Berlin

Very early morning departure. Up at 5:15 AM as our train left at 6:50 for Berlin.  It is about a 6 hour ride and we arrived at 1:15 PM.  Caught a cab to our hotel and then got a two day pass for get on get off bus.  We should have done one day and then purchased another type of transport ticket for the other two days.   We spent too much time waiting for the bus and not enough time seeing things.  We needed another day to get all the things on our list that we wanted to see.

Another thing I learned on this particular trip is that I am getting old and need to rest occasionally.  I have found that I cannot walk and stand on my feet for 5-6 hours without a rest.  I told Terry we need to factor in a rest time in our future plan.  My right foot is still giving me trouble and is litterally a pain in the bupkiss (sp).  Oh well, on to what we did see.

When we spoke to the Concierge at the hotel (the Hilton) about things to see, I asked him if there were any tours that would take us into the former GDR (East Berlin).  He laughed and said "you are in the former East Berlin".  Obviously, much has changed since the wall came down.  We were in walking distance of "Checkpoint Charlie" and the "Brandenburg Gate".  

We opted to go on the bus to familiarize ourselves with the City and then walk to those places later.   As it was late already, we rode the entire circuit which took us past all the main sites and we took a few pictures.  Again drive by pictures aren't the best quality.

"The Brandenburg Gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees, which formerly led directly to the city palace of the Prussian monarchs.

It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace and built by Carl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791. Having suffered considerable damage in World War II, the Brandenburg Gate was fully restored from 2000 to 2002 by the Berlin Monument Conservation Foundation.

During the post-war Partition of Germany, the gate was isolated and inaccessible immediately next to the Berlin Wall, and the area around the gate featured most prominently in the media coverage of the opening of the wall in 1989.

Throughout its existence, the Brandenburg Gate was often a site for major historical events and is today considered a symbol of the tumultuous history of Europe and Germany, but also of European unity and peace".

The Reichstag (this was all we saw).  Never got back here as we ran out of time.

"The building caught fire on 27 February 1933, under circumstances still not entirely known.  This gave a pretext for the Nazis to suspend most rights provided for by the 1919 Weimar Constitution in the Reichstag Fire Decree in an effort to weed out communists and increase state security throughout Germany.

During the 12 years of National Socialist rule, the Reichstag building was not used for parliamentary sessions. Instead, the few times that the Reichstag convened at all, it did so in a former opera house opposite the Reichstag building. This applies as well to the session of 23 March 1933, in which the Reichstag disposed of its powers in favour of the Nazi government in the Enabling Act, another step in the so-called Gleichschaltung ("coordination"). The main meeting hall of the building (which was unusable after the fire) was instead used for propaganda presentations and, during World War II, for military purposes. 

The building, having never been fully repaired since the fire, was further damaged by air raids. During the Battle of Berlin in 1945, it became one of the central targets for the Red Army to capture due to its perceived symbolic significance". 

What the building looked like post war occupied Berlin, June 1945

"The ruined building was made safe against the elements and partially refurbished in the 1960s, but no attempt at full restoration was made until after German reunification on 3 October 1990, when it underwent a reconstruction led by architect Norman Foster. After its completion in 1999, it once again became the meeting place of the German parliament: the modern Bundestag.

Today, visitors to the building can still see Soviet graffiti on smoky walls inside as well as on part of the roof, which was preserved during the reconstructions after reunification".

"The Charlottenburg Palace is the largest palace in Berlin, Germany, and the only surviving royal residence in the city dating back to the time of the Hohenzollern family. 

The palace was built at the end of the 17th century and was greatly expanded during the 18th century. It includes much exotic internal decoration in baroque and rococo styles. A large formal garden surrounded by woodland was added behind the palace, including a belvedere, a mausoleum, a theatre and a pavilion. During the Second World War, the palace was badly damaged but has since been reconstructed".  We never got back here either.  It's ok though as I'm kind of burned out on palaces.  Ha

Parts of the Berlin wall are still standing in the city (more later)

Checkpoint Charlie (More later) 

By the time we got back to the hotel it was fairly early and we decided to walk back to Checkpoint Charlie.  As we walked along the street there was a museum and almost all the buildings had a piece of the wall attached to the side of the wall.

On various business around Checkpoint Charlie

For a couple of Euro they would let you take a picture with them

Replica of sign that was posted during the Cold War era.  The real one is in the museum.

The Black Box (a display of the history of the wall

Pictures of the wall coming down

As we had a dinner reservation, we headed back and will come back here to finish seeing the museum.  Had dinner at an Italian restaurant and had some really good Ravioli.  Moare tommorrow.