The Fernsehturn - Berlin
This TV tower was built by the East Germans between 1965 and 1969. Near the Alexanderplatz, it is the tallest structure in Germany and the iconic symbol of Berlin. Berlin is an amazing city. It suffered 363 air raids during the War and was a wasteland of rubble and ash at the end. One amazing statistic-- 600,000 apartments in the city were destroyed.
I am not a "city person" as the saying goes and I was mildly regretting that we had three full days in Berlin before heading home. By the time we left for the airport, I was in love and determined to go back. Under constant restoration, renovation and innovation, Berlin is something of a mess. Construction is everywhere. Cranes, cement mixers and scaffolding are everywhere. Very old buildings have been rebuilt to look like the originals. Old buildings have creative modern bits like the glass dome on the Reichstag. Communist era buildings that are just as shoddy and ugly as they are reputed to be are already crumbling. A new subway under the Unter den Linden will take ten years to finish. I caught myself thinking that I would love to go back when it is all finished, but immediately knew that it will never be finished or I will be long gone when it is.
Berlin: A Work in Progress
For our first day, John and I along with Rick and Liz, decided to take a Fat Tire tour. The FT tours get rave reviews on Trip Advisor and we found it a great experience. We met at their headquarters on Alexanderplatz, right under the TV Tower and were surprised to find that there were scores of people waiting, most much younger than the four of us. The FT guides appeared to be all native English speakers, mostly Americans. The young leader jumped up onto a wall and gave a brief and humorous but articulate history of Berlin since the year 800. We were then divided into groups of about 25-- I think there were four or five groups. We grabbed bikes-- all comfy city clunkers but very rideable. All helmetless we headed out. On our U.S. rides we have been repeatedly warned never to ride without a helmet-- "you must wear a helmet even if simply riding around a parking lot!". Now here we were, riding off into heavy traffic with nary a thought for our poor fragile skulls. And what fun it was! We were advised to obey traffic signals and that at unlighted intersections the vehicle coming from the right had the right of way. This seemed to work very well and I never felt insecure breezing along. More than that, the bikes liberated us. We weren't just tourists dragging about like a flock of sheep-- we had energy, we were part of the flow.
This is Alex, our tour guide, giving a "chalk talk" about how Germany and Berlin were divided at the end of WWII.
We were taken to many of the classic Berlin tourist sights: the site of the book burning in May 1933, Checkpoint Charlie, the Victory Column, the Berlin Wall, the Reichstag, the site of Hitler's underground bunker, the Brandenburg Gate and others. For me the most beautiful and most moving was the "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe".
No picture can show the beauty and strength of this astonishing place. The memorial occupies 4.7 acres of undulating ground and consists of 2711 slabs or "stalae" of concrete. There is nothing written on the memorial. An underground museum adjacent to the site contains the names of all known Jewish Holocaust victims.
The concrete of the memorial has been specially treated to deter graffiti-- omnipresent throughout Berlin and other German cities. What looks like a problem to us, however, doesn't seem of much concern to Germans. One person to whom I spoke seemed mystified when I called it a problem and said that unless it was swastikas or neo nazi propaganda, it was just part of city life.
The Reichstag
It was the burning of the Reichstag in 1933 that enabled Hitler and the Nazi Party to take control in Germany. The burned building has been rebuilt and the German parliament meets in the building. The new and very modern German government buildings are to the left of this picture. The modern glass dome has two spiraling staircases to the top. It provides a 360 degree view of the city and is open to the public. Sadly, reservations must be made two days in advance and we did not have the time. This is one of the primary reasons I would like to go back.
A biking friend from our southern coast to coast ride lives in Berlin. I had contacted him with information about our stay. Sitting in the lobby of the Ibis waiting to gather for dinner, I was talking about Hans to our friends. I decided to google him and found some pictures. Just as I was showing a picture to Liz and saying "this is what he looks like", I looked up and saw the actual person standing near us! He was on his way to an appointment in the area and had decided to stop in an say hello. What a nice coincidence. We were able to make a plan to have dinner and to take a long bicycle ride together.
Dereka with John and Hans at Sans Souci Potsdam
Continue to Part 12
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