Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Over the River
Thursday, June 2, 2011
The Ride
Somehow the thought of a McDonald’s breakfast came up, and we HAD to stop for some on the way to Berlin. For the first time since being here, I had a little taste of America. Of all the American fast food places to choose from, I am not sure why Germany decided McDonalds would be the “hit”… so many better options. Oh well. I think everyone got a coffee too, but apparently it wasn’t too strong. The entire back seat of the car was sleeping within 10 minutes of leaving the restaurant!
Out Cold
We drove for perhaps four hours before making our first stop in Wittenberg. On the way, we passed no less than a couple hundred wind generators in the country side. I also saw many houses and companies with solar panels on roof tops. These common sights were another reminder of the energy conscious nature of the German people. The good think about driving was that we could go about 160 km per hour (100 mph) whenever we wanted. The bad thing was stopping for gas at 1.50 Euros per liter (OR roughly $8.22 per gallon after exchange rate). Makes $3.50 per gallon seem cheap…
Windmills Everywhere!
In Wittenberg, we stopped to tour the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) or the “Reformation Memorial Church”. This is where Luther posted his 95 Theses against the Catholic Church which helped spark the Reformation. Unfortunately for us, the door was under construction, so we couldn’t walk up to the entryway where he actually posted the Theses. Before continuing to Berlin, we stopped for a nice Italian lunch and a beer. I think I fell in love with Gnocchi right then and there. Lecker!
Possibly...
With full stomachs, we made a loop back up to the Brandenburg Gate and walked further into the Tiergarten (animal garden) which is directly west of the gate. The hot sun was just finally setting, so it felt really nice out. We found out that “Tiergarten” was a good name for this open public park, because as we were talking a fox literally just lumbered across the path in front of us! We probably walked about 1.5 miles before coming to the Berlin Victory Column which lines up directly with the Brandenburg Gate leading into Unter den Linden. After seeing these sights so many times in the news and on TV, it was a little unreal being there. Even better was that the typical American tourist crowds seemed to be a little down as we don’t celebrate Ascension Thursday as a national holiday. Since Germany gets off work for this holiday, most of the crowds were only native Germans.
Victory Column
Although it was getting late and we had just spent the entire day traveling, we walked the full 1.5 miles back to the Brandenburg gate where we hopped a train back to the hostel. The hostel was pretty far out of the downtown area, so we had to hop three different trains to get back. Berlin is quite large. An hour later, we grabbed a few brews and just chilled a little before heading to bed. We all bunked up in a nine person room and most of us just immediately fell asleep. Good night day one!
Friday, June 3, 2011
After breakfast, we departed the hostel at around 10:00am to check out a few of the museums and other sites in Berlin. Our first stop was the DDR museum. For a few Euros, this was absolutely worth it. It was a little crowded, but the museum did a wonderful job or relating life in the DDR (German Democratic Republic… or East Germany). For those who do not know the history, here is a super brief synopsis…
After WWII, Germany was split up by the Allies (US, UK, France, and USSR). The US, UK, and France held the western territories of Germany and the Soviet Union occupied the eastern territory. Berlin, which was directly in the middle of the USSR’s territory, was also split into four quadrants. Long story short, between the 1950s and 1989 (the period of the Cold War), Germany was divided between east (GDR) and west (FRG). This included building a wall that completely surrounded the west side of Berlin so that those in the GDR could not access West Germany and vice versa. At the end of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall was torn down and Berlin, along with the entire nation of Germany, found itself working back towards reunification, which took place in 1990… only 21 years ago!
DDR Museum Entrance
After leaving the museum, we explored the Museum Island (found at the split in the Spree River) and enjoyed the weather. Not long after some wandering in the Mitte, we hopped a train to Potsdamerplatz and the Sony Center. From there we walked to an outdoor exhibition called “Topography of Terror”. This was a section of the remaining Berlin Wall and it ran right next to the foundations of many of the former Third Reich’s government buildings. I stood just yards from where Heinrich Himmler’s office once was located.
At the Wall
The day was HOT… probably mid 80s. Summer definitely came with June, so we were toasting from being outside so long. Lucky for us, Elizabeth had her SPF 70 on hand. This red head did NOT burn, thank you very much! I did forget to mention that I bought myself a new set of sunglasses as a birthday present on Tuesday. I was thankful to have them! …but would you believe that I already chipped the lens by Sunday! It never ends… but I digress…
After seeing the wall, we visited the famous Check-Point Charlie (an Allie access point through the wall). Down the road just a little farther was the Jewish Museum. Half of us decided this was worth seeing, so the group split up for a bit. I stayed to see the museum, and was thankful I did so. The museum did an excellent job of not only explaining Jewish history and traditions in general, but also the specific Jewish history in Germany. It greatly saddened me to see just how much oppression the Jews saw not just through the World Wars, but through every century following Rome’s conversion to Christianity. I walked away with a much greater appreciation of this fact, and am thankful we now live in a world with much less anti-Semitism. The Jewish are our brothers and sisters too, and I am proud to have some close friends at home who have this faith. You could also tell at the museum, that the curators were especially proud to share the heritage of the Jewish people.
