May 4-8, 2023
Now begins what I will call the “Nazi and Communist Block Tour”. We did not think about this in advance, but quickly realized it along the way.
If relationships with cities were like those with people, I’d have to rate Berlin “it’s complicated”. I didn’t not like the city, and I’d have no problem returning, but it’s not a place I think I could call home.
John and I traveled through central and southern Germany in 2021, and in general got along well with the Germans we met. But Berliners seem – sadder, more reserved than their fellow Germans. As a group, Germans are not exactly smiling and welcoming, but Berliners- well…
We arrived in Amsterdam on the morning of May the 4th (Be With You). We had repacked so we only needed to bring one big bag (we weren’t going to need a lot of shorts, t-shirts and snorkel gear in Germany and Poland in early May), and stuck the other in storage for the next 10 days. We had a couple of hours to walk around before returning to the train station (conveniently just a few blocks from the cruise port) for the 7-hour train ride to Berlin.
The ride proved eventful – we had to make a stop to change engines, and in that 15-minute break the police brought onboard drug sniffing dogs. An older English couple (OK – so John’s age) were caught with marijuana in their bag and they had to get off the train. There was a lot a of swearing as they collected their items and exited. Probably because of the drugs, it was longer than a 15-minute stop (I did not take any photos of the couple). On the plus side – we had wifi throughout the journey, which is not always the case on DB trains.
Our walk (with a little less luggage) from the main train station to our lodgings was longer than we anticipated, complicated by not only no wifi, but we could not get a cell signal on our Mint Mobile plan (they said the phone would work in Europe, but data is very expensive, so we leave them on airplane mode unless we need it. We turned off airplane mode and “no signal” even after turning the phone off and on). Luckily, by mid spring, sunset isn’t until 8PM so we didn’t have to contend with nightfall. We finally found the street. The instructions for retrieving the AirBNB key came straight out of a spy novel. (A lock box on a pink child’s bike, parked across the street from the apartment). The interior of the hallway reminded me of our stay in Zagreb, and of some of the houses in Havana built in the 1920’s – very high plastered ceilings with decorated moldings.
The neighborhood was in the previous East Berlin but in part of the city built pre-cold war. It was surrounded with moderate priced restaurants full of young families and couples, friends out and about, a little over a mile to the old town. Our first full day we meandered down to meet up with our Guru walk (we had the address set with wifi, so even when not connected to the internet and ended up off route we could see where our blue dot was on the map). The meeting place was the giant Rathause – the meeting house reconstructed from the plans of the original built in the 17th century. Our guide, Rue, was a gentleman from Scotland who had moved to Berlin to study geopolitics.
For the next 2 ½ hours we learned about the history of Berlin from the middle-ages onward. Rue was informative (but some information I wished I’d verified: He stated that the museums of Berlin are free – they are free on the first Sunday of the month only- and for the most popular, you need a timed ticket, which often sell out by 10AM on a Saturday and the Sunday free day sells out almost as soon as they are released the week before. We found this out on full day #2 (Saturday), when we walked into Museum Island expecting to see the Pergamon – the last remaining gate of Babylon. We waited in line for 30 minutes only to find out tickets were sold out, the next available time would be at 10AM Monday – at which time we would be on our way to the train station). If you plan better than we did – tickets are available online and cost €12pp. To walk the clear dome of the Reichstag you need to apply a minimum of 2 weeks in advance for the timed entry.
We found the Technikmuseum (Science and Technology Museum, €8 pp) online (Museum Island does have free wifi if in the central building). It was in West Berlin, about 2 miles away. With a couple of redirects (McDonalds has free wifi and is found all over Berlin – my phone now automatically connects to its wifi), and a walk through a not great park, we found the museum. We went into the smaller building first – where we spent about 90 minutes learning about some interesting car designs, development of the internet, and other modern science advances and importance of recycling materials.
We never made it to the bigger museums with aircraft (this would an easy museum to while away 1/2 day). Our only safety concerning moment came walking back through the sketchy park to the main road. A pair of young men fell in behind us, and matched our pace too closely. We were debating doing a quick turn when a woman approached and spoke to them, waving them off, a minute behind her was a large family group.
