Tuesday
Since Matthew's semester of study in Berlin extended from March to the end of June, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to see Berlin. In all of our other travels to Europe, we have not had the chance to get to the German capital, although Matthew himself has wanted to go there for many years. In these unsettled economic times the air fares have dropped significantly since our trip two summers ago. My round trip fare was $421, about one third of what it was the previous time. Unfortunately, the trip got off to a slow start. I arrived here on Tuesday after a four hour delay in Houston while we waited for the KLM plane to arrive at the gate. I was then scheduled on a later flight to Berlin. While waiting at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, I checked my email to learn that Stephen was able to email a note to Matthew so that he could know of my later arrival time. The message got through and he met me at my 4:30 pm arrival rather than the original time of 11:30 am.
About the first of April, by searching the internet, I was able to locate a hostel in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood where Matthew's apartment is located for $30 per night for a single room. Although Berlin is one of the most expensive cities in Europe, the Prenzlauer Berg district is surprisingly economical. It is not a huge tourist area, but it is a young and thriving "new" community that has witnessed a revival since the reunification of the two German states and an influx of immigrants from other parts of Germany, as well as other countries.
We got to my hostel okay. In fact, from the time I got
my baggage until I
was at the hostel, it was less than 30 minutes, and that includes a bus
ride, a train ride and a 2 block walk. The Berlin public transit system
(BVG) works with fine German precision. This was my first experience
with it, and many other times during my visit, the BVG did not let us
down. The Aurora Hostel (and my single room) is functional, simple and
very economical. There are five rooms at the 3rd floor landing and
three
bathrooms within 20 feet of my room. This place is VERY clean. Bring
your own bar of soap and drinking glass, though.
Wednesday
Matthew had class on Tuesday evening, so I had the opportunity to get to bed early and try to shake the jet lag that always accompanies these overseas flights. And, lo and behold, I awoke well rested on Wednesday morning and ready to go. Matthew and I arranged to call at before meeting at his place at 9 am. With my new netbook computer and the wi-fi at the hostel, I could Skpye Matthew just as simply as if we had telephone connections. After walking the two blocks to Matthew's place, we went into the little shopping mall at the Schoenhauser Allee S-Bahn Station and I bought a big sweet roll for breakfast. The little mall, called an Arcaden, was a three story affair around an open central court and shops lined all three floors. Since it is about 50 yards from Matthew's front door, it is very convenient for groceries, household items and fast food.
We walked over to Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn Sportpark, a large city park nearby, where we sat on a bench while I munched my roll. Then, we began
n a walking tour of the "big" sites just to
orient me when I head out on my own tomorrow. Alexander Platz, often
cited as the center of the city, is due south from our lodgings as we
walked down Schoenhauser Allee. The bustle of Alexander Platz and the
new Galleria and shops in the area bear witness to the success of the
reunification. The Fernsehturm
(TV Tower) built by the DD
R is hard to miss, too. It is the tallest
structure in Berlin.We slipped passed the main street (Unter den
Linden) and headed down a side road, past the ruins of the Kloisterkirche and its
evocative statuary, to vacant lot
where the Stadt Schloss (the City Palace) of the Hohenzollern family
stood. It was destroyed by the East German government (the DDR) in
1951. Plans are underway to reconstruct the Schloss so extensive archeological work at the site
is in progress at this time.
We crossed the Spree River which runs through the
center of Berlin and returned to the main drag, the Unter Den Linden,
near the site of the famous book burning episode at Bebelplatz in 1933 when the Nazi
students burned the forbidden books. A glass plate in the plaza is a
memorial to the event. It is the Bibliotek Denkmal die
Buecherverbrennung vom 10. Mai 1933 by Micha Ullman, built in
1994/1995. Nearby, a plaque quotes Heinrich Heine, who in 1820, said:
"Das war ein vorspiel nur dort, wo man buecher verbrennt, verbrennt man
am ende auch menschen (That was only a prelude, where one burns books,
in the end one also burns men)."
