The Thing About Berlin

We arrived in Berlin on a Thursday evening with certain expectations about what to expect from this "modern and thriving" German city. We started touring the city early on Friday morning expecting to see and hear about Berlin - of course mostly about it's sad (and of course shameful) past. (I realize of course that Berlin's past is not all bad - but I think many associate this city with the Nazi regime so many of the tours focus on this.) We had visited Dachau Concentration camp in 2010 and just a little over a week ago we toured Anne Frank's hidden annex on Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterddam (it must seem like we have a little theme going on here - it wasn't intentional). We weren't disappointed. We saw the Berlin Wall and read the many stories posted at this memorial site; the headquarters of the Third Reich; the Holocaust Memorial and we saw the many buildings that were rebuilt after the bombings of World War 2. We even stood above the bunker where Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide (hooray!) and of course we saw much, much more than this short blog has room for.

The things we didn't expect to see were parties that would happen on the particular weekend. Friday night there was a live telecast of the Euro 2012 game between Germany and Greece being held in Tiergarden Park. This area of Mitte is where we were staying so we got a first hand view. What accompanied this telecast were thousands of loyal fans who made their way happily and noisily throughout the late afternoon to watch the game. Now at this point you may be asking yourself - "So what? That happens with rider games as well." True enough - happy fans are great. The difference is that Regina, nor any city in Saskatchewan that I know of, does not have an open liquor law which finds thousands of fans carry bottles of beer and wine down the street. We watched in amazement as those carrying the bottes just dropped them when they were finished with them. The bottles were being smashed everywhere on the streets. The more drunk the fans, the bigger the mess. The next morning as we made our way down towards the Tiergarten area the garbage and smashed bottles left behind was unbelievable.

Saturday brought another surprise we weren't expecting either. We did a little shopping in the morning and then took a 4 hour bike tour around Berlin to get a "close-up" history lesson from a young man (Eric) from the USA who was doing his masters at Humboldt University in Berlin. He was a wealth of information and as we weaved our way throught the Berlin traffic we got to see this city from a much more personal perspective from someone who loves Berlin. Once again, there seemed to be another party going on as many of the streets we had travelled on the day before that were clean and clear were now full of garbage and smashed bottles - you can't imagine the mess it was. Even the Holocast Memorial was not immune to the carnage. In addition to the garbage and smashed bottles it looked like several of the memorial stones had been used as a free WC (those of you who have travelled to Europe will recognise this - but for those of you who haven't - WC = Watercloset = toilet).

What we didn't know at the time, but we found out as we biked closer to our final destination, was that Saturday afternoon Berlin was holding it's annual Gay Pride Parade. This parade drew a crowd of over 700,000 people and the parties were everywhere on the streets. There were police vans positioned on most corners and the streets were blocked off to traffic. I am not sure what the parade brings in cities like Toronto and New York but it was a real eye-opener for us - and for others on the bike tour as well. We didn't actually see the "parade" but we did get to see hundreds of "participants" both before, and after the parade, and believe you me - it was some crazy party going on!! I won't comment on what we saw but I will include a quote from an online article I found and you can imagine for yourself what was going on on the streets of Berlin that Saturday night.

"Berlin’s ‘anything goes’ atmosphere and lax drinking laws, combined with the German attitude to nudity, meant that there was a lot of flesh on display."

The thing about Berlin is that it will mean something different for everyone and it offers different things to different people.  And, as a "country-bumpkin" from the praires I have only one thing to say about Berlin - this "past to present" tour was one crazy history lesson!!

Note to self: When travelling remember to check out cities calendar of events!

Remains of the Berlin Wall today.  Artists came from all over the
world to paint pictures on these walls after Berlin was liberated.  After
several years the paintings needed to be restored so the original artists
were tracked down and asked to restore their paintings once again.

A monument consisting of hundreds of stories about Nazi
Germany can be found just behind the remains of the Berlin Wall. 
These stories cover the rise and fall of the Third Reich.

Checkpoint Charlie

The Holocaust Memorial

Just one of the hundreds of stories found behind
the wall.  This story is of Claus von Stauffenberg (Those of
who saw the movie Valkryie will know will know this story.
Tom Cruise played Claus in the movie.

On our bike tour.  The bikes aren't pretty but they are easy
to operate - I managed not to fall off so I think I did well:-)

The Reichstag (We wanted to tour this building but didn't
know that you have to book months in advance if you want
to see it during peak time - bummer).