Berlin in History
After our get acquainted tour yesterday our plan is to
revisit the most interesting sights by foot today. For that we need some energy. We have brown bread, cheeses, meat, vegetables,
fruit, yogurt and muesli in various amounts to build up to a big day. No need to be cautious.
We go west from the apartment through a lovely area of shops
and restaurants. The streets are packed
and the economy seems to be just fine.
We go left on Friedrichstrasse down to Checkpoint Charlie. There is a great memorial wall with tons of
cold war history. Most of the incidents
that kept everyone on edge from the late 40’s through early 60’s are detailed
with descriptions in English and photos as well as physical memorabilia. They have done a good job with it all except
for the hokey guard shack with over-the top German actors portraying American
GIs. It seems a little silly for the context.
We move back to the West again to the Nazi War Crimes and
Torture museum. Again there is a memorial
wall running parallel to an actual section of the Berlin wall. This display details the accounts of
individuals and groups who were persecuted from the beginning of the rise to
power of the Nazis in the early 30’s through the war years. The seeds of the movement were flourishing
during the depression with rampant unemployment and widespread poverty. Everyone wanted someone to blame and the
Nazi’s provided the culprits. The
insane, the crippled, gypsies, negroes, foreigners and homosexuals all contributed
to the dire straits of the average German while the Jews held all the money and
were the chief manipulators responsible for the economic woes of the country. The downtrodden German workers now found out
that someone else was responsible for all of their problems and were happy to
join the “gang” that was going to right their wrongs.
In addition to the extensive wall there is a full-fledged
museum that is free. We need lunch so
pass on the building to find a sandwich.
Pat will revisit tomorrow. We now
go north past the German Parliament to Potsdamerplatz which is another Berlin
“Downtown.” This is the home of the
spectacular Sony center and the Ritz-Carlton that was the first luxury hotel
built after the war. When we were
looking for apartments the price rose based on proximity to Potsdamerplatz so
we assumed this was the actual center and maybe it is. It is sandwiches all around plus one pretzel
and one coke-light at a sidewalk café/bakery.
Not as good as yesterday but not bad.
We take a walk through the Sony Center, a massive retail and
entertainment complex, and ooh and aah all the way through. Pat finds a gelato for dessert. Pieces of the original buildings have been
preserved behind a wall of glass on the first floor of the Center as a nod to
the local historic preservation groups. Moving to the Ritz, the lobby, bar and
dining rooms are wonderfully retro which is more preservation than remodel.
We keep moving north to the memorial for murdered Jews. There are 228 pillars of various heights
aligned like headstones in a cemetery to commemorate the dead. A nice visual tribute. We can hear music from a couple more blocks
north and find a rock concert/awareness event taking place at the Brandenburg
Gate, another cold war border crossing.
The music is really good with what seems to be an American band and the
folks in the crowd are trying to get into spirit (as much as Germans can). No offense.
The cause has something to do with hospital workers which explains the
number of medical types rocking out in the audience.
Time to turn back to the east down Under den Linden through
embassy row. The U.S. Embassy is right
next to the Brandenburg Gate with the French across the street and others along
the way. The Russians, of course have a
monster building that is about 2 blocks long.
There is some sort of activity with a line-up of black limos in front of
one of the hotels and rows of police in cars and on motorcycles. Someone pops out of the hotel and a few cars
go speeding off down the street surrounded by a police escort. We hang out for a while to catch the next act
but there isn’t one, at least not for now.
Continuing east towards the apartment we pass through the
Gendarmenmarkt, a broad plaza with a huge French church on one side and a huge
German church on the other, both built to equal dimensions. A few hundred years ago the Germans invited
200,000 Huguenots, who were persecuted Protestants in France, to relocate to
Berlin and built this church especially for them. It’s impossible to ignore the similarity of
that situation to today’s Syrian refugee crisis where Germany has once again
stepped up to welcome the dispossessed.
From here it is easy skating back to the apartment. We’re
running late but don’t care after our late lunch. Time for a 45 minute sit-down before
gathering again.
The plan is for a quick cocktail and then another pass at
Zum Nussbaum where we couldn’t get in last night. Same thing tonight. It is a small place so it is not unusual that
it would be full and since they don’t take reservations you have to just keep
trying. It better be good if we ever get in.
Never unprepared we have yet another plan “B.” It is Mutter Hoppe about another block
through the Nickolai area. We do luck
into a table there as one table empties as we are standing inside looking
around. Our server gets us menus and
then disappears for about 15 minutes.
When she finally comes back we are ready to order beers and dinners
right now. She is wise enough to run and
get the beers right away so now we are no longer looking at our watches.
John has a perfect Sauerbraten with great sauce, 2 baseball
sized dumplings and red cabbage with apples that has obviously been simmering all
day. Mary and Pat both have a chicken
dish with a cheesy creamy sauce and a pile of nutmeg spiced spinach with mashed
potatoes. The food is perfect and we
survive the service. The Plan B’s are
working out for us.
There is a ¾ moon over the River Spree tonight as we make
our way home. We (almost) never have a
bad day on our trips.
What did we learn today? People will buy into anything as
long as you pander to their most basic instincts.
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