Turning west up the Unter den Linden, we headed toward
the most recognizable symbol of Berlin to most Americans, the
Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). Near the gate is the
new US Embassy. At the gate, we
turned left and went two blocks south to the Denkmal fuer die
Ermordeten Juden Europas (the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe),
often
simply referred to as the Holocaust Memorial. This memorial
covers a complete city block. Although it appears to be a 
simple display of gravestone-like pillars, totaling
2,711 in all, the memorial is actually a complex labyrinth of narrow passage ways
and deep lanes. The location of the memorial was only intended to be in
a place where it would be experienced by large numbers of people. In an
irony of history, it also stands in the near the center of power of the
perpetrators. In the northeast corner of the memorial, the former
bunker of Joseph Goebbels was uncovered during construction. It was
left buried. Adolph Hitler's bunker was only 200 yards away as well,
and is similarly buried under a parking lot.
We
crossed north of the Gate to see the Reichstag,
and walked around the north side of the building to Friedrichstrasse
where we had Berlin's famous curry wurst
and fries at the Checkpoint Curry Imbiss for lunch. Taking a few of the
back streets, we headed down Oranienburger Strasse and by the Neue Synagoge with its golden dome,
then we passed by the IES Abroad offices where Matthew's school is
located. Afterwards, we walked by the busy street shops along 
Kastanienallee on the return the my hostel.
For dinner, we went to a Doener
Kebab place in the mall near Matthew's apartment. I had a broiled
chicken and salad while Matthew had a kebab pizza -- very
tasty and low priced.
Thursday
Matthew had classes all day so I walked over to a section of the old Wall. Very ugly. Since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, there has been much reconstruction and new construction in Berlin. In some places, the only evidence of the wall is the brick work that has been laid
along the course of the wall. In other
areas, especially in the more remote neighborhoods, parts of the wall
still stand. One such place is along Bernauer
Strasse. For almost a city block, the original wall extends along
the east side of the street. Beyond the wall in the notorious dead
zone, a space of some 40 yards or so which was a cleared area between
the East Berlin neighborhoods and the wall. A no man's land. Today,
there is some construction within the zone, but in many places, the
barren strip of land lies vacant. A silent reminder of the recent past.
On Bernauer Strasse, near the Nordbahnhof S-Bahn Station, the wall separated a church from its parishioners. The wall crossed the entry to the church and kept its people from using the church for services. In the 1980's, the DDR finally demolished the church. After reunification, the Chapel of Reconciliation was built on the site of the former church.
Memorials to the victims of the Berlin Wall line the
sidewalk on Bernauer Strasse. A large granite
stone in a small park in the former West zone also calls us to
remember those who died trying to escape the East and find freedom in
the West.
After his classes, Matthew made us sandwiches and we went downtown to the free night at the Egyptian Museum. The museums on
Museuminsel (Museum Island) have a free admission time
during the final four hours of opening on Thursday evening. There are
some exceptions, so check ahead of time. At this time, the Pergamon
Museum had suspended its free admission time, however, the Egyptian
Museum and the Bode Museum where both free after 6:00 pm.
The evening was clear and quite pleasant. After a quick
train ride to the Oranienburger Strasse Station, we walked about three
blocks to a
park along the river. Many Berliners were enjoying the
nice weather in the park, but we did find a bench on which to eat our
sandwiches. At 6:00, we walked across the bridge onto Museuminsel and
over to the front of the Egyptian Museum. The Museum occupies the
northwest side of the Lustgarten, a greenspace on which the Berliner Dom faces the northeast
side. The highlight of the Egyptian Museum is definitely the display of
the bust of Nefertiti.
