, and
that was pretty neat.
Berlin was so big that it's probably worth another visit. Even taking
the tourist bus around and hearing about all the buildings doesn't
give you a true lay of the land. I wonder what it is like being
German, and what sense of national identity you have these days. We
Americans never lose any wars (do we?) and so I'm not sure about that
feeling of if you were the kickee in the last big battle.
The Olympics started when we were in Berlin, so we enjoyed hearing
them in German, and Spanish. Go Team USA.
There is a good Jewish memorial, sculpture, city block right near the
Brandenburg Gate. It is a large number of concrete blocks on an
undulating floor/ground. The blocks are all different heights, and
with the variation of the ground, you can walk amoungst them and have
them tower over you, but they still seem of moderate height from the
street.
I think having that is the least the Germans can do.
We are fairly travel weary, but we still have to/ get to go back to
Madrid. We have a bunch of pictures, and I'm sure I'll write up a
wrapup.
Thanks for reading!
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