October 29th 2009 - Aus Berlin!
Oh. My. Gosh. I love this city Where do I even begin? It is so amazing here, and I'm not even exaggerating in the slightest. This has to be the best city I have ever been to, ever. It's so open and there's so much space and it's so clean and... oh, I just love it.
So, we arrived last night, in the cold and the drizzle. It took us a while to get to the hotel (it's on Kneesebeckstraße, in the old West, not that you really wanted to know) and then we had dinner this is great (and really cheap!) bar/restaurant. And then went back to the hotel and slept because, for some weird reason, we were all really tired.
Today was more fun. Went on a little tour of the city in the morning - we drove past the Kaiser Wilhelm church, which is the bombed out one, the Berliner Dom, the Red Town Hall, the TV tower (which was, alas, up in the clouds), down Unter den Linden, past part of the Tiergarten... We stopped at the French and German cathederals and the concert house (I think), all lovinglz restored by the Soviets. We also stopped across from the Humbolt University - by St Hedwig's - in Babel Platz, the place where the Nazi's burnt all the books in 1933 and we saw the little memorial for it and I totally managed to translate the plaque by there. We also stopped at a part of the Berlin Wall, and at the site of the (now demolished) SS and Gestapo headquaters. We stopped at the memorial for Jews murdered in the Holocaust (it doesn't look much but if you walk through it's really something) which is by some of the Soviet 'luxuary' appartments and near to the site of Hitler's bunker, which has now been completely irradicated. It amused me to find out there's a sauna of homosexuals and Chinese restaurant in the vicinity.
After this, we stopped at the Reischstag, looked at all the new Government buildings (including the 'washing machine') and then stopped for some coffee.
After this, the tour was over, and we headed back toward the Branderburg Gate, where I spent ten minutes convincing my parents that one of the 'statues' was in fact a real person. I also had my picture taken with some people dressed up as Russian and American soldiers, who were very friendly. We then walked past the hotel Michael Jackson dangled a baby from, past the British and Russian Embassies (the latter is HUGE. srsly) and made our way to the DDR museum, which was quite interesting. I got to listen to Puhdys through some headphones and watch Unser Sandmännchen as part of the experience. We went and visited the statues of Marx and Engles (not Lenin, as my mother thought). Then lunch (albeit a rather late one) and we got kind of lost in some streets and found a market, where I bought a hat. Then we went back to the Reichstag, and this time we went inside, and up to the top and in the glass dome, which was fascinating. We got some wonderful views of the city. It was quite late by the time we were done, so we caught the (very full) bus back to the Zoologischer Garten and walked back to the hotel.
And that was my day! More tomorrow, probably!
So, we arrived last night, in the cold and the drizzle. It took us a while to get to the hotel (it's on Kneesebeckstraße, in the old West, not that you really wanted to know) and then we had dinner this is great (and really cheap!) bar/restaurant. And then went back to the hotel and slept because, for some weird reason, we were all really tired.
Today was more fun. Went on a little tour of the city in the morning - we drove past the Kaiser Wilhelm church, which is the bombed out one, the Berliner Dom, the Red Town Hall, the TV tower (which was, alas, up in the clouds), down Unter den Linden, past part of the Tiergarten... We stopped at the French and German cathederals and the concert house (I think), all lovinglz restored by the Soviets. We also stopped across from the Humbolt University - by St Hedwig's - in Babel Platz, the place where the Nazi's burnt all the books in 1933 and we saw the little memorial for it and I totally managed to translate the plaque by there. We also stopped at a part of the Berlin Wall, and at the site of the (now demolished) SS and Gestapo headquaters. We stopped at the memorial for Jews murdered in the Holocaust (it doesn't look much but if you walk through it's really something) which is by some of the Soviet 'luxuary' appartments and near to the site of Hitler's bunker, which has now been completely irradicated. It amused me to find out there's a sauna of homosexuals and Chinese restaurant in the vicinity.
After this, we stopped at the Reischstag, looked at all the new Government buildings (including the 'washing machine') and then stopped for some coffee.
After this, the tour was over, and we headed back toward the Branderburg Gate, where I spent ten minutes convincing my parents that one of the 'statues' was in fact a real person. I also had my picture taken with some people dressed up as Russian and American soldiers, who were very friendly. We then walked past the hotel Michael Jackson dangled a baby from, past the British and Russian Embassies (the latter is HUGE. srsly) and made our way to the DDR museum, which was quite interesting. I got to listen to Puhdys through some headphones and watch Unser Sandmännchen as part of the experience. We went and visited the statues of Marx and Engles (not Lenin, as my mother thought). Then lunch (albeit a rather late one) and we got kind of lost in some streets and found a market, where I bought a hat. Then we went back to the Reichstag, and this time we went inside, and up to the top and in the glass dome, which was fascinating. We got some wonderful views of the city. It was quite late by the time we were done, so we caught the (very full) bus back to the Zoologischer Garten and walked back to the hotel.
And that was my day! More tomorrow, probably!