Since we finished our tour of the Egyptian Museum in about two hours, we decided to swing through the Bode Museum of fine art. I was surprised to find the large quantity of woodworking art through many centuries in the Bode. But, considering the reputation for wood carving
that the Germans have, it is probably reasonable to
display it here. Many of the buildings in this part of town still show
signs of the struggle for the control of Berlin in 1945. I am not
certain why the government has failed to patch the bullet holes and the damage from small
arms fire on the otherwise restored structures. Maybe as a reminder?
Friday
Friday, we rode the train out of town to the Grunewald Forest which is about 20 kilometers southwest of downtown Berlin. We hiked over to the Havel River and ate lunch on the Schildhorn Peninsula. Heard cuckoo birds all over the place. And, they were not even in a clock!! About a 12 km hike in all.
As Matthew and I began our hike into the forest along the main trail, we could see a large group of school children scrambling up ahead. We moved deeper
into the forest and within a half mile or so, there
was a huge sand pit off to the left
of the trail. A forest-type stair led down the steep enbankment to the
floor of an enormous depression in the land. It was the site of a
former sand pit that now served as a park. The embankment down which we
came also exposed a cliff of fine sand that about a hundred or so kids
were climbing up and sliding down. To the opposite side was a wetlands
and a small lake. After surveying the frolicking youths and their
teachers who had set down blankets, we climbed back up to the trail and
continued on toward the Havel River.
Shortly thereafter, we came to a lake off the right side of the trail known as the Teufelsee. Various safety equipment and bouys in the lake indicated that the
lake was a popular swimming hole. On this weekday
morning, however, only one swimmer was resting on a table and a family
with two kids was walking the shoreline. In the distance, we could see
the abandoned radar dome that the US forces had constructed on a
manmade hill in order to gather intelligence on the Soviet regimes in
the East.
A short distance later, we
stopped at a remote cemetery back
in the
forest. The Friedhof Grunewald Forst
is still being
used, but the most remarkable thing was the large number of graves from
May, 1945. Many of the men were in their late 50's, but their grave
markers indicated they were soldiers. I think the defenses were running
thin by then. There are several rows of soldiers and many "unknown
soldier"
graves. One grave site seemed to be a mass grave of civilian casualites from the period 
at the end of the war. The flowering plants
and abundant green vegetation in the cemetery provided a pleasant and
peaceful aura to the quiet resting place.
The forest was fairly densely populated with areas where tall pine trees predominated, while in other areas a broad leaf tree, which I could not identify, grew as
a high canopy. Many trails crisscrossed our own trail.
Some were obviously smaller trails, but others were wide and well
maintained. Stone trail markers, placed at major intersections,
provided directions and distances to the various points ahead. One side
trail was a horse trail and as we came to it, two female horse riders trotted by on their fine
steeds.
When we arrived at a paved road, we knew we were within a half mile of the lake. Our trail began a gradual, but fairly steep decline toward the river basin. A deep gorge fell off to the left of the trail. Stacks of cut timber along the trail showed us that the forest is still used for productive logging. As we approached nearer to the river, birch trees with their white bark were more common. The stacked timber was separated into two groups, pine trees and birch.
When we reached the beach at the river (which was as wide as a lake), we found that the water pumping station was under construction and the trail along the lakeshore was closed. We had hoped to hike along the shore north to the Schildhorn Peninsula to find a good place to stop for lunch. Instead, we had to backtrack up the trail and the hill. A side trail off to the left made us think we could follow it back to the lake. After several minutes and a climb over the hill there, we found that the short cut trail led right back into the construction zone (baustelle). Eventually, we went back to the paved road (the Havelchaussee) and followed it to the small community and yacht basin sheltered in the cove of the Schildhorn Peninsula.
Walking past the Schildhorn Inn and a public parking lot, within a few minutes we were at the Havel where we stopped for lunch in an overgrown playground.
