Weekend in Berlin

We posted a little bit about this on FB, but there was so much we saw and did in Berlin that it merits a blog post.

It was our 30th anniversary, and Robert suggested going away for a long weekend. Our criteria? We wanted to go someplace we'd never been, and we wanted to stay in a place with air conditioning. No small task in our part of the world! We looked at various places nearby, and then Robert came up with the idea of going to Berlin. We found a hotel with AC, and Expedia made the whole thing affordable, so off we went!

Hotel front door. I liked the design.

Large comfy bed. And did I mention there was AC??

We flew from Munich to Berlin on Friday the 26th. We checked into the hotel and found an Italian place nearby that was well-reviewed. We went early since we hadn't had much of a lunch. The dinner was good, but the ice cream dessert was the star of the show -- a ball of ice cream with vanilla in the middle and chocolate on the outside, coated in cocoa, and sitting in a puddle of Bailey's. Yes please!

Hello deliciousness!

On Saturday, we signed up for the Fat Tire bike tour. Our tour leader was Rhys, new to the job and definitely a guy who marches to his own drummer. He told us a ton about the history of Berlin.

Interesting fellow, Rhys. Tall.
The tour covered a lot of ground, both physically and figuratively. It started at the TV tower, probably the ugliest landmark either one of us have ever seen. I think the Berliners are kinda proud of its unimpressive 1960's Soviet aesthetic. After that, it was a lot of wandering the city to take in various sites. There were several memorials to various victims of Nazism, one of which was at the spot where students from the university burned 20,000 "dangerous" books (those written by Jews, homosexuals, etc.). The memorial was underground, but you could look at it through Plexiglas in the ground. It was simply empty bookshelves, enough to hold 20,000 books. There was also a memorial the the murdered Jews of Europe. This was 2711 concrete blocks of various sizes arranged in a gird in a large square. These blocks are large (from 2 to at least 10 feet tall) and you can walk among them. The artist has given no interpretation for this, but it was definitely a strange and confining experience. You could hear voices, but no see others. It was a bit claustrophobic. Here's a short video Lisa took, as well as a still photo.


Video walking through the memorial


Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The tour also included stops at the more famous Berlin landmarks, the Brandenburg gate and The Wall.

Brandenburg Gate

Berlin Wall
Us with our Sunday tour guide, Lynsey.
After the ride it was time for a rest and then dinner. And what does one get for dinner when in Berlin? Why, tapas, of course!

Sunday was a walking tour that ended up covering a lot of the same ground as the bike tour, but with other information on each stop. Both tours actually included a stop at the most famous car park (parking lot) in the world, otherwise known as the location of Hitler's bunker.

Of course, there is more to Berlin than The Wall and Nazism. There's Ampelmann! "What is Ampelmann?" you ask. Why, he's this guy!


Ampelmann!
"What the heck?" Well, in old East Berlin, he used to be used for the crosswalk lights. When the city re-united, they started to standardize on the "normal" crosswalk lights. There was apparently a bit of an outcry and Ampelmann was saved! Now he is sort of the un-official mascot of the city. He shows up in all kinds of ... interesting places.


Your stream is not as strong as you think it is! 

Since Sunday was our actual anniversary, we celebrated with another traditional type of food in Berlin: French food. It was one of the better meals we have eaten out in quite a while

Our flight home on Monday was in the mid-afternoon, so we had a little time to do one last thing. We decided to check out the Jewish Museum. This wasn't just about the Holocaust (although there was a section devoted to that), it was about Jewish history and culture. It was interesting, although not at all what we expected. The building was intentionally not level, lending a feeling of being off-balance and things feeling not like they should, a nod to the upheaval that occurred in the lives of Jews during that time period.

So... Berlin. VERY different from Munich. Creative and boisterous. Gritty. Unique history. Definitely glad we went!







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