Berlin
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Arrived in Berlin Tuesday night. Leslie and I took the same BA Dreamliner flight in Club World (business class, the seats that lie flat for sleeping) that we took for our London meeting. I'm telling you, once you do this, you can never go back to a regular plane seat. We had to take regular business class from London to Berlin and we complained the whole time. So funny.
We landed at Tegel airport in Berlin and went through immigration. Then we followed some fellow passengers into the main terminal to find baggage claim. Well... it turns out every incoming gate has its own baggage claim right there at the gate. We had passed it and were not allowed to return, since we had gone into the terminal. Airport staff at both the information counter and Baggage Services thought we were insane to have walked right by the tiny baggage carousel at the gate. We saw it, but it was empty and no one had stopped, so it didn't look like a place we should be.
An hour later, the baggage services folks finally brought Leslie's bag, but mine had not arrived. My work laptop with my meeting notes was in that bag, along with my three meeting outfits (two day-long meetings plus a dinner). Disaster!
Our cab driver from the airport to the hotel was supernice. He was from Ghana originally, but had lived in Berlin for twenty years. He gave us a ton of touristy info on our way to the Ritz-Carlton, including mentioning that the former Berlin Wall was marked all the way around the city by a two-brick wide path. It crosses roadways and sidewalks and was one of the most interesting things we saw. No one else ever mentioned it, so we would never have known!
We drove by the Berlin Victory Column. So very pretty. Wish I had been able to return to get a photo of it.
We headed to our rooms (one of the fanciest hotels I've ever stayed in, for sure) for the evening to get an early start sightseeing on Wednesday. LUCKILY, my bag arrived from the airport around 11:30 pm. It had been searched by both US and German security, probably because of the combination of my laptop and all my various plugs and adapters and hairdryer, etc. (I hand-carried my laptop home and my bag wasn't opened at all.)
Wednesday, Leslie and I walked around the city. The Ritz is located near so many interesting places that we never got on a train or took a taxi anywhere. Berlin is almost all new construction since WWII, when so many buildings were destroyed and were completely leveled for rebuilding. Some structures were rebuilt as they were, and some have original parts that are contained within the new structures. It's very different from most of Europe, where a significant number of buildings are very old.
We walked over to the Holocaust Memorial, a quiet, reflective site, with rows and rows of concrete pillars over an entire city block. You can walk through it.
We went to Brandenburg Gate, though I really wanted to see it lit up at night. We hoped to have time to return at some point.
We walked through to take this photo from the former East Berlin side. West Berlin saw the back side of the statue on top, like this... ("Caution! You are now leaving West Berlin.")
Here's how the gate looked in 1945...
Near the Reichstag Building are the cross memorials for those who died trying to get over the wall. You can see the two-brick Berlin Wall path in the road in the photo below.
Next we reached the Reichstag Building, where German legislature meets.
It's a beautiful building, with a stunning city view from the glass dome in the center, which we couldn't tour, because you have to plan way ahead and make reservations. I got lots of photos of the architectural details outside the building though.
Right next to the Reichstag, you can see this building with the more typical modern design of the city's structures. There are also lots of trees in the city. Must be gorgeous in the summer!
Next, we headed to the Topography of Terror, a history museum which is housed on the former site of the Gestapo and SS headquarters. The only parts of those buildings that remain are the basement walls, seen below the Berlin Wall remnant (the longest still-intact segment) here.
Leslie had asked me earlier why the German people and even Hitler's own men went along with Hitler's ideology, and the Topography of Terror goes into that very evolution of the Nazis in great detail. It is an amazing, frequently shocking collection of photos and documents that tell the history of the Nazi regime from its beginning to the post-fall release of prisoners from concentration camps and the war trials, etc.
Next, we stopped at Checkpoint Charlie, even though most people say not to bother. I thought it was interesting to stand in that very spot.
We had dinner with our clients that night at the hotel. The next day, we trained our European colleages on the project manuals and the database. When I did the Canadian training a few weeks ago, I had an hour, but talked fifteen minutes over. At this training, they gave me 40 minutes, but with questions and everything, I spoke for an hour and a half. Meh.
The project meeting itself was Friday (only talked for 20 minutes!) and then a bunch of us went out for dinner at Gendarmerie. One of the clients wanted to see the Brandenburg Gate at night (what a great idea! heh), so a few of us walked back to the hotel together to see it.
Totally worth the walk.
Ya' know, Napoleon liked that statue atop the gate so much that he stole it and took it to Paris for several years in the 1800's, until Germany took it back. Well, it is pretty cool.
I had two new discoveries about Europe this trip.
1) Where are the trash cans, people?! Here, there is a trash can about every ten feet in any public place. In London and in Berlin, I was frequently holding trash for blocks until I found a trash receptacle. So weird!
2) Europeans are highly skilled with dinner knives. I was quite impressed. They hold their knife in their non-dominant hand through the entire meal, using it to scoop and maneuver food around the plate and onto the fork. We only pick the knife up to cut something or spread butter on something, then we position it carefully leaning on the plate until we need to cut or spread something again. Y'all- I will push around a little piece of salad for two minutes, trying to get it onto my fork without having to push it with my bread. Next time you're in Europe, pay attention and you'll see it. Just... bravo!
Wish I had more time to stay in Berlin! It is a beautiful city. Read more...
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