West Berlin has a large city park near the Brandenburg Gate that is free to wander, with locations such as the memorials to the Jewish Victims,
Soviets (defined by tanks and military theme), Homosexuals, the Romani and Intellectual holocaust victims. The main paths lead you to the Victory Column from 1871.
Themed gardens are dotted throughout the park, a path lined by rhododendrons toward the end of their season provided pleasant surroundings for a short rest.
The park provides a place for native wildlife (we saw a fox run across the path, I couldn’t pull out my phone fast enough to snap a photo).
Keeping on budget in Germany requires a close eye on the dining costs – it’s not unusual for a basic meal for two to exceed €75. The goal is to keep the budget below $150/day including lodging, but in Germany and the Netherlands with lodging exceeding $100/day – that is not going to happen. By eating our main meal at the end of lunchtime, buying breakfast at the grocery store (generally yoghurt and bananas) – we can keep it below $200/day. Meals in Berlin included a Doner place where the pita sandwiches with fries and a drink were €8. We also ate at a pizza place (large slice with spinach, garlic and mushrooms with a drink – €12). Our favorite was a restaurant near our AirBNB called Nola, a New Orleans inspired restaurant with spicy wings (per John – some of the best he’s ever had), interesting (and tasty) coleslaw on a simple menu.
Our splurge meal in town was Indian, €50. Tipping in Germany is 5-10% in restaurants and voluntary (but appreciated). There is no second line to re-total and sign on a credit card receipt, so if you tip, it will need to be in cash.
Now for some history.
Berlin was founded in 14th century as part of an east-west trading route, becoming the capital of the Magraviate of Brandenburg (part of the Holy Roman Empire) in 1417, which through wars and marriages, eventually became the capital of the Prussian Empire (not to be confused with Russia), which stayed in power until brought down by WWI in 1918. Berlin had been an important city for several hundred years, but the later 19th and early 20th century, the city blossomed with art, architecture, science and music. Unfortunately, most of us know it as the seat of the Third Reich and Hitler’s seat of power followed by the Berlin Wall.
WWII devastated Berlin, almost all of the buildings we see today were rebuilt from plans or from ruins of the pre-WWII landmarks. The Royal Palace, recently completed, was torn down by the Communist East German Government, a community building was placed on the site (which housed a bowling alley and a cinema), which was torn down in the early 2000’s and the Royal Palace was rebuilt based on drawings and pre-war photos.
Our Guru Walk went to the place where Hitler’s Bunker had been (the one where he killed himself instead of letting himself be captured by the Allies)– now a car park, the bunkers filled in with rubble and concrete. One of the few buildings from the Nazi era still standing was built as an office building, which it remains (now the Tax Office).
I discovered my general knowledge of East/West Berlin (and Germany as a whole) was decidedly lacking. After WWII, not only was Germany divided into “spheres of influence” – but Berlin was as well, with the western portion divided between the US, British, French and Soviets. In 1948, the western spheres agreed on a common currency (the deutschmark) – but didn’t invite the soviets to participate, creating an economic division between the sides, with the west quickly becoming more affluent. Between 1949 and 1961, 3.6 million East Germans migrated to the West via Berlin (once on western German soil, a German could get a new passport and travel freely to the west). To stop this, Eastern German built the Berlin wall almost overnight in August 1961. I always thought Berlin was on the border between east and west Germany. It is smack dab in the middle of former East Germany, and the wall enclosed all of “West” Berlin to keep Eastern Germans from migrating to the West (yes, I am aware of the “Berlin Air Lift” – but most of my history classes ended at WWII, and it occurred before I was born). There were 7 gates between East and West Berlin, but non-German westerners could only pass at “Checkpoint Charlie” (Charlie because of the military radio names for the alphabet – alpha, tango, etc).
The original Checkpoint Charlie was completely dismantled in 1989, but a re-creation was erected because tourists wanted to see it.
From the East German era, not much remains, with the exception of the Ampelman – the crosswalk signal.
East Berliners rallied to keep the funny signal instead of changing to the more standard ones in W Berlin, and now is the easiest way to determine if you are currently walking in formerly East or West parts of the city. Most of the older part of the city – the palace, Museum Island and the television tower are all in formerly East Berlin. The Brandenburg gate sat in “no man’s land” between the two sides, where thousands of Berliners, East and West, gathered and met en masse on December 22, 1989 for the first time since 1961 and once again symbolizes a united Germany.
