Day 63 - Berlin

Today was forecast to be around minus six degrees Celsius, and it snowed all day. Naturally, we spent most of it outside. Because we did the Third Reich tour on Tuesday we missed the regular free tour of Berlin so we went back to do it today. Our guide, Lucy, was a very bouncy, over-caffeinated girl from Adelaide. She was also an excellent tour guide, lending the stories a really enjoyable vibe that made the time pass quickly. She did, however, rush the tour along between stops to the chagrin of some of the slower walkers. We saw a lot of the sights of Berlin like the Brandenburg Gate, with its statue on the top. The statue was originally the goddess of peace, but after it was reclaimed from being stolen by the French it was rechristened Victoria, the goddess of victory and her head moved to look down on the French Embassy and Parissenplatz. We also saw the outside of the Reichstag, with its glass dome (more about that later), walked through the holocaust memorial that we only briefly visited on Tuesday (Keeley slipped on the icy hills and hurt her wrist, but it's okay now), past a piece of the wall and the air-force building. The air-force building survived the war (unlike 90% of the city) and was retained by the Soviets during their post-war occupation of East Berlin and turned into their Ministry of Ministries, or head government building. In 1953 there was an uprising of workers because their pay was being cut for not reaching unfeasible production targets, and 250 people were killed by the Red Army for their resistance. We also saw Checkpoint Charlie and heard a story about a man who escaped the East using his wits alone. He went to the checkpoint and claimed his mother was sick in the West, and it was imperative that he crossed the border. Naturally, he had no paperwork but he claimed it had been left at another checkpoint. The guard on duty detained him while he investigated at the other checkpoint. While that was happening, some other guards came and asked the man why he was being detained. He said he was from the West and his mother was sick in the East, and it was imperative that he crossed the border. They released him to the West to "go and fetch his passport", and he was never seen again.

 

The tour also took us to the site of the book burnings at the university, where there is a cool memorial of a room underground with empty bookshelves. There is also a beautiful memorial nearby to the victims of tyranny and terror, with a sculpture in an otherwise barren room and snow falling down through a hole in the roof. It was stunning to see. Finally, we ended at Museum Island and saw a gallery that was supposed to have "the biggest marble bowl in the world" in its foyer. Alas, the bowl arrived late, the building was already constructed, and the bowl was too big to fit in the door so it has sat out the front of the steps ever since. The last story of the day was how the wall fell – the press secretary of East Berlin had missed a big meeting where it was decided to open the border to the West but with impossible restrictions. He, however, misread the notes he was given and announced to the wall would be opened, effective immediately and the hordes of people that flocked there overwhelmed the guards at the checkpoints. Because he had stuffed up the dates there were no procedures in place to stop it happening and the process of German reunification began.

 

After the tour we returned to our hostel for a very late lunch, but this left us practically no time to do anything so we went to the Reichstag and climbed inside the dome. It is a very interesting an clever piece of architecture – the glass represents the transparency of democracy, the dome with its ramp open to the public shows how the people are above the parliament, both literally and figuratively, and there is a big mirrored core that allows you to see down into the parliament chamber from anywhere in the dome. It's brilliant.

 

We made a cottage pie creation for dinner, then headed out on a pub-crawl. It was a really good night, and we met some great people like a surgeon from Singapore who was passionate about theatre. The pubs were all pretty good and we only drank the free drinks, but that was plenty for us to have a suitably good time. The only downside was the very long walk at the end because we missed the last train by minutes. Other than that, it was brilliant.

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