Part 63: Berlin: Probably more of a summer destination. Feb 22-23, 2013

I arrived at the Berlin airport on Friday evening, caught the bus to the train station, and then caught the suburban train to my hostel in East Berlin.  My first impression was that it was cold.  It was only a few blocks from the train stop and my phalanges were already complaining. 

The next day, it was still cold and I started out by walking a few blocks down to the East Side Gallery.  The Gallery is a 1.3 km section of the original Berlin Wall that now serves as a memorial.  When the Wall was standing, the west side was highly decorated with graffiti symbolizing freedom while the East was bare.  After the fall, this section of wall on the East side was decorated by several international artists.  

 From there, I walked along the River Spree, past a recently extinguished apartment fire, to see the Molecule Man sculpture.  The sculpture is 100 feet tall and apparently there are several installed around the world, including one in Council Bluffs, Iowa. 

By now, I was cold, so I was happy to hop on the train to Brandenburger Tor.  I wanted to take the free walking tour, but it was already full.  Instead, I grabbed some hot chocolate and began to walk.  I saw the exterior of the parliament building before continuing down through the Tiergarten.  I ended up at the Soviet War Memorial on Red Army Day (Feb. 23).  The memorial was built to commemorate the 80,000 Soviet soldiers that died in the Battle of Berlin, 2,000 of which are buried at the site. 

Since it was Red Army Day, there were military representatives from all over the world present to lay wreaths at the memorial.  I saw soldiers from Russia (obviously), Vietnam, China, Sweden, Germany, and many other countries. 

From there I passed by a memorial to the German composers:  Mozart, Beethoven, and Hadyn.  It was badly damaged and shot up during WWII.  Even though it’s been restored, you can still see a lot of bullet scars on the surface. 

I next came upon the Victory Column.  It originally sat in front of the parliament building, but Hitler had it moved to its current location.  It was originally constructed to commemorate Germany’s victory over Denmark in 1864 and the French in 1870.  The reliefs on the column were a bit of a sore spot for the French after the Allied victory and they took some of the reliefs to Paris with them when they went home and tried to force Germany to tear down the column all together.  The remaining offending scenes were covered with granite that was only removed in 1987. 

The column has a museum about the Victory Column and other memorials in Germany.  Then you can climb up to the top.  The top was cold, windy, cold, very high, and cold.  I took a few pictures, but the weather was not cooperative, so they’re not great.  I imagine it is a lovely view in June. 

There is also a great piece of art in the tunnel leading to the tower.  It follows your movements. (much thanks to the random guy that demonstrated it so nicely while I was recording)

 

I continued through the Tiergarten and got to see the back portion of the Berlin Zoo for free on my way to Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.  This church was blown to ruins during WWII and instead of tearing them down, the annex was left standing as a memorial.  I almost couldn’t find it due to the fact that is covered top to bottom in scaffolding.  The inside has great mosaics on the ceiling and floors and great before and after pictures.  The new church is incredibly modern and the outside is also sort of ugly.   

I passed by the World Clock in Alexanderplatz on my way to Berliner Dom.  The cathedral is huge and at has a permanent exhibit about its construction.  When I went, it also had an exhibit on the history of church music.  I also got to climb up to the dome, but since it was snowing, I didn’t get to go on the outside walkway.   Then I went alllll the way back down to visit the crypt.  I love a good crypt (creepy, I know).