3rd August: Berlin II

Day two and we partook of the hostel’s breakfast. Hmm, processed meat and cheese on a breadroll. Needless to say, the tea was nice. We had decided on a river cruise and an open tour bus trip, and so we headed off to where the cruise was meant to start from. The taxi dropped us at a place along the Spree River – and this section had a large part of the wall still intact. They had commissioned artists to paint scenes all along it, on the eastern side, and the art work was both good as well as illuminating. Funnily enough, maybe even ironically, the western side of the wall was just filled with graffiti – mainly things like “Skip was here, Jan 2011” or “Washington rocks!”. After asking lost of people where the cruise began, we discovered that Germans were both not good at map making or giving out the competition’s details.  So we crossed the road and joined the double decker bus tour instead.

We drove around all of the main sites in Berlin and had the option to hop on and off the bus as much as we wanted to. We jumped off at the Brandenberg Gate to have a look and a walk around. It was quite eerie to be standing there in front of the gate to be honest. I think back to all of my history lessons where I have seen photos and video of German troops marching through the gate. It was pretty easy to picture actually. There were people dressed in German army uniforms, ready to have their photo taken with you for a small price, and there was also a bear, Charlie Chaplin, and Darth Vader even made an appearance. In keeping with modernity, there was a Starbucks, right there in prime position.

We wandered from the gate towards the Reichstag Building. It was an imposing building, that’s probably the best way to describe it. I am not sure if it is because of the history of the building or not, but it was imposing to stand and look at.

A little lunch, and then back on the bus to see some more. Our next stop was Checkpoint Charlie. It’s Charlie, because it’s the 3^rd checkpoint (alpha, bravo, charlie etc). We approached from the Eastern side and it is surrounded by displays about the wall, the war, the protests, and the deconstruction of the wall. It also has a lot of information about people who tried to cross the border. So it was a little depressing, but very educational and well worth taking the time to read. Where the wall was, there is a double stone path placed into the ground. I found myself looking for it a lot of the time, and was always wondering if I was on the east or the west side of things. It quite literally cut the city in two though, with this building on one side, and that building on the other. I am sure infrastructure has changed a lot since it came down, but streets would have just ended at the wall at many places, I am certain.

While we were on the bus, they spent a lot of time pointing out railway stations. The Bahnhof Potsdamer Platz was one of these places. When we were at Checkpoint Charlie, I read about how the underground trains had to bypass certain stations as they were in the east (or vise versa) and so I think they are really proud that the subway system now runs the way it was intended to. You can read more about that here.

We were treated to a special song by the tour guide as well – a German song about swimming in summer, or something to that effect. I could see Steve and Mark cringing, but I thought it was pretty cool. He was obviously very proud and pleased to share the song with us. I have it on video for anyone who may like to see/hear it. We jumped off at the Berliner Dom/Berlin Museum after that and had a quick look around. The Cathedral wanted a €10.00 entry, so we passed on that and had a look at the museum instead. It didn’t last too long though as we were all tired and ready for happy hour.

We found a very cool restaurant close to the hostel and had some more authentic food. I had beef with something, Mark had pork with something! Very descriptive aren’t I? Let me see, Mark had pork, but its not pork like we know pork. It’s a dark meat and tastes very different. He had sauerkraut and knődels with it. My beef had some stuff in a bowl that was like a very thick sauce. It had cabbage and onion in it, but I am not too sure what else. The beef was divine though and just fell apart on my fork. We left there and went into a little wine bar to have a bottle of good red to finish off the night. I have decided that I love Europe for its fabulous red wine (and food, and sites, and, and, and….).