THANK YOU to everyone who signed the petition yesterday — every little bit helps!! And I hope you got a good belly laugh out of the video. The Viper Pilot has it memorized…
One of our favorite things to do when we travel is find a coffee shop and become “temporary regulars.” Yes, I know that’s an oxymoron. For the few days that we visit a city, that coffee shop is how we start our days: with a cup of good coffee and a pastry.
The shop just down the street from our hotel in Berlin was our favorite cafe so far. Very European style, or shall I say Berlin style? As JFK would say, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” (Translates to “I am a Berliner!”) Fun fact: the term Berliner used in his statement is often confused with a popular pastry called a Berliner which is basically a {delicious} jelly doughnut. Funny as it may be, JFK was actually referring to himself as a citizen of Berlin and not as a jelly doughnut.
The cafe had a great view of Checkpoint Charlie so we could sit and people-watch while eating breakfast — I absolutely love to gawk at tourists.
And because, um, hello…latte art. Yes, please. 🙂
Did I mention the carrot cake? No? We ate it for breakfast one morning. That’s right.
Remember what I said about Berlin being a city of living history? Case in point:
This dark dismal-looking place is Nordbahnhof, one of the underground subway stations. It was considered a “ghost station” during the war because it was technically part of East Berlin, but mostly surrounded by West. The Western subway trains had permission to pass through without stopping en route to other stations in the West, but there were East German border guards stationed here to make sure that no one got on or off those trains. The guards themselves were literally locked in their surveillance rooms to prevent them from escaping. The pictures on the walls inside the station (which eerily just so happened to be empty when we were passing through) show pictures of the station in 1989 and the only thing that has changed is the staircases up to the outside world used to be blocked with concrete.
Today it is fully functioning, but it is a time warp, looking essentially as it did when it was built in 1931 with the same dreary old tiles and signage. It’s all too easy to envision the trains slowly passing through and passengers seeing only the guards and cobwebs. The station was reopened within days after the Wall fell.
Berlin is, as you may know, the capital of Germany. What is fascinating to me is that though this land has a complicated and emotional history, the country itself is quite young. The Reichstag is the parliament building and serves as the heart of German democracy. It was inaugurated in the 1890s, but the German Republic was proclaimed from it in 1918.
The Reichstag nearly burnt down in 1933 and sat unused until 1999. More than 1500 Nazi soldiers made their last stand here in 1945, extending WWII by two days.
Just next to the Reichstag is another infamous sight, the Brandenburg Gate. You’ve seen it in history books and in pictures, but you probably didn’t realize it was in Berlin. That’s okay, I didn’t either. When I saw it for the first time I said to the Viper Pilot that I could have sworn this was the thing that is in Rome. You know, that one thing? Heh heh…
Now, this thing has seen some…stuff…in its day. It was built in 1791 and is probably one of the grandest sights in the city. It was built as the symbol of Prussian Berlin. {You can brush up on your Germany history here.} It later served as a symbol of a divided Berlin. You have probably seen pictures of Hitler and his Nazi regime on this side of the gate…
…and pictures of Ronald Reagan giving his famous speech, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” standing on this side of the gate.
I can’t describe to you what it was like to stand before the gate. You can’t help but take a moment to pause and think of the struggles for freedom that this gate has witnessed.
The US embassy sits just next to the gate. On the other side of the embassy, we found this scene. This is the Holocaust memorial, consisting of 2,711 gravestone-like pillars and is the first formal, German government-sponsored Holocaust memorial.
Once you begin walking further into the memorial, the pillars get taller and other people seem to appear and disappear between the columns. The ground rises and falls beneath your feet, but the exit always seems to be up.
And above you, only sky.
It is a labyrinth – coincidentally placed where the Wall once stood – and an intentionally disorienting symbolic cemetery to remember such a horrible chapter in human history.
As depressing as this trip to Berlin may sound, this trip was actually in honor of a special day for us. We found happy times amidst the sad history contained in this city. It is important to educate ourselves and reflect on those horrible times, but it is most definitely okay to celebrate and be thankful for the fact that we live in happier times!
We celebrated our 9 month wedding anniversary this year, calling it our “kindaversary.” The Viper Pilot, being the Iowa farm kid that he is, set his sights on a good steak for our celebratory dinner. Low and behold, we just so happened to find an American-style steakhouse in Berlin.
My hot date.
The last time we had really good steak was our wedding, so considering we didn’t have much to compare it to, it was heavenly.
See you tomorrow!
PROST!
Alison Donlon says
Amazing pics and stories…thanks!
Anonymous says
We did the SAME trip! Loved Berlin 🙂 -Steph