Hello! Well we all made it back safe from Berlin. It was an awesome trip that was non-stop touring and site seeing. Each day started at 8am and went till at least 8pm then it was time for “extra curricular activities.’ Berlin to say the least is an absolutely amazing city. I was completely blown away with all of the history this city has to offer. It has gone through everything from Nazi Germany, bombing of nearly everything in WWII, the divide of democracy and communism symbolized by the Berlin wall, then the German Reunification in 1990 made it Germany’s capital city. To try and explain each piece of architecture and its history in Berlin that we experienced would take forever but here are some the cool things we experienced that I enjoyed:
We stayed at a brand new Hostel right next to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof main crossing station. Which is an enormous and beautiful train station. Deutsche Bahn (thanks Svenja) is the largest train company all over Europe. As a side note, all of these pictures were taken by Kelly and Cody so I give all of the credit to the both of them! I can only post several pictures on my blog so if you are interested in seeing pictures of our Berlin trip please go to my Flickr website athttp://www.flickr.com/photos/chadpictures23/ my camera charger is missing so I am using Anjali’s amazing camera which she has been very generous about sharing with me!
We took a tour bus from Bad Mergentheim to Berlin, it took ALL DAY! In all honesty I did not mind it because it was really cool to 1) Ride on the Autobahn and 2) See all of the villages in-between. German law says that the bus driver must shut the bus off for 1 hour every 4 hours. So between that and people like my wonderful mother who needs to make 15 stops along a road trip the driving took all day.
The first day we got a very special tour which is not open to the public at the main government building of Germany. It holds all branches of government in the building. It’s a newer building that is nicknamed the washing machine because of its resemblance to just that. It was a very neat building. My favorite building we got to see was by far the Parliament building which is called the Reichstag. It was opened in 1894, and stands today still as It has arguably the most amazing history of any building in Berlin. It was in use from 1894 until WWII, where it was shutdown until being remodeled/rebuilt several times since the 1960’s. It wasn’t until 1999 that it was used as a modern Parliament building again. Along with being put back into use by the modern day German Parliament, a glass dome was added to the roof that allows visitors to see a 360 degree view of Berlin. When you walk into the dome you are given a headset and as you walk around the dome to the top you get to listen to an audio presentation explaining all the buildings and important structures you can see from the dome. Another neat thing about this building was the graffiti that was uncovered in a re-construction in the 1990’s. After WWII the architect decided during the first re-construction to cover the graffiti filled walls. In the 90’s those covering walls were torn down to allow the graffiti history to be visible. The graffiti came from Russian troops who wrote on the walls after the seizure of the building in June 1945.
After WWII
From the glass dome looking down..
Cody and Kelly! I thought this was an amazing picture so its Blog Worthy!
This was a case with a gift from George W. Bush to Chancellor Angela Merkel - she is a big fan of film so W got her a bunch of American classic DVD's and CD's
We also visited the Holocaust memorial in Berlin that is dedicated to the to Jewish victims of the Holocaust. It was designed by Peter Eisenman, an American architect. Outside, it was very confusing and un-like any other memorial I have seen. For this I was a bit frustrated. The tour guide at first explained that the Eisenman wanted this memorial to be abstract, so my response was “Why? The holocaust was not abstract, why should this memorial be?” He told our group many questions like mine are asked, and that the architect Eisenman did not want any symbolism. The guide told us that this has drawn a lot of criticism over the years from many people across the world. As you walk through the cement blocks you have a very individual feel and this may be the intent of the architect to encourage guests to come up with their own conclusions. The second part of the tour was an information center located underneath the Memorial. It has many pictures, provided with text in several different languages. I spent quite a while in their reading and I found it to be the most important part of the Memorial.
This is the Jewish Holocaust Memorial
The wall was comprised of 2 walls this is one side..
This is the other side.
This is looking down at the 2 walls I have pictures of above, notice the watch tower on the left, which is seen in the photo above.
As I said we toured many things all day which was very cool, but at night we went out for some Berlin nightlife. The first night we went to several bars while the second night we went to the new Sony Center and watched a soccer game. The next night we went out to a Karaokee bar. That to say the least was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. “Sweet Caroline” was a hit. The last night was my favorite. We got a bunch of people and some beer and went down to the river and sat on the river edge looking out at the lights and buildings of Berlin. It was amazing!
Well I need to get organized for this week, take care everyone and thanks for reading!
Us guys having a beer in the sun during break! 7 -Man wolf pack!
-Chad
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