Scandinavia Day 7 - Berlin, Part 2

(Continued) A policy of modern Germany is to commemorate victims and resistance and to not glorify conquests. A stark example is a monument with a single sculpture Mother with Dead Son from 1937 in remembrance of the First World War. Lee led us on a meandering route to a series of food stalls where locals go to eat, and we had a quick lunch from a Turkish food stall.

Proceeding onward we discovered a hidden square with a striking view of what was a beautiful synagogue, now a museum. We then traveled by tram to the very touristy remnant of Checkpoint Charlie. From 1961 to 1989, it was the only access point for West Berliners to visit friends and family in the eastern part of the city. On the way, we passed a heartbreaking monument titled “Trains to Life, Trains to Death” depicting children traveling in opposite directions: two heading to freedom in England and the remainder to a death camp. A few blocks further is a memorial with a segment of the Berlin Wall.

Traveling further we passed a sign acknowledging the likely location where Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. She used cyanide, and it is said that Adolf used a gun because he didn’t trust the effectiveness of cyanide produced in the concentration camps.

We then made our way to the stark and eerie “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe”, colloquially called The Holocaust Memorial—a large maze of dark gray rectangular shapes of varying heights and depths in which it is easy to get lost. Our last stop before reconnecting with our Viking tour group was a true Berlin landmark, the Brandenburg Gate. Built in 1791, it was the entrance to the city from the road connecting Berlin to Brandenburg.

After returning to our meeting point, we said goodbye to Lee and made our way back to our train for the long ride back to the ship. On arrival at the dock we were greeted like returning heroes by the entire Viking staff serving champagne and lining our pathway back to the ship singing and cheering us on. Quite a memorable welcome after our 14 hour day! We ended the evening with a special German meal including an assortment of wursts and a delicious whole roast suckling pig! < Berlin, Part 1 > Next

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Scandinavia Day 7 - Berlin, Part 1

(Split into two posts due to length) We were up at 5:30 for an early morning 2.5 hour train ride from our ship docked in Warnemünde, Germany to Berlin. Viking arranged for a private train to bring its travelers to Berlin for what turned out to be a very long, but extremely rewarding day.

To make the most of our limited time in the city, we, along with our friends Bob and Stefanie, hired a private guide for the day. After arriving in what is the largest train station in Europe, we managed to successfully connect with our guide, Lee Evans (lee.evans@berlin.de). Lee is an American who is a long time resident of Berlin and who turned out to have a wonderful sense of humor and an encyclopedic knowledge of history, politics, culture and more. We took the subway from the train station to the area of the Berlin City Hall and then made our way to one of the earliest settled areas of Berlin around St. Nicholas Place. This is the area where traders settled around the year 1200. Over the centuries, the area grew. We learned of Jewish merchants arriving in the Middle Ages, the Protestant Reformation, and the impact of French Protestant refugees (Huguenots) in the 17th century. We walked through the area and made our way to the top of a large building that gave us a great view of the entire area. We should note that most of the historical area that we explored is located in what used to be East Berlin under communist rule for 40 years. One prominent architectural remnant is the stylized “space age” television antenna. (Apparently American operatives in West Berlin were able to intercept communications signals from this tower for years.) Other prominent landmarks included the domed Berlin Cathedral and the major thoroughfare, Unter den Linden which eventually leads to the Brandenburg Gate. Walking down Unter den Linden we passed major buildings and landmarks including the German State Opera (one of three active opera houses in the city). Next to it was a very large plaza, Bebelplatz, with Humboldt University Law School at the far end and a nearby statue of Frederick the Great (Frederick II) on horseback. In addition to his military conquests, he is remembered as a strong supporter of the arts, philosophy, and education and is credited with establishing public education in Germany. In stark contrast, this square also is the sight of a notorious book burning by the Nazis in May, 1933 commemorated with an unusual display of empty bookshelves under a deteriorated glass window in the ground. As we began searching for lunch we crossed the Palace Bridge lined with a series of old statues in remarkable condition of the goddess Nike urging warriors on to bravery and sacrifice for the country. As the Germans were losing WWII, these statues were removed to avoid being bombed and were hidden in a lake. After the war, they were forgotten about until years later when they were uncovered during the construction of a golf course! < Previous > Continue to Berlin Part 2

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