In Berlin 1

My friend Lee had expressed a wish to visit Berlin last year and although I have been there before his interest in WW2 history aligned with mine so we teamed up.

I love visiting Germany, it’s always so simple to get around and Lee had the good idea to buy a Welcome Berlin Card. This meant we could go anywhere on trains, trams and buses for the entirety of our stay. It would also give us discounts on attractions too!

On arrival we headed to Friedrichstraße, dumped our bags in a shop, ( I love bag storage apps) a quick lunch and headed to the Brandenburg gate! Yes impressive and iconic.

It’s history is quite a drama. Neo classical, designed by Karl Gottard Langhans and made of sandstone it was constructed between 1788 and 1791. The Quadriga statue ( designed by Johann Gottfried Schadow) on the top was meant to symbolise peace!

In 1806 Napoleon took the city and removed the statue to Paris! 12 years later it was returned.

Then after the second world war the gate was in  the Soviet sector and in 1961 when the wall went up it was inside inner and outer walls and inaccessible to all Berliners.

It reopened on 22 December 1989 after the wall fell to much celebration and now symbolises reunification.

In Pariser Platz (next to the Brandenburg Gate) Lee noted the American Embassy appeared to have an American Cop standing at the entrance and all looked open and welcoming. This was quite a contrast to the subdued and rather scruffy door men outside the British embassy round the corner. However notably the Russian Embassy was completely taped off!!

We wandered on to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This is a striking somber monument and I remembered it from the last time I visited. Unfortunately the interior part was closed (A good deal of Berlin closes on a Monday). We also went to the Roma and Sinti memorial.

Then to cheer ourselves up a bit and to get out of the sun we went for a beer! I couldn’t finish mine and was rather tipsy afterwards!

I had booked an apartment on Airbnb in what I hoped would be a quiet spot….. Lee worried it was underground as, at first I lead him the wrong way into a musty cellar (the apartment has a bit of an odd entrance). Then the first night and quite late he thought we were being broken into, with sound of breaking glass and bottle collection van outside!

Since then it has been  a quiet neighborhood.