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| Our piano with Rachel's bed behind |
We thoroughly enjoyed a cereal and
banana breakfast in our apartment and took the opportunity to play piano (the
girls) and plan our next three days in Berlin (Liz). Given a full week here felt a luxury but the city
is really big and we needed to put a little thought into where we really wanted
to be sure to go – especially around the restaurants Rachel has found to
try. So, we got a little later start
than normal, but knew exactly where we were headed.
I’m so glad Katie suggested we start our tour of the wall at the Berlin Wall Memorial (rather than Checkpoint Charlie and surrounding museums). They have done an excellent job putting together short movies (one with lots of actual footage from the time and one a graphical depiction of the inner and outer walls and the land in between), a small museum full of personal stories and a viewing deck where you can see into the preserved wall section memorial across the street, and four blocks of outdoor exhibits along a stretch of the wall where apartments butted up to the street and became part of the wall. It was from these apartments that people would jump from windows as the sidewalk outside their windows was on the west. (The windows of these apartments were bricked in and the buildings eventually evacuated and then torn down.) It felt strange to me that the outdoor space, which is full of markers indicating places were people were killed trying to escape and tunnel escape routes, is just a generation later really a lovely outdoor green space.
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| The memorial preserved dead zone |
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| From the former East |
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| People who died at the wall |
The Chapel of Reconciliation was a 1800s church
that was stuck in the no man’s land between east and west Berlin and so the day
the wall went up was no longer in use.
It survived empty until the mid-80s but was torn down because it broke
up the sightlines of the border guards (given reason). They have put a smaller church in its place
now with the original carved wooden alterpiece standing in the same spot it had
in the original church.
Rather than just grab food, we
made a purposeful trip to SpreeGold for delicious smoothies, veggie burger, and
an avocado/egg dish. Besides great food,
heading to a specific restaurant took us into a part of Berlin we wouldn’t have
gone to otherwise.
From there we felt like it
necessary to walk down to Checkpoint Charlie and at least see it. Of all the things we have done in the past
month, this definitely felt the most touristy and kitschy. We were happy to be able to take a photo and
walk away feeling like we had had a more substantial look at the Wall earlier
in the day. And besides, we had
chocolate on our minds.
We had read that
while we’ve been enjoying trips to Ritter Sport, Europe’s largest chocolate
store, Fassbender and Rausch, is actually just a few blocks away. So, we walked there first to get a sample and
check it out but I was determined to get to Ritter Sport to order that ice
cream mix-in concoction before 6:00 pm (if you are following along you know I
just missed it both Monday and Tuesday).
Today it was just 4:30 when we arrived at the store…and I was so happy
to see no one in line – until I found out that they were not running the ice
cream machine at all today!! No real explanation. They weren’t sure when they would turn it
back on. How much disappointment can I
be expected to take?!?
I pulled myself together so we
could race to get to the Pergamon Museum, Berlin’s Collection of Classical
Antiquities, with little under an hour before closing time. The star attraction of the museum, the
Pergamon Alter, is not currently on display as the entire museum is undergoing
huge renovations, but we were able to see the amazing, awe-inspiring Ishtar
Gate, the 575 B.C. entrance to Babylon. Wow.
I have no idea how people are able to reconstruct something like that from the piles
of rubble they find, but I am so glad to have seen it. The girls both had a 6
th grade
history teacher who loved Babylon so they enjoyed actually seeing pieces of
it.
The upstairs Museum of Islamic Art
had some very cool stone carved walls and ornately painted wooden ones as well.
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| cool mosaic fountain on Museum Island |
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Walking through town you come across these "stolperstein" - little brass plates with the name of victims of Nazism.
There are over 50,000 placed around Europe to date - making it the world's largest decentralized memorial.
|
We had a reservation for dinner at
8:00 pm and two hours to spend before then.
We toyed with the idea of heading back to the apartment but decided we
would spend much of that two hours in transit.
Fassbender & Rausch has a hot chocolate bar above the chocolate
store so we decided to spend an hour up there, enjoying pre-dinner treats and
playing some cards. Our restaurant,
Lokal, took us into yet another fun neighborhood where we got to act like
locals and eat some very, very good food.
They have a menu that changes daily.
We have mastered sharing a couple of entrees between us and this time
augmented with a bowl of apple-turnip soup and sides of potato gratin and
cucumber salad. Entrees were peas served
three ways and a homemade pasta dish. All delicious!
I’m so glad Katie suggested we start our tour of the wall at the Berlin Wall Memorial (rather than Checkpoint Charlie and surrounding museums). They have done an excellent job putting together short movies (one with lots of actual footage from the time and one a graphical depiction of the inner and outer walls and the land in between), a small museum full of personal stories and a viewing deck where you can see into the preserved wall section memorial across the street, and four blocks of outdoor exhibits along a stretch of the wall where apartments butted up to the street and became part of the wall. It was from these apartments that people would jump from windows as the sidewalk outside their windows was on the west. (The windows of these apartments were bricked in and the buildings eventually evacuated and then torn down.) It felt strange to me that the outdoor space, which is full of markers indicating places were people were killed trying to escape and tunnel escape routes, is just a generation later really a lovely outdoor green space. 
The Chapel of Reconciliation was a 1800s church
that was stuck in the no man’s land between east and west Berlin and so the day
the wall went up was no longer in use.
It survived empty until the mid-80s but was torn down because it broke
up the sightlines of the border guards (given reason). They have put a smaller church in its place
now with the original carved wooden alterpiece standing in the same spot it had
in the original church.
From there we felt like it
necessary to walk down to Checkpoint Charlie and at least see it. Of all the things we have done in the past
month, this definitely felt the most touristy and kitschy. We were happy to be able to take a photo and
walk away feeling like we had had a more substantial look at the Wall earlier
in the day. And besides, we had
chocolate on our minds. 
I pulled myself together so we
could race to get to the Pergamon Museum, Berlin’s Collection of Classical
Antiquities, with little under an hour before closing time. The star attraction of the museum, the
Pergamon Alter, is not currently on display as the entire museum is undergoing
huge renovations, but we were able to see the amazing, awe-inspiring Ishtar
Gate, the 575 B.C. entrance to Babylon. Wow.
I have no idea how people are able to reconstruct something like that from the piles
of rubble they find, but I am so glad to have seen it. The girls both had a 6th grade
history teacher who loved Babylon so they enjoyed actually seeing pieces of
it. 
The upstairs Museum of Islamic Art
had some very cool stone carved walls and ornately painted wooden ones as well.
We had a reservation for dinner at
8:00 pm and two hours to spend before then.
We toyed with the idea of heading back to the apartment but decided we
would spend much of that two hours in transit.
Fassbender & Rausch has a hot chocolate bar above the chocolate
store so we decided to spend an hour up there, enjoying pre-dinner treats and
playing some cards. Our restaurant,
Lokal, took us into yet another fun neighborhood where we got to act like
locals and eat some very, very good food.
They have a menu that changes daily.
We have mastered sharing a couple of entrees between us and this time
augmented with a bowl of apple-turnip soup and sides of potato gratin and
cucumber salad. Entrees were peas served
three ways and a homemade pasta dish. All delicious!
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