This day was so jam packed I've split it into two posts. The first is for all those history buffs out there as we went on a 5.5hr walking tour of the city! I wanted to describe it in detail as I love history so much but it's not for everyone so if you'd like...scroll over the pics and move onto the debauchery that happened later on in the evening! :)
First real day in Berlin! We decided to do a walking tour of the city so we could learn the history and walk around and see as much as possible. It ended up being a real highlight for all of us. It was so incredibly interesting and we were walking around for 5.5hrs and it seems like 1. There is so much history that has taken place and it's not just about World War II and the Nazi regime. Berlin was one of the very last cities to be introduced to the 'party' as our guide would say and was one of the last pagan sites before it was colonized.It was fascinating to learn about the Berlin wall and the division of east and west Berlin.
We started in former east Berlin and were shown how there is still construction going on from the devastation of all the bombing that occurred throughout the centuries. In fact, our guide kept saying that this is one of the newest cities in Europe because it has constantly had to have been rebuilt. It was interesting to find out that 68,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Berlin during the war. We got to see some of the buildings that did survive and you can see the shrapnel marks on the stone work still. We were told how in 1933 there were 165,000 Jews living in Berlin and that that number was reduced to 5,000 after the Holocaust. In Berlin today there are around 22,000 religious Jews living in the city, clearly not even close to the amount that was here before.
We went by museum island which houses the Pergamon Museum as well as 4 other world renowned museums, as well as the Supreme Parish Church,.We also walked by the “space needle” looking TV tower which represented socialism to Berlin residents and what used to be the Royal Castle which was bombed by communists.
When we made our way over to check point Charlie which was one of the gates in the Berlin wall we learned about all the checkpoints and how they worked; the west side entrance being manned by soviets and the east side by the communist secret police.
We learned how hard it was to cross and how the initial wall which was composed of just barbed wire was literally put up from midnight to 6am one night, dividing the city and keeping people from jobs, family, friends etc. We were able to see a remaining part of the wall which we all expected to be much wider but we learned how there was an inner wall and an outer wall and what was in between those two was called the death strip. It contained ways to prevent people from crossing it and trying to escape. Some of those deterrents were, raked sand to look for footprints, spiked glass, guards walking up and down, dogs, and fencing with a signaling capability where if it were touched it signaled to a guard down the way, and bright lights which made the area daylight during the night. There were 4 upgrades to the outer wall while it was in use and they had plans for a 5th scheduled for year 2000 but obviously the wall was ordered to be taken down in 1989.
It just amazed us that all of this was so recent and the whole tour that is all the girls and I kept saying. My sister was born in 1989 and she'll be 21 this year, that's not too long ago! Over the 28 years that the wall was standing, 130 people died trying to escape. Our guide told us that the most secure way of escaping was in the boot (trunk) of a diplomats car. People would basically offer the diplomat a large sum of money in return for being able to cross the border and since diplomats had immunity they were not searched.
We also went to the square where Hitler conducted the famous Nazi book burning, where 25,000 books were lit aflame including the entire library of Fredrick the Great, books and art by authors and artists burned because of fear of freedom of expression or thought. Beneath the square now, lies a monument that you can only see through a small glass window in the floor. It's a large room, all in white, with enough bookshelves to house the 25,000 books that were burned May 10th, 1933. Below the window is quote from an author, Heinrich Hein, who too would have his books burned that evening, that states, " If you start by burning books, you will end by burning people." He said this in 1820, many years before this tragedy would occur in Berlin.
After moving on from the square, we headed towards a giant Soviet Propaganda mural, portraying the beauty of socialism. As Michael, our guide, was explaining to us all the different details of the mural, we were all of a sudden interrupted by the most peculiar thing.
It looked like a bar/table on wheels with a big umbrella on top, but at each “barstool” around the bar were pedals at the feet, so literally it was a bar on wheels where everyone pedaled. It was the craziest thing we have ever seen and we were so thoroughly distracted by it that we completely walked away from our tour for the moment to take pictures of this awesome vehicle that was so appropriately called the “bier bike”! We were so enthralled by this majestic mobile bar that the three of us swore it was the most brilliant business venture and vowed to bring it to the states!
After the thrill of the bier bike dissipated we headed back to our history lesson and continued on to the next site, Hitlers bunker. Hitlers bunker was actually a parking lot with a very small, turned around, too much information sign at the end of it detailing the blueprint of the bunker. Obviously the bunker was below ground so that it was safe and what was great was that there was no reminiscence of it. No where that the sick minded folk of this world could come and see where Hitler killed himself. We were told the Hitler married his long-time mistress, Eva and then the both drank cyanide. After that, he shot himself in the head and gave strict instructions to his bodyguard to put both their bodies in a truck full of gas and light it on fire. Seeing as though the bodyguard was more interested in saving himself and the army was fast approaching, he left the bodies and scurried away. After proper dental identification of the bodies, the were burned at a headquarters of the KGB in Russia and flushed down the toilet.
Moving on from the bunker we visited the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. A 200,000 square foot memorial in the middle of Berlin dedicated to the atrocity that happened. The memorial was only constructed in 2000 after over a decade of heated debate and compromise. The memorial was constructed without explanation because the artist wanted each person to interpret it for themselves and come to their own conclusion of what it meant to them. As you walked through the memorial, you felt as though you were sinking. Many of the Jews who entered the concentration camps wrote that they had a feeling of being overcome with water or suffocating, that they new they were entering a new realm of reality where different rules of survival applied here. It was so sad to hear that during the holocaust 6 million Jews were killed, 1.5 of those being children. It was an eerie feeling being here because of course we had heard these statistics before but it felt so much more real being in the heart of the Nazi regime.
Michael reminded us that this is not just a German problem because many of the Jews that were murdered were Germans themselves but that it is a human problem and that we must never close out alternative thought and ideas. We must continue to acquire information and expand our knowledge base and to try and always be accepting of one another. An interesting point was that this year there was a protest by 650 neo-Nazis on the streets of Berlin. This protest was met by 10,000 people who were opposed to them, pretty amazing.
We ended our tour at the Brandenburg Gate, which used to the city gates to Berlin and is one of the main symbols of Berlin and Germany. Behind it were many of the world's embassies as well as the very famous Adlon hotel. Famous for two reasons, one being, the penthouse costs 15,000 euros a night! Two being, it is also the hotel made infamous for the “baby dangling” incident by Michael Jackson.
As my Aug. 8th departure date approaches, I've been trying to connect with an old friend of mine Meghan from high school as she's been traveling around Europe as well. We decided on meeting in Venice since we'd both never been and then heading over to Trieste which is the last little beach town before you hit the Slovenian boarder and then on to Croatia which is definitely on my top 5 list. I'd never been to this part of Italy but I can never complain about Italy. It has to be my most favorite place in the entire world...although there's still a lot to be discovered. I had such a great time with Meghan and as a special treat her sister Carrie-Lynn joined us.
On one of my last nights in Egypt, I got invited to a really nice soiree with my uncle at a new club on the nile called Tamerai. It was to honour a family friend of ours as she stepped down as the president of the french Rotary International Club. It was really such a wonderful way to end the two weeks in Cairo and I got to see a few faces from my childhood and reconnect with people. Now it's off to Greece to play with my other cousin Elsa in the Mediterranean sun!
