Big Berlin

Big Big Big.

Requirements for Berlin;
Spare feet
Extra days
Camera

Excellent tour guide to show you where to start...

Brandenberg Tor (Gate)

This gate has so much to tell. Built as a victory gate, it instantly became
the pride of Berlin. The stick the lady on top is holding was added only after
the French stole her and her horses because the French liked them so much. The
Berliners added it to show the French they weren't push-overs after they went to
France and got their lady back.

1961-1989, this gate was in the middle of the Berlin wall. The Berlin wall was in fact two walls that separated east and west berlin.
History lession - post 1945, the allies divided germany between the French, Americans, British and the Russians. However, the Americans, British and French (the west) did not want the Russians to have all of Berlin, so they divided Berlin into 4 also. Thus, East Berlin was russia's part.
This gate sat between the two borders. How does it look so good after all that? Refurb! The gate really is impressive. We were standing on the east side taking this shot. In the photo you see the tiergarten (animal garden) to the west.

Looking closely you might also see a giant silver car - it is a sculpture.
Berlin has giant replicas of things Germany has made. They have put them up for
the world cup. The car wasn't so impressive, the aspirin was very dull, but the
giant books, placed where the first WWII book burning happened, was impressive
and very symbolic.

Victory Lady - nice camera work Dean!

Hopefully you're starting to get the impression that Dean and I learnt a
little in Berlin. As i hinted at earlier, we had an excellent tour guide.

Now a look at the east...

The East Side Gallery

There was a lot of talk regarding the wall after 1989, should they destroy any trace of it or should they keep some of it as a memorial. Thankfully they went with the memorial option. Because there was a space between the two walls, Berlin was left with miles of open space. They have decided that this space will become a green strip where people can walk and ride where the old 'death strip' used to stand. They are also putting a walk/bike track around the whole route of the wall.

There is also room for impressive memorials.

Jewish Memorial

After 15 years of debate as to where to have a memorial for the jewish victims of the holocaust, they finally decided on central berlin. It's simple, no symbolism. The ground waves at different heights so it can be disorientating walking through. Ultimately, it's impressive. Underneath it has a museum documenting victims including a tape saying the name of each victim and a brief biography. They predict it will run for over 6 years. Memorials for other victims are in the works, hopefully they won't take so long to make.

Topograpy of Terror

This is a memorial that details the resistance and perpertrators of the war. It was wordy but gave us a lot of insight. What i like more about this picture is the building on right. Now the tax office, this building is still standing because pre-1945, the allies knew their new borders of Berlin. This particular building was on the Russian sector. Being massive (and symmetrical and blocky, like many communist buildings), the Russians thought it would be a useful administrative building and so they kept thier bombs clear of it in the later bombing raids of the war. Surviving as it did, it was also the site where thousands of East Berliners protested in the early days of the division. 300 were shot dead and fired on from the building. It was a long time until the East Berliners protested again. Instead, they came up with very imaginative ways to go under and over the wall. Some even managed to go through it... but they are some other stories for another time.

After two world wars and a cold war, the government was starting to get a little worried about the dropping of a nuclear bomb on them. Being worried, they offered funds to builders to include bomb shelters when building new buildings. The one that Dean and I saw would fit 3,500 people in it - first come first served. There are air filters and safe water from underground. It would accomodate these people for two weeks - apparently long enough for radiation levels to be low enough for people to quickly get out of Berlin. Your food for your stay is canned bread and water.The temperature will be above 30 degrees with 90% humidity, and you will only have enough energy to lay on the bunks and be in a drowsy sleep because of the heat. Oh, and because you have to shower before entering if exposed to radiation, you may also be naked with no spare clothes. Hope you're not claustrophobic...

Bomb Bunker

There are 27,000 places available in Bunkers in Berlin, all on a first come first serve basis. Good luck finding them. Btw, for those wondering how much was funded, it works out to around 1000 euro per person ($1600). I recommended heading to Switzerland, apparently they had enough bunker built so their whole population would fit. 1) no wonder Switzerland is so expensive, 2)aren't they neutral?

Moving on... Since re-unification Berlin is being rebuilt in a big way. This means lots of patching up of buildings (apparently you can tell the new from the old buildings because the new buildings don't have any bullet holes!), lots of new development, and a recession...

But back to the architechure - the Reichstag. So many stories - a dodgy burning that gave Hitler the excuse he was looking for to gain power is just one, but this blog is getting long and you should all get back to work soon (besides we are so far behind in our blogs we'll be home before Prague is written).

The Reichstag - great new roof top dome

The roof of the Sony centre - a place that feels like you are in the future
of Demolition Man, all looks a little perfect. I swore to test it though and no
sign of a fine yet:)

As you can see, we loved Berlin. We've tried to show you a little bit of it, just remember there is so much more!

There will be more about Germany in other blogs - no room here. Let's just say, they're pretty excited about the world cup, if only we could get tickets...