July 25 - The Recent Past

(John) Recent history was our focus during this, our last day in Berlin. Of course, as I mentioned yesterday, we slept in. Then we spent an hour having coffee at Starbucks. From there, we were off to Checkpoint Charlie and the Museum of the Berlin Wall.

I learned a great deal about the division of Germany, especially the June 17, 1953 uprising and general strike against the communist partition of Germany. Obviously, they failed in the face of tanks and rifles. After the protests were quashed, the East German government had the gaul to say the people had to work twice as hard now to earn back the trust of the party! Imagine that! And they called themselves the "German Democratic Republic!"

In the museum, there were many interesting displays about escapes from east to west via tunnels, cars, balloon, scuba diving, and even surfboards. The museum is a warren of jam packed rooms. Everything is in both German and English. It was packed with tourists.

From the wall museum we walked down the street to the Topography of Terror which tells the history of the Nazi SS. It's an outdoor museum running along the foundation of the former SS headquarters. To the south of the displays are several huge piles of rubble overgrown with weeds and bushes - all that remains of the SS building. To the north is one of the remaining sections of the Anti-fascist Protective Rampart (the East German name for the Berlin Wall). It's about 100 meters long and is protected behind a fence, preserving it from those that want to chisel off souvenirs.

Across the street is the last remaining major Nazi building, home of the Lutwaffa - now the remodeled office of the German Finance Ministry.

All that history made my tummy growl, so we tucked into a little sweet and sour chicken for lunch. An interesting observation: chicken is rarely on the menu in Germany. There's lots of pork and lamb - even
turkey, bur rarely chicken.

Our post lunch wanderings brought us to the new Jewish Museum. It's a large edifice, and the building demands nearly as much attention as the contents. The baroque entrance building is attached to a highly symbolic modern wing that houses permanent exhibitions. The interior is arranged in a confusing manner, but I think that's intentional. The architecture reflects the rising and falling tolerance of Judaism within German culture over the last 1000 years.

Finally, we celebrated the closing days of our trip at the Terrace Restaurant, located on the roof of the newly remodeled Reichstag (home of the Bundestag - the lower house of the German parliament).

Our dinner was expensive, lavish, and refined - very uppercrust. The service was excellent. I had lamb and Gene had veal. The nice thing about dining at the Reichstag restaurant is you get to bypass the huge queue of tourists.

The outstanding attraction of the Reichstag is the wonderful manner in which classical and modern architectural styles have been blended. The central glass dome is spectacular.

A fine dinner and a walk around the dome made a delightful combination. Sadly, we were unable to get a cab afterward. That forced us to ride a....bus! (shudder) with the huddled masses. It's okay - I took a shower afterward;)

We have only three days remaining and those are dedicated to Amsterdam. Our train leaves Berlin at 8:45.

(Gene) This day was full of must do sites. As John mentioned, we went to Check Point Charlie. I noticed everything around this site has tapped into the marketing bug. I saw Chat Point Charlie (internet access), Snack Point Charlie and of course we ate lunch at Asia Snack at Point Charlie.

Additionally, you could have your photo taken with a costumed Yankee soldier and/or a Russian border guard for 3 euro. I elected to leave these Disneyesque moments to the masses onboard the hoardes of tour buses.

It was amazing to stand in the same spots where recent historical events occured. I remember vividly when the Berlin wall was literarly beaten and pulled down. I was glued to the TV. To stand at those sites and see/touch the wall gave me a wonderful feeling. I have seen large wall sections in both Seattle as well as at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA. I could not thoroughly appreciate them until I saw them in Berlin.

East Berlin is rapidly being modernized and transformed into a modern city. It's almost been a generation since the wall came down. I am glad to see the Berliners are taking some steps to help preserve and document important cold war locations before they're all gone and modern high rises take their place.

Dinner at the Reichstag was fantastic. On the way to the roof-top café we entered a private security area. We were quickly processed through security because they already had our name - we made dinner reservations in advance. We then walked over to a waiting elevator. However, we were soon joined by the masses who waited for hours to tour the same glass dome. A little planning (having a dining reservation) paid off handsomely. We were at the top in under 5 minutes.

We dined in a glass enclosed terrace high above Berlin. A thunder storm pounded upon our fish bowl-like room. For only a moment I wondered about all the plebs standing in line to enter the building. Had they found shelter? It was a brief thought interupted by my chilled tomato soup, presented by our waiter, Peter.

This civilized dinner was a fine way to end our journey through Germany. John and I have made it a habit to enjoy "last night" in a fine restaurant. We spend the time reflecting on our journies, and begin discussing our next adventure. Finally, we thank God for the very blessed life we have.