On a hill behind the playground was a path
leading to the Schildhornsaeule
(The Schildhorn Column). Friedrich Wilhelm IV commissioned Friedrich
August Stueler to build it in 1845 as an expression of the
Kaiser’s romantic ideas of Christianity and his wish to
glorify it. The column, destroyed in 1945 and restored again in 1954,
depicts a stylized tree crowned by a cross from which a shield is
hanging. It illustrates the legend of the Slavic
Prince Jaczo, who, after a devastating defeat at the hands of the
Germans at
Kladow, was attempting to escape when he came to the Havel River where
it spreads out into a lake. Pressed by his pursuers,
he drove his horse into the river. Feeling that his gods had deserted
him,
Prince Jaczo swore that he would become a Christian if the Christian
god would save
him. As he reached the far bank, he hung his shield and horn
from a tree and fulfilled his promise. The name of the peninsula and
the design of the column come from these events.
Saturday
Matthew fixed omelets for us at his place, and then we headed off to Spandau, a small town to the NW of Berlin. We had light rain this morning and it was cloudy, but by noon it began to clear and we had a warm sunny day.
Spandau is most famous today for being the place where
Rudolf Hess was
kept a prisoner in Spandau Prison until his death in 1987. The prison
was demolished after the death of Hess. More interesting, though is
the Zitadelle (Citadel), a
fortress which guarded the Havel River and
commerce through the area. See:
http://www.zitadelle-spandau.de/index.html
The
Zitadelle is one of the most
important and best preserved Renaissance fortresses in Europe. Built in
the 16th cnetury, the Zitadelle is surrounded by water and has four
bastions, one on each corner of its square design. We crossed the
bridge and entered the main gate
where tickets are purchased. Near the gate house is the Julius Tower. Originally built as a
residential and defensive
fortification with 3.6 meter thick walls, the tower
also provides a lookout over the region. Stairs lead up to the bastion
and the access to the tower. Inside the tower, a circular wooden staircase winds its way to the
observation deck at the top. An adjacent museum displayed the artifacts
of the Schuetzengilde, a
gun club that dates to 1334. German gun clubs recorder the result of
the annual shooting contest on ornate disks representing the shooting
target. The winner of the contest
was the
Koenig (King) for the year.
We continued along the path on the wall to the bastion
in the back corner of the fortress, Bastion
Kronprinz (Crown Prince) and then back into the courtyard. Near
this back of the Zitadelle is a small, protected "harbor" for boat access to the
fortress. In the interior courtyard, the armory building housed a
museum of rifles, cannons and other weaponry that had been manufactured
locally and used, at one time or another, in the defense of the site. A
historical museum of Spandau occupied the adjacent building.
After a snack lunch on a bench in the courtyard, we
left the Zitadelle and walked the short distance to the bridge over the
Havel River, just below its junction with the Spree River which passes
through the center of Berlin. The Zitadelle was situated at this river
junction and could control the commercial traffic on the rivers. Even
today, the locks on the Havel River
control the important river traffic of the area.
Within
a few blocks farther, we were in the old
town of Spandau, where a town market was underway. Every produce
vendor, it seemed,
was advertising his fresh crop of Beelitz grown spargel (asparagus). We had an ice
cream cone,
and headed back to Matthew's place where we fixed chicken schnitzel
with noodles and salad.
On the way back, we stopped to check out
the
bus route for my return trip to the airport and also visited the city
park of Humboldthain. This park has a high hill (Humboldthoehe) on
which was built as a WWII flak tower
(http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkspark_Humboldthain). Today, the
partially damaged tower is an observation point with 
spectacular
views of Berlin. On the lower observation platform there is an
aluminum sculpture by Arnold
Schatz which was dedicated in 1967 as a monument for German
reunification. The local rock climbing club also uses the concrete
ruins as a practice site. A rose garden
in the Humboldthain was established on the ruins of the Assumption
Church which was demolished after WWII.
