Riva San Vitale

Riva San Vitale

Monday, September 19, 2011

Berlin, Germany

The train ride to Berlin was long, about 12 hours, but it wasn't too bad at all.  We didn't get in until around midnight Friday and we had to take a cab to our hostel which only cost us 11 Euros.  The ride to our hostel didn't seem that impressive, but it was really dark out.  Our hostel, Wombats, was the nicest one we have stayed in so far.  Six of us stayed in a room that we didn't have to share with anyone else and it was really nice.  We got our minimal amount of rest, showered in the morning and were out the door at 8 to go to our free walking tour of the city.  Our hostel wasn't that far from the center city and we saw some really cool things along the way.  We even saw a Bentley, Bugatti, and Mercedes dealership all right next to each other.

This is the New Museum of Berlin which was damaged in WWII but renovated and re-opened.  It consists of Egyptian history and artifacts, including an iconic bust(sculpture) of Queen Nefertiti.  I didn't get to see the inside of a lot of these places because there were so many, but even the outsides were very impressive. 




This church is actually relatively new and was only built in 1905 and was actually not heavily damaged during the bombings in WWII. This was an amazing structure. 

This is the Old Museum of Berlin.  All of these museums are located in the same location in Berlin called Museum Island.  


This is the TV Tower of Berlin which stands at about 700 m above the ground.  They have a restaurant inside that does a 360 degree rotate that I really wanted to eat in but it required a reservation and was a bit pricey too.  We had a really good view of this from our hostel.  



This is a statue of Frederick the Great

These pictures were only what we saw just to get to our tour.  We found out very quickly how rich in history Berlin really was and also how beautiful.  

Saturday morning was very cold, but it turned out to be a beautiful day.  We met our tour guide in the iconic Paris Square( named because the French-Napolean- stole the statue and the Germans recaptured it.  Today the statue sits on top of the famous Brandenburg Gate looking at the French embassy). Our tour guide was awesome, and gave us an amazing tour, keeping our interests the whole time.  Everything he spoke about was so interesting.  

This is the famous gate, which is in an amazing location  looking down the main strip in Berlin.  This shot was taken in the morning but Paris square is usually crowded with tourists.  

This is Hotel Adlon, which is centrally located in the square and one of the most expensive hotels you will ever find.  Queen Elizabeth has stayed here as well as Micheal Jackson when he dangled his son out the balcony.  A night here in the suite will get you a complementary limo and butler, but not breakfast, and for the low price of about 15,000 Euros per night.  


This is the Reichstag government building.  This angle doesn't go to show how big this building really is but you can see the glass dome constructed which is very nice.  You can see this for free but you have to book it days in advance.  This construction also has a glass floor which people can see down into the Parliament Chamber. 

The Jewish memorial was one of the most touching sites on the tour.  There are 2,711 stone slabs representing the fallen Jewish people from the Holocaust.  It was a debated project but completed in 2005 and is a very impressive sight.  


This might look like just a piece of ground but its actually not, it's a parking lot.  Now anyway.  During the time that Hitler ruled, underneath that very piece of land is his underground bunker.  It's not open to the public and much of it is collapsed from the construction of other buildings over top of it.  This is a very touchy topic to the German's and it is meant to be forgotten and to look like any other place.  


These two photos are taken of the only building in the area that survived the bombings of WWII.  Russia took over the building after which is why there is that picture of what is supposed to be the socialist movement, appearing very happy, which is far from the reality.  This building is still used and hated today, because this is where the German tax office is.  


This is part of the Berlin wall.  I was expecting a little more actually from it but I didn't see the east wall which is supposed to have a lot of famous art graffitied all over it.  But the history of the wall is amazing.  Our guide even told us the story of how a single politician basically brought down the wall in his press conference which was truly amazing considering the history behind the wall.  One fact I wasn't aware of was how long the wall actually was.  It circled the entire area of Berlin, and totaled 96 miles of wall.  


Checkpoint Charlie is one of the famous checkpoints separating the east and the west.  There was also Apha and Bravo.  This picture isn't the actually checkpoint that was there not so long ago, but is now a huge tourist area with buses and guides everywhere.  
















Our tour lasted 3 and a half hours and it was worth all of that, especially since it was free.  Our whole group tipped him 5 Euro each though, and he was easily worth that.  We saw so much.  We did a lot of walking, but it amazing how close everything actually was in area.  

This picture was taken in the Tomb of the Unknown.  This was one of the saddest buildings.  It consisted of this marvelous structure from the outside but on the inside it was just this stone structure showing a mother holding her dying child.  It was something to see.  One thing with the German history is that their devoted to preserving it.  They have guards at every location in the city.  A gentlemen in our tour group got yelled at for leaning on the Brandenburg Gate.  Another woman got yelled at for standing on one of the blocks in the Jewish memorial, and a guard sprinted into this very building when a girl sat down on the ground about a foot from this sculpture.  


After the tour our group split up a little and John and I went to lunch before randomly running into the second group. 



Parliament building from the front.  



What are the odds of running into anyone you might know in a city this large?  We ended up going to the Pergamon Museum that afternoon which was spectacular.  They gave us a free audio tour we could listen to while in the museum.  It was all reconstructed monuments from past history in life size.  There were roman pillars, the Ishtar Gate, Gate of Miletus, and more.  I'm very glad that was the museum I went to see. 
















This trip was amazing and we got to see so much.  A group of about 8 went out for a great German dinner that night and we had some great food.  We had the octoberfest beer too which all of Germany is very into, and gave us a preview of Octoberfest.  





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