It's our last day in Berlin and we still had a lot to see before our train left for Prague at 4:30. Josh went for another run this morning, this time in a different direction then yesterday. He visited the Berlin Wall Memorial Site and was able to find a few pieces of the wall that were crumbling off, one spot, he threw an acorn at the wall so that a piece would break off (he was only able to do this because no one was around so early in the morning). By the time he got back to our room, his pockets were full of rocks and wall pieces, crazy boy!
We got ready, packed up our belongings, ate breakfast, checked out and put our stuff in the storage room and then headed out to sightsee. There were a few sights that we wanted to see but would take a lot of time walking to them so we decided that we would buy an all day transportation pass, that way it would help save time and then it could take us straight to the train station, instead of walking the 2 mile distance :). We headed to the farthest site first by bus which was the Charlottenburg Palace. It is the largest palace in Berlin and is the only surviving royal residence in the city dating back to the end of the 17th century. We walked around the front side of the building, got our pictures then moved on to the next site (I told you, we had to move quickly today). We rode the bus to the bus station and stopped at the Kaiser Wilhelmina Memorial Church, it is one of Berlin's most famous landmarks, centered in former West Berlin. Built between 1891 and 1895, this church was a symbol of Prussian unity. On November 18th 1943, the church burned down after it was hit by an allied bomb and only the west tower of the church remained standing. Local opposition saved the structure from demolition in the 1950s and in 1961, a new octagonal church was built along side of the existing tower. The damaged tower is a symbol of Berlin's resolve to rebuild the city after the war and a constant reminder of the destruction of war. Inside the remaining west tower of the destroyed church is the memorial hall which documents the history and contains several of the original objects from the church as well as photos from before and after the bombing. We could not see much of the original church, they were doing restoration work on it but we walked inside the memorial hall and the other church beside it before heading to Potsdamer Platz. This area is an important public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, lots of history in this area. Now it is full of modernized buildings with glass exteriors, very unexpected from what we had seen so far in the city. There was a section of the Berlin Wall still standing in its original location and a spot that you could get your passport stamped, and of course guess who wanted to do that! We walked around for a little bit and then walked in the direction of the Topography of Terror site that we visited last night. It was about a 10 minute walk, josh stopped and ate a curry wurst sausage thing for lunch, it looked so gross and we continued walking.
"The Topography of Terror is an outdoor and indoor museum in Berlin, Germany. It is located on Niederkirchnerstrasse, formerly Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, on the site of buildings which during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 were the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS, the principal instruments of repression during the Nazi era. The buildings that housed the Gestapo and SS headquarters were largely destroyed by Allied bombing during early 1945 and the ruins demolished after the war. The boundary between the American and Soviet zones of occupation in Berlin ran along the Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, so the street soon became a fortified boundary, and the Berlin Wall ran along the south side of the street, renamed Niederkirchnerstrasse, from 1961 to 1989. The wall here was never demolished. Indeed the section adjacent to the Topography of Terror site is the longest extant segment of the outer wall (the longer East Side Gallery section in Friedrichshain being actually part of the inner wall not visible from West Berlin)." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topography_of_Terror). We could of spent hours here, walking around, looking at hundreds of pictures and reading about the awful things that took place at the time. We really enjoyed this site, very informational.
We only had a few more hours left and josh decided that I should experience the site that he went to during his morning run. So we hopped on the metro and headed that way towards the Berlin Wall Memorial Site. The memorial website is very informative and can explain much better than myself what went on at this location so I'm citing it, sorry for the history overload!
"The Berlin Wall Memorial is the central memorial site of German division, located in the middle of the capital. Situated at the historic site on Bernauer Strasse, it will eventually extend along 1.4 kilometers of the former border strip. The memorial contains the last piece of Berlin Wall with the preserved grounds behind it and is thus able to convey an impression of how the border fortifications developed until the end of the 1980s. The events that took place here together with the preserved historical remnants and traces of border obstacles on display help to make the history of Germany’s division comprehensible to visitors.
Bernauer Strasse, a street on the border between the Berlin districts of Wedding and Mitte, was a focal point of the German - German postwar history. The construction of the Wall and its consequences for the residents of the divided city were especially dramatic here.
The history of this street illustrates what impact the Berlin Wall had on Berlin, how it destroyed urban space and human lives, and separated family and friends. It documents those attempting to escape the dictatorship by fleeing to the West and the efforts of many people to deny the state its claim to power by providing assistance to those wanting to flee. Just two days after the first barriers were erected, the border soldier Conrad Schumann fled to the West by leaping over the barbed wire fence.
On Bernauer Strasse the border ran directly in front of the buildings situated on the East Berlin side of the street. After barriers were erected, many residents living in these border buildings spontaneously decided to flee. Some slid down a rope from their apartment or jumped into rescue nets that the West Berlin fire department held ready. Some people were seriously injured while doing so. The first fatalities caused by the border regime also occurred on this street. The buildings were evacuated a few weeks after the Wall was erected. The remaining residents were forced to resettle elsewhere and the windows and doors of the buildings were bricked up.
The population rebelled against the barriers with protests and acts of resistance. The most famous and successful escape tunnels were dug here. The demolition of the Reconciliation Church that had stood inaccessible on the death strip ever since the Wall was built also lent Bernauer Strasse tragic fame.
The site also shows the principle function of the Wall within the SED structure of dominance. It conveys how the Wall regime functioned in everyday life and reveals the clear discrepancy between the population and the East German leadership.
Bernauer Strasse is also a place to learn about how the division was peacefully overcome. On the night of November 10, 1989, the first segments of the Wall were knocked down between Bernauer Strasse and Eberswalder Strasse to create a new crossing between East and West Berlin. The official demolition of the border fortifications began in June 1990 at the corner of Bernauer Strasse and Ackerstrasse. Today the Berlin Wall Memorial is located at this historical site." (http://www.berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de/en/index.html)
This was another great site to see before heading home, it made you think how people survived this time, all the struggles they were faced with and the choice of life or death and the risk they were willing to take to be free. If you ever visit Berlin, this is definitely a site to see!
It was time to head back to the hostel, grab our luggage then head to the train station. We left just enough room to stop by the Brandenburg Gate again and see if we could get a better view of it. Thankfully all that "stuff" from yesterday was cleaned up and the only thing left obstructing the view was a chain linked fence but we managed to get a few pictures. After that we headed to the train station, stopped along the way to take pictures of the Reichstag Building which was constructed to house the Imperial Diet. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Diet until 1933 when it was severely damaged by fire from WWII. It went under reconstruction in 1990 and is now mostly known for the large glass dome within the center that has 360-degree views of the surrounding Berlin cityscape. We tried to visit while we were here but didn't know that you had to make a reservation 24-48 hours ahead of time. So we enjoyed the exterior and continued to the train station which was just over the river. We got to the station a little early, which is good, and waited for the train. It arrived and we found our cabin. We were sharing it with an middle aged German woman and then a German teenage girl sat with us too (who blared her american pop music through her earphones so that's what we listened to the whole time). They both got off at Dresden which was nice so we had the whole cabin to ourselves again. It was Josh's wish to eat dinner on the train so during happy hour, which started at 8, we walked over to the restaurant car and ate dinner. Josh got a czech dish and I played it safe yet again with bow tie pasta. He was so happy that we did this! Finally we arrived at the main train station and headed back to the apartment. It was a great weekend, we enjoyed seeing all the history in Berlin and I might have even learned a few new things, aren't you proud dad!!
P.S. There are alot of pictures below, they might be on multiple pages...and I minimized as much as I could but there were too many to choose from to capture today!
