Monday 21 Dec 2009 – Berlin; A Whirlwind Tour

Berlin (Day 2)

We woke up and met downstairs at 9:15 and then grabbed breakfast at a café across the street. From there, we bought a day pass for the U and S-Bahn and hopped up to the metro station nearest the Pergamon. Now, the Pergamon is probably my all time favorite museum and I had talked it up a lot and had been looking forward to returning there and sharing it with Daniel for years. I had visited Berlin in January 2005 during my Baltic Trip with Furman (when I spent six weeks traveling to 17 cities and 7 countries around the Baltic region for credits in PoliSci and History). The Pergamon itself is essentially Germany’s Raiders of the Lost Ark museum…in that inside the museum there is the Pergamon temple from Greece, a Roman Market, Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Gate of Ishtar, and a Muslim Temple Wall from Jordan. All of which were disassembled and brought back to Germany piece by piece and restored within the museum. It’s immense, it’s full of amazing artifacts, and it’s absolutely awesome. You can’t help but to walk around with your jaw dropped in some of the rooms.

Now, I was in charge of our tour of Berlin, we had spent nearly a week there in 2005 and I felt like I had a good grasp of what we “had” to see…although we very easily could have spent several more days there. So I had carefully crafted an itinerary that I genuinely thought was realistic. And probably would have been if our group wasn’t extremely academically inclined and enthralled by the museum. We knew when Chris got an audio guide we might be there a while. And so, there was a distinct discrepancy in the times in which we all finished – and I felt very guilty about rushing Ginger, Chris, and Phil through the last wing, but we were running out of daylight. Based on yesterday, I would say Daniel looks at museums with top speed and has little patience. Justin and I are moderate museum pacers, we read some, we hit the highlights, we leave with a sense of understanding. Phil, Chris, and Ginger are painstakingly thorough and leave with a plethora of obscure facts that resurface throughout the evening and the days ahead.

*We’ve agreed from here on out to set a time limit on museums*

Now, that said, after I herded everyone out, we were way behind the mythological schedule and I had to do some reconfiguring and scrap a few events. We were soon off to the Berliner Dom – an absolute must, that was one or two blocks away. We rounded the corner and everyone’s gasps made me realize that pushing us on was the right choice. And only moments after we stepped inside the church, organ music began and emanated throughout the gorgeously gilded sanctuary. The Berliner Dom itself is a very distinctive icon of Berlin, with columns, arches, domes, and symmetry all at work. The interior is quite glitzy, but not as much as a baroque church would be, and the ceiling of the Dom is spectacular. You’re supposed to be able to walk to the top of the Dom and see the city, but it was closed due to weather. Another highlight is the Hohenzollern Crypt – which was the ruling family of Prussia, which was one of the strongest city-states of the Holy Roman Empire, had an extremely sophisticated military, and led the charge in the Unification of Germany. We saw the tomb of Frederick Wilhelm – who was one of the primary agents in transforming the Prussian military into the impressive force it became – his son Frederick II (Frederick the Great) as the next influential force in transforming the Prussian military into a force to be reckoned with. A few other facts? (Skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want a history lesson.) Berlin was the capital of Prussia and then the capital of Unified Germany in 1871. The Prussian military significantly influenced and laid the foundation for the German military that was so fierce in WW I and WW II, and a Prussian general actually came to the colonies as and was paid to train our revolutionary forces. And, after US Commodore Matthew C. Perry encouraged/forced Japan to open up trade, Japan began their Iwakura Mission, as they toured the world and observed Western countries’ methods of industry, military, transportation, etc and picked what they believed was the best. They modeled their military off of Germany’s.

Okay, after the Berliner Dom some of us were quite hungry. We had scrapped Ka Da We because we were running out of daylight and really wanted to make it to the Berlin Wall, but we had agreed we would have more of a sit down lunch because we were going to eat dinner at the Christmas Markets. However, when we passed a Christmas Market most of the group caved. Chris, Ginger, Phil, and Daniel indulged in several charcoal roasted bratwursts and Justin and I grabbed food inside a café around the corner.

After that we were onto the Berlin Wall. Before we left for the trip, I did some research to figure out where we could see the best stretch of the wall. Most of it has been torn down, but there are still remnants left, and I knew from my last Berlin visit that there was at least one long section of wall left somewhere in the city. So, we got off at Ostbanhof and set out in the direction that I thought looked right, checked with a store clerk, and quickly found our way to the longest remaining stretch of the wall – that actually did end up being the same strip I had visited four years ago! This is also the strip that has barren land behind it. The exciting and simultaneously disappointing part was that as per the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall that was celebrated in November 2009, the wall has been repainted with beautiful new works. So the exciting part is that we are among some of the first in the world to see these new murals. The disappointing part for some in our group was that the wall looked new, with bright shiny paint, not old and tattered and Soviet and oppressive.

After that it was getting fairly dark and we decided to head back to the hotel to crash for a bit and then those who didn’t pig out at the Christmas Market the first time would go out to check out the Christmas Market that was near our hotel.
Side note of venting…there were three quests I personally had for Berlin, because I had not completed these tasks last time, but weather was not my friend and nor was time. Item one: Going to the top of the Berliner Dom to see the city, last time I didn’t know the opportunity existed, this time, it was closed. Item two: Going to the top of the Reichstag to see the city, in 2005 we ran out of time after an extremely busy day, and there was a very long line, this time it was closed due to weather. Item three: Getting my passport stamped at Checkpoint Charlie. In 2005 I didn’t know you could, this time the three times we walked by it, the passport stamping part was closed. …..Sigh.

I suppose I’ll just have to go back to Berlin! ;-)

And so we capped off our evening with a trip to the Christmas Market to grab some charcoal roasted Bratwursts and some yummy hot wines while we perused the different artisans’ tents. For dessert? Crepes! Ginger and Chris got banana, caramel and nusskr….something (carmelized chopped nuts) and I got a crepe with marzipan slices! Yummy!

So, despite my side note of venting, I am quite content. It seems like everyone really enjoyed Berlin and was happy with what we were able to see and accomplish. I really didn’t expect to see Berlin in the snow either – but with the lights of Unter den Linden leading up to the beautiful Brandenburg Gate...all of it paved with snow…paired with our visits to the Christmas markets…it was a beautifully enchanting visit!

We’re onto Prague! 4:20 am wakeup calls so we can catch a 6:30 am train so we can be in Prague by 11:30! I grimace as I type this because while we did wake up that early and did arrive in time to catch the train, they delayed it five or six times and then cancelled it…so we spent two extra hours absolutely miserable and freezing on the train platform. We really are heading onto Prague – I currently sit at the window watching the snow covered German countryside pass by as we rest and recoup and gear up for a busy afternoon in Praha!