Day 365 – Berlin, Germany (by Abby)
The Events of Saturday, June 25, 2011
Turning the corner, I smile at our breakfast table nicely laid out with big slices of watermelon on each of our plates. Yay! Watermelon is such a treat! The only catch was that the watermelon had tons of black seeds in it. So we all sat down and began the surgery, trying to salvage every small bit of watermelon that wasn’t overcome with black seeds. After we had finished with this tiring process, which took about half an hour, we served ourselves cereal and chocolate or vanilla yogurt. The weird thing was that the chocolate yogurt had a grayish tint and we all started thinking of things it looked like – fresh concrete, paint, mud, certain contents of children’s diapers – the list never seemed to end. Surprisingly it was delicious and we soon got over its looks and finished our breakfast.
After breakfast, we went out into the streets of Berlin and officially started our first day in Berlin by descending into the U-bahn (underground train) station. With little difficulty, we bought tickets and boarded the train for the Checkpoint Charlie stop. Skipping this tourist attraction for now, we walked to Brandenburg Gate, built in 1791. With sturdy pillars holding up a platform holding a statue of the Goddess of Peace holding the reins of a four-horse chariot, Brandenburg Gate is one of the classic symbols of Berlin. It watched over Berlin throughout the two World Wars and the Cold War, during which it was in East Berlin, and now watches over the united Germany. The tourist information center was located inside the gate, and, after visiting that, we headed on our way. Paris Square, the square attached to the Brandenburg Gate was crowded with tents and street entertainers. We learned later that the world’s largest homosexual festival was taking place here, starting at 3:00. We made sure that we were clear of that area when it started. Surrounding the square was the American Embassy, and many other embassies that have been there for years, although not in the same building.
We strolled over to the Reichstag Building, the parliament of Germany that holds most of the governmental power. We were planning on climbing up the huge glass dome, but we found out that we needed reservations in order to get up the dome. Disappointed, we headed back towards Brandenburg Gate. On the way we stopped at a pretzel stand and bought one jumbo goat cheese pretzel for lunch. Then we began our walk through Unter den Linden, the main drag of Berlin. Unter den Linden means under the linden trees. It was named this for the 1,000 linden trees that line the street. Lindsey enjoyed posing for pictures under her namesake tree. Mom decided that Lindsey is very much like the linden tree. The linden tree as a whole is pretty, just like Lindsey. But it hides its real beauty, its flowers, under its leaves. Lindsey also has inner beauty, so it is fitting that her name is derived from this tree.
Taking the Rick Steves’ Guided Tour from his Germany book, we walked down Unter den Linden. Descending some stairs, we walked through the so-called “ghost station” the original U-bahn station from before 1960. During communist rule, these stations were essentially abandoned, as exiting the trains was not permitted. Having heard stories about taking the U-bahn through East Berlin and then back to West Berlin, when these stations were only occupied by Soviet soldiers and cobwebs, we were even more interested in the dark corners of this U-bahn station. Surfacing again, we decided to have lunch just after passing the Russian embassy. We sat “unter den lindens” and ate a delicious lunch, finishing with the goat cheese pretzel (which was delicious) and a bag of yummy cookies.
Continuing our walk, we came to the square called Bebelplatz. Bebelplatz is surrounded by great buildings. The German State Opera, bombed in 1941, rebuilt to bolster morale in 1943 and then bombed again in 1945, was rebuilt again after the war in all of its original splendor on Bebelplatz. Also on Bebelplatz is Humboldt University, one of the places where Einstein taught before moving to New Jersey in 1932. Since Einstein was Jewish this was a pretty smart move. During the beginning of WWII, the students emptied the library of 20,000 newly forbidden “un-German” books and made a huge bonfire.
Soon we came to the Neue Wache, the national memorial. It holds the tombs of the unknown German soldier and the unknown concentration camp victim. Walking on through Museum Island, the center of museums in Berlin, we came to a huge TV tower. Built by the Atheist Communists in East Berlin, the only “flaw” with it is the fact that when the sun hits it just so, it reflects a cross on the mirrored ball. Finishing our guided walking tour, we continued walking to Potsdamer Platz. On the way, we stopped by a souvenir shop. A famous insignia in Berlin is the “Communist” pedestrian signs. Ben bought a shirt with the walking man on the front and the stopped man on the back, and Lindsey bought a door-hanger with the same figures on the back and front.
Arriving at Potsdamer Platz, we found a huge celebration going on. Ben confessed that the Women’s World Cup was taking place in Berlin, starting tomorrow, and he didn’t even know it! So that’s why we don’t have front row seats! We browsed the square and then went to the Sony Center. Reading advertisements disguised in passages about the amazing architecture of the place, we came into a huge pointy-domed courtyard. Inside was a huge Transformers statue and tons of waiting people. Transformers 3 was premiering in Europe tonight. Passing through all the activities, we headed to an outdoor museum about the rise of Hitler, World War II, the persecution and extermination of the Jews and other groups, and the Cold War.
The exhibits, although interesting, never seemed to end, but when they did at last, we walked up a flight of stairs and along the longest part of the Berlin Wall still intact today. After WWII, the Allies divided up Germany. The Soviets were in charge of the Eastern Part, the rest of the Allies in charge of the western part. For some reason, Berlin, although technically fully in Soviet territory, was divided in half and a small island of French, British and American land was free. At first most of the Germans occupied by the Soviets tried to flee to this oasis or anywhere in West Germany. The Soviets, under the excuse that they wanted to protect their people from corrupt ideas of freedom coming in, built a wall around East Berlin. If you want to learn more about this, check out tomorrow’s blog, when we go to a whole museum about the Berlin Wall.
Heading home, Mom quickly cooked us up a delicious bratwurst, mustard, fresh bread and sauerkraut dinner. Then we dressed up and took the S-bahn, the faster above-ground train to the Berlin Philharmonie, the home of the Berlin Symphony. We took our seats behind the orchestra just as the concert started. The concert hall is in the shape of a pentagon, with the stage at the center of the hall and seats surrounding it on all sides. Hilary Hahn, an amazing violinist from America, played one of Mozart’s violin concertos accompanied by a small section of the Germany State Orchestra. She was called back four times before performing a solo as her encore. This solo was amazing. At times it seemed like she was playing chords and at one point had two separate strings playing a duet with each other. After intermission, the Germany State Orchestra, now in full force, played Symphony No. 1 by Bruckner. It was all conducted by Herbert Blomstedt, an old man who looked like he had more energy than he probably did. It was fun to watch his hands. Lindsey said he looked like he was creating a work of art out of clay and tried to imagine what the final piece would look like.
During this performance, I finally learned what good acoustics are like. The Philharmonie is highly regarded for the quality of its acoustics. In the U.S. Daddy always talked about “these seats will have great acoustics” or “the acoustics were really mushy” and I didn’t understand a word he was saying. This time I could here every individual instrument and identify them too. It was really cool! Walking back at eleven, we passed the Sony Center and heard the screams of the Transformers 3 fans. Tired but content to walk on by, we headed home and then to bed.