A Walk through Jewish History
After a two hour walk-through, our small group was famished. We decided to find a popular German restaurant called the Schwartzwaldstuben. Gefunded! The meal was great, and did well to refresh us before heading out again.
Schwarzwaldstuben
Our group visited the Holocaust memorial just south of the Mitte before meeting back up with the rest of the group. At 8:30pm we had an appointment to visit the Reichstag. This is Germany’s main government building and is where their parliament is seated. It is just north of the Brandenburg Gate, and visitors can climb to the cupola for an amazing view of the cityscape. It was incredible and probably one of the coolest things I saw while in Berlin. If you ever travel to Berlin, you MUST see the Reichstag. Be sure to plan in advanced though! To get in, you need to apply early online. Thanks to Justin, we had an “in” and got to experience the free sunset over Berlin from atop the large government building. Too cool!
Early June Sunset
At this point, we headed back to the hostel to hang out and have a few refreshments. Let me just interject here and say that beer in Berlin tastes nowhere near as good as beer in Bavaria. Just saying. Regardless, most of the guys saw it fit to further explore nightlife by going out around 12:00am. Elizabeth, Michael, and I hung back to get some sleep. I had to laugh when I woke at 5:00am to the guys returning just as the sun came up. You’ll have to ask them about the nightlife… it sounded to me like they had a good time.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
After breakfast, Elizabeth, Micah, Justin, and I went to see the East Side Gallery. This is the largest section remaining of the Berlin wall, and is covered with artwork. The paintings were beautiful, funny, and random. They did a great job of illustrating much of Germany’s “emotion” during the time pre and post unification.
And Batman
In the afternoon, the entire ICP group hopped a train to see Schloss Charlottenburg and its palace grounds. We skipped the tour of the palace inside, but did get to enjoy its outer ambiance. Following lunch/dinner at 4:00 pm, I split from the group to head back and get ready for Saturday night mass. I was leaving early on a train in the morning, so Sunday mass was out of the question.
The Palace Courtyard
Stats show that Germany is becoming more and more of a secular country every day. This trend is even more pronounced in the north. I was astounded that less than 10% of Berlin residents are Catholic. I was even more astounded to find that over 60% do not claim any faith at all! This is compared with 38% and 47% respectively in Munich. The Protestant history in the north definitely made an impact on the faith of the country’s people in those German regions. I have no doubt other factors have contributed as well. Perhaps some research for the future…
St. Hedwig's Cathedral
Despite these low percentages, St. Hedwig’s cathedral was rather full at 7:00pm, and I was thankful to see and experience yet another beautiful German church. This one was exceptionally interesting with its circular floor plan. The pews surrounded the center alter in a circular pattern- a strong deviation from the traditional transept style churches in Germany.
Inside the Cathedral
When I made it back to the hostel around 9:00pm, all from our group but Joey had gone to a concert for the evening. Since we weren’t into the hard-rock concert scene, we decided to get dinner together, shoot some pool, and get to know some of the other travelers at the hostel. It is interesting to see what kind of Americans we meet while over here. We met a group from Kansas, and it was fun relating our experiences so far in Germany.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Sunday was “travel day” for me. Elizabeth and I checked out at around 9:00am and headed to the Hauptbahnhof to catch our respective departure trains. I had decided to take a train back to avoid traffic and enjoy some reading time (which I cannot do in a car). For the extra 20 Euros, it was worth it. I found out later that the other group got caught in three additional hours of holiday traffic, so I am especially thankful I went with the train! I will say that Berlin has the largest train station I have ever seen though! It was enormous. I guess it is no wonder that Berlin is known as the rail hub of Germany.
The Hauptbahnhof in Berlin
Overall the trip was very cool. It was great meeting back up with some of the Cincinnati crew. It was great seeing the northeastern portion of Germany and its capital. The history, culture, and language again were rich, vibrant, and very much physically present. In the end, however, I think I would still recommend southern Germany any day. When you want a real beer, an “Alt Stadt”, a large selection of Churches, lederhosen, small shops, and good schnitzel, you will only find a home in the south. That is just my opinion though! You’ll have to come over to find out for yourself!
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