As the modern-day jetsetters we are, we decided to head to Berlin for a mid-week break. So, bright and early Tuesday morning, we headed to the airport. Well, okay, it wasn’t bright out yet, but it was early (3:30am!). We got to the airport an hour later, and boarded our plane a little before 6am. By 8:30am, we were in Berlin. Once there, we headed for the centre of town. The bus dropped us off in front of KaDeWe, a huge-ass department store. Seriously, this place vies with Harrods for the title of largest in Europe. At 60,000 square metres, there's lots to see. Unfortunately, all we saw was the second floor (shoes! and menswear) because we thought we would have time to go back to it. Then, it was time to go to our hotel. So we walked along the main shopping road, which is 3km long, and 52m in width. I'd say we walked about 2km to get to our hotel. We could have taken the bus, but we wanted to walk. Anyway, the stores on this street were fantastic. Cartier, Versace, Hermes, Luis Vuitton, Patek Philippe... There's no way I could afford anything in any of them. We stopped outside of the Patek Philippe display, and all of a sudden, I noticed a burly security guard giving us the eye. He was positioned OUTSIDE of the store, sizing anyone who even LOOKED at the window display. I definitely wanted to get myself the diamond necklace, but at 150,000 euros, it was a bit more than I wanted to spend.
We got to our hotel finally around noon, and were told that our room wouldn't be ready until 3pm. So we dropped off our stuff and decided to find some food. This is when I realized that I am a big reggie, having forgotten to charge my digital camera before we left. Not good news, since we were planning on going on a walking tour of the city that afternoon. My digital camera wasn’t dead yet, so I decided to take it along anyway, and buy one of those instant cameras. I got the pictures back today, and they kind of suck. Oh well, at least I used my dig until it died completely (and managed to squeeze 47 pictures out of it in the process) and I had my Canon loaded with black and white as well.
Anyway, the tour started at 2:30pm, and lasted until about 6pm. It was great, and I’m thankful we followed Roula’s advice. The tour guide was British, and he was really funny. It was definitely worth it. Along with pointing out historical sites like Hitler's bunker, he also showed us the hotel where Wacko Jacko dangled his baby, Blanket. I took a picture.
The next day, we headed to Oranienburg (a suburb of Berlin) to see the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. It was pretty sobering, to say the least. At the camp, they have the floor of the “extermination building” still intact, sort of, so that visitors can see what happened where. All that's left of the gas chamber is a hole in the ground and some bricks. The ovens are still pretty much intact though, and it's pretty fucking disturbing seeing them. To the right of what's left of the building, down a ramp, is the firing pit, where they lined people up to kill them. There's no way out of the pit, except to turn back the way you came. So we walked back up past the extermination building and toward the hospital bunkers. Those buildings are still intact, but closed to the public. To the right of the hospital is the pathology building, which housed the morgue. This building is open, and you're allowed to walk through it. Let me just say that the feeling you get when you go in is so much worse than at the ovens. I could only stay for about two minutes before feeling like I really needed to be outside. Just thinking about it now gives me the creeps. We left after that.
Anyway, we went to see a whole bunch of other stuff, like the old SS/Gestapo buildings/torture chambers, the remnants of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie and the Reichstag (Parliament House). It was an exhausting two days, but it was definitely worth it. I was totally surprised by how much I liked it.
I posted some
pictures of the trip, and to help you out, here are some captions:
Bradenburg Gate – this is they symbol of Germany’s reunification, one of the country’s oldest landmarks that came to signify the division of they city. The hotel where Michael Jackson dangled the baby is a 30-second walk away from here.
Berlin Wall – this is a remnant of the wall that divided the city, covered in graffiti.
Berlin Wall – this part of the wall has been stripped. You can see where it has been chiseled, and the rebar that made up the wall.
Berlin Wall – on the ground near Checkpoint Charlie, there is a line where the wall used to be. You can see the shadow of Shane’s hand in this picture.
Checkpoint Charlie – this was the only place in the wall where you could cross the border from east to west.
Checkpoint Charlie – these golfers are near the checkpoint.
Checkpoint Charlie – this is near a hotdog stand by the checkpoint.
Statue – this is a monument to the horrors of war. It is surrounded by flowers and wreaths to mark the anniversary of September 1, when Germany invaded Poland.
Sachsenhausen – this is a monument in the memorial museum at the concentration camp. I’m not posting my other pictures from there.
Reichstag – the house of the German Parliament.
Reichstag – me sitting outside of the parliament.
Berlin bears – this circle of bears is right around the corner from Brandenburg Gate, and a hop, skip and a jump from the site of where they’re building the Holocaust War Memorial. Anyway this weird ring of plastic bears were from countries all over the world, including Iraq, Bangladesh and Israel, all in alphabetical order: These two bears are from Burkina Faso and China. Which begged the question: where the hell is the one from Canada?
Café Adler – this café in Checkpoint Charlie is famous for its apfel strudel. So of course, a certain someone had to taste it….
On the Ku’damm – we saw Kenny trapped in the back of this van when we sat down at an outdoor café to have lunch.
On the Ku’damm, redux – something that just begged to have its photo taken. Welcome to Wienerwald.
S.
