Next Stop, Berlin!

After our late night in Amsterdam, we had to be up bright and early for the bus ride down the Autobahn to Berlin. Honestly, I felt like shit that day and vowed to not stay up so late when there was a travel day the next morning. I stuck to it too! No more over imbibing for me on this trip. I wanted to enjoy the little time we had in each city and not be all crabby and tired while trying to sight see.

It was one long ass bus ride! We stopped twice because apparently there are laws in Europe that we had to make two 45 minute stops on the way. It was nice to check out the country side.

We got stuck in traffic on the way there and arrived later than originally planned. So, our first night in Berlin consisted of a walk to a restaurant for dinner with the group and then bed.

The following day was a 3 hour walking tour... And you can cover alot of ground in 3 hours with a tour guide. It was abso-fucking-lutely amazing and exhausting! and really sunny... What was my souvenir from Berlin you ask? Some bitchin' sunburn! :P

Alright so... Now is the time that I try and remember what the fuck all the places are in the following pics.... He he!

First off... The Walk/Don't Walk lights in East Berlin are awesome! He's called the Ampleman. Berlin has whole stores dedicated to selling Ampleman paraphernalia. I got myself a key chain. He's so cute! Our tour manager is obsessed with the Ampleman.

Ok... Now I'll get to the sights the tour guide took us to. First, we met him in a park where he talked about the early history of Berlin and Germany. Basically, the whole history of Germany as a unified country is quite short and very tumultuous. Consisting of Emperors and well.... Hitler and all that... You'll have to Wiki "History of Germany" to learn about it... It's just too confusing to try and explain. :P

First we went to the Marx-Engels Forum. Just a short walk across the park. These two "lovely" men are the fathers of Communism. This statue used to be in the middle of the park. However, it has been moved to a more concealed location surrounded by trees. Berlin is trying to forget some of it's not so pleasant history.

Next up... The Berlin Cathedral or Berliner Dom. Big important men used to walk across the street, which used to be a garden of some sort and attend church services here.

Here's the National Memorial to the Victims of War and Tyranny. It's just a big room with this statue in the middle of it. You can obviously take pictures, but no talking is allowed inside. When you think about context of German history, this statue is quite moving.

Here we have Humbolt University. In the square in front of this building, is where the Nazis burned all books that weren't Aryan enough... Or some shit like that... Big bonfire... Huge book burning. Hey! This was a 3 hour tour... Please forgive my lack of remembering the details. I didn't take a notebook with me. :P

 Long ass walk down Unter Den Linden, and we reach the Brandenburg Tor (Gate). Crowded as hell and watch your wallets and bags people! The gypsies were everywhere in this square.

A short walk from there, we reached the Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe. I'm going to paste a description right out of Wikipedia about the symbolism of this memorial because I feel it's important to understanding all these blocks of concrete. It was "designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold."

"According to Eisenman's project text, the stelae (concrete slabs) are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason."

As you can see... Nothing is quite straight or level here. While walking through it, you get the feeling that you're kind of ricking back and forth...

We then stopped at a location full of nice new apartment buildings that used to be this building... Hitler's New Reich Chancellery... This thing was fucking huge! It's not there anymore but we stood on the corner as the tour guide told us where each of the corners were. There is one bunker cell left underground somewhere, but only because it was forgotten about.

Hitler's defiant nature is represented in this building right here... The Ministry of Aviation... After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles prohibited Germany from having an air force and this building was built for the sole purpose of developing and producing aircraft... I believe that the tour guide told us that important government officials from around the world were housed here during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin... Shame no one said anything about the violation of the Treaty of Versailles...

 Now we've got the Berlin wall...

The last stop was Checkpoint Charlie. This is the checkpoint between the American Sector and the Russian Sector of Berlin. American being part of West Berlin and the Russian Sector being East Berlin... and I don't have a good picture of it... So thank you Wikipedia! On the American side is a picture of the last Russian soldier stationed there and on the Russian side you'll see a similar picture of an American soldier.

So after a long day... We did the Eye Spy Tour that night... Again night time + my camera = crap... so no pics...

 We started at the Berlin Wall at the last tower the remains... or bought from ebay and installed... LOL! The guide talked about the wall and it's history. Then took us to this park where the wall was marked with bricks. Located there is Tunnel 57, which is a location where a tunnel was that allowed 57 people to escape East Berlin. The history is pretty in depth about microphones being installed so that the Russians would hear if anyone was digging a tunnel under the wall (which was actually two walls with what is known as the Death Strip in between). So, anyway... escaping involved spies and dead letters and what not that we got to reenact...

So we split up into two teams and head to the first bar where we have a drink. Then we were off to follow clues. That lead us to an alley where we have to find a letter on the ground. This letter shows us the location of the second bar and we have to follow the map to find it... which was eaten by one of the people in our tour since he was nuts and that's what the recipients of the dead letters did with them... When you get to the second place, another drink was included... It was a small place with clubby music playing. We stayed there a while and we were then transported to a true blue, raving, techno club.... Not my cup of tea and a perfect way to get a migraine if you want one. Never the less it was fun...

So, that was Berlin... and these things are getting long. LOL!! The next day was a travel day... Prague, here we come!!