Berlin, my Favorite City !

Berlin was awesome. I think it's one of my favorites of the cities that we've seen so far. Our hostel was just on the edge of the citz in the Grunewald. It was cool because here we are in a huge city and our hostel was in the middle of a big park. We took a free tour through Berlin our first day. The guides work for tips and the guide we had definately earned hers. She was energectic, funny, and fit hundreds of years of history into an understandable summary. Wer saw most of the main sties in Berlin on this 4 hour walking tour. First we saw the Brandendurg Gate, it was built as a tribute to peace in the 18th century. It was the site of many military parades, demonstrations, and it was the backdrop for the famous pictures of when the Berlin wall game down. Next we saw the Reichstag which had an interesting role in history. Today the Reichstag is the home of the governing party but in 1933 it was mysteriously burned down after which Adolf Hitler declasred a state of emergency and seized power. We walked through a gorgeous park called the Tiergarten (Animal Park) which was used as the Royal Hunting grounds for the Prussian monarchs. After that we saw a holocasut memorial that was built in the city. It was very simple yet very effective in conveying some of the feelings and experiences of the people sent to concentration camps. The memorial took up about a block and from the side it appears to be a bunch of blocks lined up in rows all at the same height. When you walk through it the ground level starts to change and you become lost among these huge pillars, I almost lost Laura in it. Our tour guide mentioned that it's the feelings of getting lost, being separted from the people you're with and being alone that perhaps allow people to reflect on what the holocaust must have been like. Our guide took us to a spot which is apparently not advertised in most tourist books. It was the location of a Nazi bunker in which Adolf Hitler had killed himself in. There was nothing there to state what used to be there because they don't want people to memorialize it and it turn to a place hwere people would bring flowers to and such. The entire bunker was destroyed as part of de-nazifacation after the ar. Next we walked through the square in front of the university where the Nazi's burned books that sent a 'wrong' message or were written by people of Jewish decent. We also stopped in front of a huge building designed and built by the Nazi's. It was truley huge, the door to get in was much taller than your standard door entrances and the door handle was up to my neck. Our guide said that Nazi architecture was designed to be big, intrusive, and meant to make people feel small when they walked up to it. What was interesting about the building was that on one side wall was a long mural of the 'perfect' socialist society. Happy people working tough labour jobs together, business people and labourers shaking hands, etc. Just adjeacent to the mural was a picture of the people in the front row of a demonstration in protest of that type of society who were shot in the back, the reality. I thought it was an interesting display. Just past this building was a piece of the Berlin wall, I'm not sure what I was expecting exactly but it was nothing special, but the story behind it makes it interesting. When the wall was torn down they left a brick outline in the road so people know where exactly it used to be. At the end of the tour our guide told us the story of how the wall had come down. A long story short, from what I understand, there was a misunderstanding between some important people and it was announced on Live TV that travel restictions would be lifted between east & west Berlin, effective immediately. Our guide went on to tell us the 3 day party that followed the announcement and the destruction of the wall. Wow, I can't imagine what it would've been like to live through an experience like that. Berlin seems to have come a long way since then, there's been a lot of rebuilding going on. But there are plenty of reminders throughout the city of it's past, such as the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche (Memorial Church). It was built in the late 1800's and was significantly damaged during the war. It still stands in downtown Berlin as it was when it was bombed. I these things so interesting, coming from a city like winnipeg that doesn't have such an ancient history. Our second day we went to a suberb of Berlin, Potsdam and visited the Palaces there. We took a tour through the New Palace where Fredrick the Great lived in 1763. One room that made this palace unique is the Grotto Salon! It was really cool and had sea creatures designed into the flooring and seashells decorated on the walls. We stopped at a German Film History museum that Laura wanted to check out, wanted through the parks a bit more and head back to Berlin. Our third day there we went to see the main attraction at the Berlin zoo, Knut ! He's a baby polar bear that we lined up for 45 minutes to see. He was so cute. We also saw a new born deer there as well, the mom was still licking him clean and he was trying to take it's first steps. After a few hours at the zoo we went to the German History museum. It was really interesting but 3 hours of stnading and reading boards was tiring. They had so much information there. Lauar and I decided to stay an extra day in Berlin.. there's just so much to do and 2 days just wasn't enough. Next we venture out to see our family friend Heike Pottast in a tiny little town of Hagedorn !