In Berlin – still buggered, but now blistered as well.

Monday 17 September.  Thanks to the major construction site right next to our apartment, we were up before seven this morning and on the road by a bit after 8am.  We caught the underground to Potsdamer Platz then started walking. First stop was the Holocaust Memorial on the Eberstrasse, a strangely moving series of hundreds of dark concrete blocks of differing sizes set over about an acre.  The pathways between the blocks undulate, so as you walk through and are at times dwarfed by the blocks, you get a sense of the despair of the Jews as they travelled towards an unknown fate.  Then to the Brandenburg Gate, probably the national “heart” of Berlin and Germany.  This was part of the boundary between east and west created by the Berlin wall, and the site of the famous speeches by John F. Kennedy (“Ich bin ein Berliner”) and Ronald Reagan (“Mr Gorbachev, tear down the wall”). We viewed some remaining blocks of The Wall and saw the Wall Victims Memorial honouring those trying to escape the GDR.

Next was a visit inside the Reichstag (parliament) where we climbed up inside the huge glass dome that has recently been constructed above the main chamber, with panoramic views over the city.  Then on past the Humboldt University to the Gendarmenmarkt, the site of the  Berlin Concert Hall, the Deutscher Dom (cathedral) and the Französischer Dom, then to the Bebelplatz, where, in 1933 after his election as Chancellor,  Hitler ordered the burning of 25,000 books (because of the threat that culture and learning posed to the Third Reich).  Next was Checkpoint Charlie, the famous American-controlled transit point between East and West during the cold war. We spent an hour visiting the Story of Berlin museum and watched several historical films. Next stop was the Berliner Dom, where we trudged up the 270 steps to walk around the inside of its magnificent dome and again see the Berlin sights from above. Then down to the crypt to view the many tombstones of the Prussian rulers. That was enough – a slow trudge back to our apartment, picking up some provisions along the way at a nearby supermarket.  We have, once again, been overwhelmed by the scale and grandeur of the buildings and monuments, particularly as so many have been damaged, rebuilt, damaged and rebuilt again over the past few centuries.

Tomorrow: A palace, a museum and whatever pops up in between.