Welcome back to the blog! We're glad you could make it ;)
Last weekend Annelies and I went to Berlin on an extended 4-day weekend. Neither of us had
ever been to Berlin before, let alone enjoy a holiday in Germany together. We had a great time; Berlin is not exactly what you would expect. It is a very modern city with excellent architecture, wide streets and boulevards, and a youthful energy that makes a truly unique world capital. This, mixed with the history made for an interesting excursion!
We stayed in the Eastern side near the commercialized Alexanderplatz in the 37-story Park Inn hotel. From our 20th story room with a view, we looked directly up at the Television tower and several landmarks; it was a great vantage point for some very nice sunsets. After our arrival, we headed out for a walk from the East to the West, passing through the historic
Brandenburg gate, then checking out the German Reichstag building, and glimpsing the various examples of very modern architecture alongside those few remaining 19th century buildings that made it through the second great war. This is a picture of the Television tower's reflection off of the Park Inn hotel at sunset. There is also a picture of Jason standing on top of the Reichstag building (the German capital).
F
or dinner, we sought out "authentic Berlin" cuisine, and walked north from our hotel into the heart of the Prenzlauer Berg, a hotspot for political youths enjoying the lowcost East Berlin rents. And walk into the heart of politics we did! About 10 minutes into our journey to a restaurant recommended by our city guide, a group of a few dozen teenages in dark hooded sweatshirts came out of a side street and ran past us. They broke up into smaller groups as several police cars drove by, flashing their lights and sirens. A bit further, we came across an intersection crowded with additional revellers; just beyond were more police cars carrying riot police. As we realized that our restaurant wasn't well marked in the city guide (and right in the heart of the commotion!), we walked away from the action and popped into what was a "very Berlin" restauarant. I had
eisbein, which is a r
oasted pig's knuckles with plenty of saurkraut and mustard. Yummy! Notably, a few tall Berliner beers -- a pilsner -- really hit the spot and washed down the meal quite well.
On our way out, the crowds had dispersed and we had an uneventful walk back to the hotel :)
Over the next few days, we toured several shopping districts and additional historic sites within the city. Berlin has a nice cafe culture, where Berliners enjoy sitting in the sun (on nice days) or inside the well-adorned and smokey restaurants, bars and cafes. There really is no d
istinct demarcation between the former East and West; there is much construction of modern architecture right on the borders. And because the West was building while the Berlin Wall was still enforcing communism for the East Berliners, its buildings seem older than the newly-renovated or newly-built structures in the East. For various reasons, the East is relatively cheap, which draws a thriving and influential artist community. You can certainly see examples of graffiti ALL over the city (some of it's actually beautiful). And there are these colorful and unique friendship bears all over the city as well.
We also went to Berlin to see a
Dave Matthews concert! Dave was on an acoustic tour with Tim Reynolds. Two guys and two guitars. The show was AWESOME!! As it's not Annelies and my yearly tradition to see Dave, this was an excellent venue (Columbiahalle) for the show. It was a smallish and crowded, standing room only theater. At first, we had a tough time looking around the tall people blocking our view of the stage. But when Annelies' favorite song was played (Crash), she surged forward past dozens of (angry) German fans. We didn't care though as we couldn't understand a word of what they were saying :) And we must have been 15 feet away from the stage. A very excellent night of entertainment and an annual event that we will not soon forget!
We did seek out various glimpses of the wall. One crossing point between the East and West was the U.S. Army's infamous
Checkpoint Charlie, which they've nicely left intact and restored for us tourists to get a good picture. Throughout various other points of the city, there are a few chunks of intact wall. However, most of it was either dismantled or destroyed by the people of Berlin shortly after it's fall. It's a very interesting and poignant reminder of the clash of two diabolical political structures; luckily
for all in the East, it seems that the "good guys" won that Cold war :)
Certainly a terrible legacy of World War II-era Germany was the rise of Hitler and the absolutely horrible Holocaust. As Hitler rose to power in the 1930's, Berlin was actually a seat of opposition to the Nazis; Berliners voted against Hitler on many occasions. Berlin today has come to grips with its awful past. We toured the excellent
Jewish Museum (wonderful both from an architectural as well as
content standpoint -- chronicalling the history of the Jewish people in Germany, describing many of the Jewish customs and culture, and painting
the picture of normal family life as a Jewish German throughout the centuries; it also discusses the anti-Semitism that occurred throughout the 19th and 20th centuries as well. Within a very short walk
from the German Reichstag building, there is the sombre
Jewish Holocaust memorial; 2700 giant non-descript concrete blocks stretched out across 2 undulating city blocks.
Anyhow, we hope you're all doing well. We have had great weather (both here in London and Berlin) for the past two weeks. But sadly that is supposed to change in the next day or two, as up to a foot
of snow is to fall in certain parts of England! Lots of springtime love,
-Annelies, Jason, and Vinny
