Berlin Wanderings

 Day 3 started with a short cruise on the River Spree.  It was a relaxing way to see parts of Berlin from another angle.  The commentary was in German but we had audio in English.  One of the audio ‘things’ worked.  The other was a dud. 

Cruisin!

After the cruise we popped up to the Unter den Linden for a spot of lunch.  We had a very nice traditional Kartoffelsuppe!  essentially a potato soup with some herbs, mushrooms and bacon thrown in.  Very nice. Of course it was accompanied by more very fine German beer.

The afternoon was a Third Reich Walking Tour.  Karen abandoned me as she had other important things to do!  Oddly, the tour guide was a youngish Irishman.  Ciaran (which is Irish for Mike, I think), was well informed on the political shenanigans of the Nazis but he was a bit lacking on the military side.  There was an 18 year US lad on the tour who felt the need to fill the void of the Irishman.  The kid was pretty well read!

Anyway, we visited the Reichstag, one of the memorials to Russian soldiers who died in the Battle of Berlin, the Jewish Memorial, the site (above ground) where AH’s bunker was, the adjoining car park where AH’s body was burned, a Georg Elser memorial (he tried to blow up AH in 1939), the Luftwaffe HQ (which wasn’t bombed by the Allies), and the Topgraphy of Terror (the site of the SS, SA (Brownshirt bully boys) and the Gestapo (you can image you wickedness that the triumvirate inflicted). I guess the basics were covered.  But to my intense disappointment we had not gone to the site of the German Resistance memorial which was listed as a site we would visit.  Ciaran won’t be getting a glowing report on TripAdvisor.  I didn’t give him a tip either…. He didn’t earn it and I was feeling cheap.

Not to worry, the gauntlet had been thrown down!  I had my map and I was on my way, albeit all alone.  The good outcome was that when I arrived at Benderblock (the site of WW2 era Army HQ) there was nobody else inside the courtyard.  I was able to quietly enter and pay my respects to those German’s who had tried to remove Hitler.  Most dramatically on the 20th July 1944.  The reason the courtyard is the site of the memorial is because several of the German officers, who were party to the attempted assassination  and overthrow of  Hitler and cronies, were executed on the spot.  One of the central figures was Claus von Stauffenberg.  The movie Valkyrie was made several years ago and tells the tale of the attempt.  Tom Cruise played von Stauffenberg… an incredibly poor choice.

Gedenkstatte Deutscher Widerstand

German Rsistance Memorial

The flowers are from the 20th of July - the79th anniversary since the attempt on AH

I made my way back to my patient and waiting wife.  We went to a traditional German Pub (called Murphy’s Bar) and had a traditional Irish stew (mit Guinness) and another beer.

The following day we sprung out of bed, all keen and eager to do further exploration. We like to think we did!

Our initial goal was to visit the East Side Gallery.  This is a gallery with a difference: there is 1.3km section of the Berlin Wall that has been painted on by artists from around the world- graffiti style.  Art is a personal thing, so some of the imagery was quite appealing and moving.  Some of the imagery was confusing, infantile, weird or just scheisse!  Bottomline: it is worthwhile seeing.  The information boards are very useful in helping to understand the tense and deadly situation created by ‘the wall’.

Panorama shot… just trying to show the extent of the gallery.

Above, just some of the art.

After our gallery visit, we wandered with purpose.  This took us into the ‘burbs’ and away from the tourist show and tell.  There is a real charm and character to much of Berlin.  The only negative is the incredible amount of graffiti.  It is almost everywhere!!  I am not a fan of graffiti but I recognise that some graffiti artists have real talent.  None, not one, has ever visited the Berlin burbs!  We searched for some quilting shops but Monday was not a day that they were open! Phew!

The Oberbaum Bridge

Just a sample of the graffiti

We did find a Trendy Army Store.  A quick inspection showed it to be a run-of-the-mill army disposal.  We continued on our way through the burbs.  There was history to be found at every corner.  There were churches built in 14th and 15th century, there were places where ‘the wall’ had been (and people had attempted to cross).

We found a nice restaurant on the banks of the Spree.  We had an excellent lunch - Ungarische Gulaschsuppe.  I don’t think Karen trusted me when I ordered two bowls.  The Hungarian Goulash Soup was devine.  Lots of flavour and spice.  There was a light shower of rain as we continued a walk along the Spree.  We made our way to Museum Island.  There are six principles museums, all of world standing, on the island.

Lunch!

We pushed on a bit further to Humboldt University.  In front of the university is one of the sites of the Nazi book burning, May 1933.  This was an insidious campaign to remove Jewish authored books and books that did not conform to Nazi ideology.  AH could control the media and he controlled what people could learn.

This is a glass window on the spot of the book burning.  Below are ‘empty shelves’ to symbolise the effect on knowledge.

A little later we happened upon a huge bookstore.  We had to have a look inside.

The Diary of Anne Frank.

German was her native language.  It is bittersweet to see the book.

By the way, there is a well told series streaming, A Small Light, about the Frank Family.  It stars Liev Schreiber as Otto Frank.

After a full day of wandering we returned to the hotel for a well-earned rest.