The best of Berlin
View of Berlin from the top of the Reichstag (parliament building), showing the Brandenburg gate in the foreground.
Getting to Berlin was an adventure. We took the train from Copenhagen last Wednesday (9 April), expecting that we would need to exit our train once we reached the edge of Denmark, take a ferry to mainland Germany and then board a train on the other side. Not so. Our very large train boarded the ferry with us. It seemed crazy. We exited the train once on the ferry, and had 45 minutes to shop or grab some food before boarding the train again before the ferry reached Germany. It certainly made it a hassle free trip for us.
I’m just going to make a quick comment about currency - It was nice to get rid of our Danish kroner and start using Euros again. It seems silly to me that Denmark doesn’t convert to Euros (although even more so that Switzerland still uses Swiss francs - they are in the middle of Europe for crying out loud!!). While I strongly dislike having 1 and 2 cent pieces, Danish currency uses coins for up to 20 kroner (about $4.50 AUD) so there were a lot of coins to carry around. However, Denmark being expensive did help to lighten the purse.
It was a six and a half hour trip to Berlin from Copenhagen, so we didn’t do much exploring till the next day. The Brandenburg gate was one of my favourite spots, considered by some to be a symbol of freedom and unity in Berlin (unfortunately the only close up photo we took of it was out of focus). I was intrigued by the Holocaust Memorial, which consists of a field of concrete blocks. It is an abstract memorial, of which there are varying interpretations, and is dedicated to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust from all over Europe. The information centre, built underneath the memorial, focuses on the stories of individuals and family who were affected, and includes personal letters recounting their feels and experiences during the Holocaust.
Holocaust Memorial
Checkpoint Charlie - the crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War - was a comical site and obviously only remains for the tourists these days. For €1, you could get your photo with a solider at the checkpoint and, if you paid a little more, could get a stamp in your passport for East Berlin. I love getting stamps in my passport…but this was going a little too far. It was hard to imagine that, in the days of the Berlin wall, this would have been a site of incredible tension, particularly during the stand-off between the Soviet Union and the U.S. in 1961.
Checkpoint Charlie
We did plenty of walking around during our three full days in Berlin, particularly when we could not find the Stasi museum. We eventually found it, although as soon as we got inside I ignored the exhibits in favour of sitting down. There was some cool stuff on display, including old spy cameras that were cutting edge technology back in the day.
Stasi museum - watch as a hidden microphone
Although it was cold and wet for most of our time here, we got a break in the weather to enjoy the Tiergarten (gardens) next to the Brandenburg gate on our last full day. We also lined up to get into the Reichstag (Parliament building) and took the lift to the large glass dome built on the roof to see spectacular views over Berlin.
Tier garten
The Reichstag is an incredible sight, successfully mixing historic and modern styles of architecture. The large columns at the front, the towers bearing flags on all the corners and its sheer size makes the building an imposing sight. Yet the glass dome softens this picture by exposing the activity inside, so you can see all the people walking up the ramps within to the top of the cupola. The dome is said to symbolise the importance the Parliament places on transparency, and together with the 1916 inscription appearing on the architrave “Dem Deutschen Volke” (To the German people” or “For the German people”), the Reichstag seems to represent - both visually and actually - the best of Germany’s political past.
Reichstag
The skyline of Berlin is dotted with cranes, and new buildings regularly appear. It seems to be a progressive place that is eager to grow and, perhaps, reinvent itself. The lonely planet describes it as the “European Shanghai”, and I’d have to agree with this description. It is a place of diversity. Away from the significant historic sites, it is a city that looks like it could be the capital of any of a dozen different countries around the world. It was a fascinating place to be.
Dome on the roof of the Reichstag