Kathleen and I managed to see nearly everything despite my lateness. After 20 hours of travel getting to Heathrow I was ready to hop on one more quick flight and end my journey. As snow started falling my hopes for a quick journey fell and I spent about 24 more hours in London (I anticipated two). I had failed two sleep at all, finishing two books instead, but I managed to pull myself together, find some miraculously remaining energy, and head into Berlin. We walked around West Berlin, picked up our passes, saw the Wilhelm Memorial Church and walked around what we thought was the huge shopping center called KaDeWe. We tried to grab dinner only to find we knew no German and our waitress knew no English. We picked random items on the menu, crossed our fingers, and vowed to google some basic terms when we got back. Or waitress brought out fish, a sour cream sauce, and potatoes. The meal was delicious and we laughed our way through. When we got home we found out that we had eaten in a small shopping building, not KaDeWe, in no way famous, and not on our list of things to see. We worried the trip was destined to fail much like the first few days.
After an amazing night of sleep we headed out for our first real day of sightseeing. We went to museum island starting with the Bode which held mostly coins and altarpieces. Despite my lack of interest in this art period I recognized one piece: Ven Der Weyden's Deposition. We headed to the Pergamon Museum to be amazed at the huge Pergamon Alter and found our amazement growing when we laid eyes on the stunning blue Ishtar Gate. We moved to the Neues Museum to see the bust of Nefertiti and endless rooms of other Egyptian artifacts. As our hunger grew we quickly went through the Old National Gallery which held some lesser known impressionist art by some of the greats. After grabbing some quick sandwiches and warming up with hot cocoa in a little cafe we took the tram up to the Berlin Wall Memorial. As it began to get dark and impossibly colder we hurried along the path skimming the information. The walk was cool though we would have liked to spend more time really appreciating the site. We got dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant called Lemongrass Scent and went home.
The next day we rose early to make our appointment at the Reichstag. We waited in the cold for half an hour for the door to open so we could get inside and get warm. To our horror we remembered that the dome has an open top, but we braved the weather to appreciate the view and listen to all the information on the audio guide. As we left the Reichstag we worried the whole day would be totally ruined by the cold as our toes and fingers began to numb. We succumbed and went into Starbucks which had a great view of the Brandenburg gate (haha). As we quickly warmed up we laughed at the fact that we were in a Starbucks and planned warming breaks into the rest of the day. We took a quick tram to the New Synagogue which was only partially rebuilt after the Nazi regime burned it down and headed back to see the Memorial to Politicians who Opposed Hitler, Memorial to Victims of the Wall, and Hotel Adlon where Michael Jackson dangled Blanket off the balcony. Then we warmed in a cool bookstore called Berlin Story, looked up at Humboldt University, and walked into the Humboldt Library where we got kicked out while looking at the stained glass window depicting Lenin. The memorial to book burning was too foggy to see into, so we went into Hedwig Cathedral before looking at the Kathe Kollwitz statue in the Neue Watch. We paid our way into the History Museum excited to get a refresher on the history we both had learned in high school. After seeing all the amazing artifacts from every period of German History we quickly saw the Humboldt box which was weird but free, the Berlin Cathedral which was beautiful, and Marien church. We finished out the great day at a decent Italian place where I finally ordered a glass of white wine (my first technically legal drink!). Our feelings about the trip finally turned up after our first totally successful day.
The next day we went to Checkpoint Charlie which had a kitschy fun museum. We walked down to the Jewish History Museum which had some amazing information about how rampant antisemitism has been in Europe and ended with an even more amazing installation called the void. The installation had a skinny room with tall ceiling, cold cement walls and the floor was covered in metal faces with their mouths open in a mixture of shock and pain that gave off a disturbing sound as you walked across them. We walked up to the Topography of Terror which had some cool pictures and focused on the perpetrators of WWII instead of the victims, making it unique. Then we skimmed through the Stasi museum, grabbed some humorous toasted cheese sandwiches and walked up to the German Cathedral which had a museum on the German government which was all in German so we breezed through. We headed to a huge chocolate shop called Fassbender and Rausch and after perusing throughout the chocolate options we went upstairs to the cafe for some for chocolate mouse with raspberry jelly and a dark hot cocoa with rum. Delicious! Fully satisfied, and quite a bit warmer we hopped on the tram once more to arrive at Potsdamer Platz where we walked through the Sony Center and admired the capitalism driven side of Berlin. We walked down to the German Resistance Memorial which was also all in German and totally empty. Despite our total loss regarding the German language, the building was still cool because an attempt to assassinate Hitler was planned inside before the planners were caught and shot in the courtyard. We quickly caught Gemalde Galerie to see some great art, some of which I recognized, before some funny music blared over the speaker to kick us out. Kathleen and I joked that if the music hadn't taken so long we could have seen a couple more rooms. It didn't matter much though, seeing as Rick Steves ended his tour after the rooms we did see so we didn't feel too bad. We headed home to grab some great pub food and amazing beer at a place called Hirsch where the bartender was really nice and chose some good beer for us since we clearly had no clue what to order.
Our final day began at the East Side Gallery. Despite the cold we really enjoyed the full mile long stretch of the wall taking pictures the whole way. We then headed to the Holocaust Memorial which was my favorite site on the whole trip. The museum was really powerful and shared stories of Jewish people in Europe during the Holocaust along with the numbers of Jewish people murdered from each country. I felt that the museum was the only one we visited that really evoked emotion. The memorial fit right in with the mood with minimalism that made it easy to relate to: just what I like in a memorial. We grabbed lunch next door at a pub where I finally had curry wurst which was really amazing, probably my favorite meal though it was so cheap, along with a big glass of beer. We stopped at a second hand shop to buy some bier steins as souvenirs before heading to the Charlottenburg Palace which we didn't go inside at Rick Steve's recommendation, though we did snap pictures. We tried to get into the Berggruen Museum to see some works by Picasso only to find it under renovation. We skipped over to the Scharf-Gestern Collection which held some cool surrealist art along with a section of works by Goya, Daumier, and Toulouse-Lautrec. We took the tram one last time to see the Kathe Kollwitz Museum, and after much searching found it, only to be extremely disappointed that it too was under renovation. Even worse we found out the exhibit opened back up the day we were leaving, such a bummer. We lightened our mood at the Erotic Museum which was extremely entertaining and somewhat shocking but very fun. We found the real KaDeWe bringing our trip full circle and ate at a pasta place on the top floor. We came home to pack and plan transportation before heading to the bar downstairs called Red Rooster to celebrate a successful trip with some beers and cider.
Honestly at first I felt disappointed with Berlin, largely due to long flight delays and the cold. I was excited to feel the history of the city only to find that everyone including myself was largely numb to it all. But as I got to know the city better I found the current atmosphere to also be an interesting moment in history. Overall, I've promised to come back in warmer times and came to appreciate Berlin. I think that the cold and closed off man that is Berlin is fascinating in every way, and though he is hard to love, I intend to give it my all. This city needs and deserves some love. For now I'm excited to get to Prague. I'm hoping my new smaller and less tumultuous (though not by much) home will be easier to wrap my arms and head around. I can't wait!
Until then, Auf Wiedersehen Berlin and Dobrý Den Prague!
-Patty
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