Berlin by Amber - Blogabond

Wow what an incredible day of history! We took the night train leaving yesterday at 8pm and arrived in Berlin this morning at 9am and went to the hostel, as we were sitting trying to decide what to do I overheard someone ask some other people if they were waiting for the free walking tour. I asked what it was and since we had no plan it sounded like a good idea to get a first glimpse of the city. Our guide, Paulo was excellent and gave us a great refresher on the history of Berlin and significant events and buildings. It was so interesting and again makes me think back to high school social and appreciate everything Mr. Cender taught me. Some of the most interesting things we saw was the memorial sight which is essentially a whole bunch of rectangular pillars in a park covering probably a whole city block. The sight is very strange and the idea is to get people thinking about the memorial and what it means. At first I thought it looked like a cemetery but with no flowers and no names, the guide explained many other people thought it was to depict many trains or soldiers or if you walk through it the walls feel like they are closing in on you, it is very impacting and reinforces the fact that I want to go to a concentration camp. I feel it is important to remember what thousands of people went through and tell their stories.

Another impacting site was the place where Adolf Hitler committed suicide and what Berlin has decided to do with the space. The ground space above where the bunker was is now a car park with nothing at all to indicate why the space is significant, in fact throughout the whole city i think they have done a really good job honoring the people who suffered so much without paying any tribute to the men responsible. Later on the walk we saw one of the largest remaining portions of the Berlin wall as well as the square where the huge book burning took place, again I love the artist symbolism of how they have commemorated this site. On the ground there is a green wreath where you can look through a glass tile in the ground to a part of the library that is completely sealed off and inaccessible with white empty shelves lining the walls. I will let you think about the symbolism of that.

After the tour we went and had a nap and then some drinks and dinner at the hostel we then headed for museum island and visited two museums for free. The first had manz egyptian and greek artifacts where we saw the bust of Nefertiti which to be honest i dont know what the deal is but maybe if we could have read the german explanation i would know. The second museam was an art museam with a few pieces from Monet, it was nice.

written by

Trevor and Amber on May 28, 2009 from Berlin, Germany

from the travel blog: Europe Trip

Send a Compliment

comment on this...