Adventures Abroad: Berlin

I'm a bit behind on my blog writing so I'm playing a bit of catch-up. I went to Berlin 2 weeks ago with my friend Melissa and it was so fun! We packed in so much into just two days. We started off our trip with a 3 hour free tour of Berlin which was excellent. Sandemans has free tours in a bunch of cities in Europe so if you're in one of them you should definitely check it out. On the tour we saw the Brandenburg Gate, the French and German Cathedrals, where Hitler's bunker was, a book burning memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and some other places. We also learned about "ampleman." It's the name of the cross walk signal that was used in East Berlin which looks different than the normal crosswalk signal used in West Berlin. So you can use the cross signals to figur out which part of Berlin you're in.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jew is a
collection of concrete slabs of various sizes.
It doesn't really have a single "meaning" so
some people don't like it because it's
rather abstract.

These cars were prevalent in East Berlin and now
you can rent them to drive around the city
and they have some displayed throughout the city.

Ampleman is on the right and the West Berlin
signal on the left.

These bears are all around the city decorated
with a different theme. This one is inside
the American embassy.

Then we went into the Berlin Cathedral which was gorgeous inside. We went to the top as well and had a pretty good view of the city. But there are so many cranes in the city!

See what I mean about all the cranes?!?

At the top of the cathedral

We went back to the Brandenburg Gate to see it lit up at night which was really pretty.

Then we went back to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and went into the museum they have. They have one room where they play a short biography of a murdered Jew (about one minute audio in German and then in English). It will be almost 7 years before they have to repeat a person. We went to the museum by Checkpoint Charlie which had so much information. They had a lot of displays on how people got from East Berlin to West. They hid in gas tanks in cars, suitcases, used a flying machine, and other innovative tactics. Then we went to the East Side Gallery. It's a 1.3 kilometer section of the Berlin Wall that was turned into an outdoor mural shortly after reunification. There's over 100 paintings on it but sadly many of them have been defaced by graffiti.

From the East Side Gallery

On Sunday we went to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp which is about 1 hour away from Berlin. It was mainly used to imprison political prisoners but was also used to keep Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, prisoners of war, Roma, and homosexuals. The camp was also the site of a mass counterfeiting operation as part of a plan to ruin the American and British economies. Over one billion fake British pounds were recovered from the operation. Most of the buildings from the camp are no longer standing but they have them marked out on the ground with stones so you get an idea of the layout. One of the barracks they still have is the Jewish prisoners barracks. After reading so many books with descriptions of the cramped quarters and unsanitary living conditions it was hard to actually see it in person. The bunks that looked like they should be enough space for one person, actually had 2-3 people sleeping on them. The latrines were too small for that number of people and no real showers. Even though it was a sad experience, I feel like it was something I had to see after studying the Holocaust so much. If you want to read more about the concentration camp you can go here.

Memorial to the Death March

Entrance to the camp

Then it was off to someplace a bit cheerier: Charlottenburg Palace. It was built in the end of the 17th century for Sophie Charlotte, the wife of the first King of Prussia. Although the palace sustained damages in WWI from bombs so much of it has had to be reconstructed. All of the rooms were very impressive. One room, called the Porcelain Cabinet, was built to hold Sophie Charlotte's large collection of porcelain (although it wasn't completed until after her death). We couldn't take pictures inside but you can see pictures from the interior here. The gardens out back were huge and also very impressive.