Ich Bin Ein Berliner

Hello - guest blogger Lisa here.  We have spent the past two days in Berlin.  History is not Aidan's favorite subject.  We dragged him all over the city, and he was a good sport, but it certainly has not been his favorite part of vacation.  I think if he has to learn anything else about WWII or the Cold War, his head might explode.

Yesterday we wanted a shorter walk (only two hours instead of half the day like today) so we intentionally avoided the war places and went to some older buildings.  Of course, there is not a lot of old architecture left in Berlin compared to other European cities.

The Reichstag, built in 1894, currently houses the Parliament.  The old dome was destroyed and this new modern glass dome was added.

Brandenburg Gate, 1791, former city gate.

Berliner Dom (church) located on Museum Island.

Today we moved on to the WWII and Cold War sights.  We wanted to walk around the city but didn't want to be stuck with a guided tour group,  so we tried a walking tour app.  It mostly worked but it wasn't 100% current- I think because Berlin is constantly changing, constantly under construction.  We started at an exhibit called the Black Box which gave detailed information about the war and gave us a better understanding of the sights we were about to explore.

This is a replica of Checkpoint Charlie, one of the crossing points from East to West Berlin.

Checkpoint Charlie

Conveniently, a Starbucks was down the street when we needed to escape the rain. 

The longest continuous stretch of the Berlin Wall remaining.

The same stretch of wall with an exhibit in front called the Topography of Terror explaining Poland and the war.

The Berliner Mauer is the Berlin Mile, markers that denote the past location of the Berlin Wall.  In this particular spot, the wall coincided with the old town wall, marked by the brick cobblestones.

Under this parking lot was Hitler's bunker, where he committed suicide.  The government buildings and the bunkers were destroyed, either by bombing or demolished by the Soviets after the war.

After our walk and dinner, we found a small playground, possibly too small for Aidan.

Much of Berlin was bombed during the war and buildings were demolished afterwards.  This is one of few examples where they saved part of a building.  This was the Grand Hotel Esplanade.  They saved the lower floors with ballrooms and other lavish rooms then added a new building on top.  Because the old building could not hold the weight of the new building, they built supports around it so that the new, upper part does not actually rest on the old, lower part.

We have a brief few hours in the morning to visit the park before we fly to London.  I like Berlin - it is pretty, clean, safe, and interesting.  We could easily have spent more time in Berlin seeing other areas of the city, although Aidan might disagree.  

Back to Aidan for Windsor and London next.