Humboldthain is next to the large Gesundbrunnen S-Bahn Station. After several days of traveling around Berlin, I am learning to appreciate the Berlin train system. You can get all around town and the regional area on the combination of the S-Bahn (fast train) and the U-Bahn (underground train). With a prepaid ticket, you can ride when and as much as you want. The longest wait time for a train during the regular day is 8 minutes. Two large, modern multi-story shopping malls flank the Gesundbrunnen Station, one opposite Humboldthain and the other on the north side of the station. In Berlin, new shopping malls have been built adjacent to, and in some cases within, many of the S-Bahn and U-Bahn Stations. Since many Berliners use the transit system for all of their city travel, it is the obvious place to locate the malls. It makes it especially easy to shop on one's way home.
Continued on Page Two >>
All material printed on
this
page
and this web site is copyrighted. All rights reserved.Since Matthew's semester of study in Berlin extended from March to the end of June, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to see Berlin. In all of our other travels to Europe, we have not had the chance to get to the German capital, although Matthew himself has wanted to go there for many years. In these unsettled economic times the air fares have dropped significantly since our trip two summers ago. My round trip fare was $421, about one third of what it was the previous time. Unfortunately, the trip got off to a slow start. I arrived here on Tuesday after a four hour delay in Houston while we waited for the KLM plane to arrive at the gate. I was then scheduled on a later flight to Berlin. While waiting at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, I checked my email to learn that Stephen was able to email a note to Matthew so that he could know of my later arrival time. The message got through and he met me at my 4:30 pm arrival rather than the original time of 11:30 am.
About the first of April, by searching the internet, I was able to locate a hostel in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood where Matthew's apartment is located for $30 per night for a single room. Although Berlin is one of the most expensive cities in Europe, the Prenzlauer Berg district is surprisingly economical. It is not a huge tourist area, but it is a young and thriving "new" community that has witnessed a revival since the reunification of the two German states and an influx of immigrants from other parts of Germany, as well as other countries.
We got to my hostel okay. In fact, from the time I got
my baggage until I
was at the hostel, it was less than 30 minutes, and that includes a bus
ride, a train ride and a 2 block walk. The Berlin public transit system
(BVG) works with fine German precision. This was my first experience
with it, and many other times during my visit, the BVG did not let us
down. The Aurora Hostel (and my single room) is functional, simple and
very economical. There are five rooms at the 3rd floor landing and
three
bathrooms within 20 feet of my room. This place is VERY clean. Bring
your own bar of soap and drinking glass, though.Wednesday
Matthew had class on Tuesday evening, so I had the opportunity to get to bed early and try to shake the jet lag that always accompanies these overseas flights. And, lo and behold, I awoke well rested on Wednesday morning and ready to go. Matthew and I arranged to call at before meeting at his place at 9 am. With my new netbook computer and the wi-fi at the hostel, I could Skpye Matthew just as simply as if we had telephone connections. After walking the two blocks to Matthew's place, we went into the little shopping mall at the Schoenhauser Allee S-Bahn Station and I bought a big sweet roll for breakfast. The little mall, called an Arcaden, was a three story affair around an open central court and shops lined all three floors. Since it is about 50 yards from Matthew's front door, it is very convenient for groceries, household items and fast food.
We walked over to Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn Sportpark, a large city park nearby, where we sat on a bench while I munched my roll. Then, we began
n a walking tour of the "big" sites just to
orient me when I head out on my own tomorrow. Alexander Platz, often
cited as the center of the city, is due south from our lodgings as we
walked down Schoenhauser Allee. The bustle of Alexander Platz and the
new Galleria and shops in the area bear witness to the success of the
reunification. The Fernsehturm
(TV Tower) built by the DDR is hard to miss, too. It is the tallest
structure in Berlin.We slipped passed the main street (Unter den
Linden) and headed down a side road, past the ruins of the Kloisterkirche and its
evocative statuary, to vacant lot
where the Stadt Schloss (the City Palace) of the Hohenzollern family
stood. It was destroyed by the East German government (the DDR) in
1951. Plans are underway to reconstruct the Schloss so extensive archeological work at the site
is in progress at this time.We crossed the Spree River which runs through the
center of Berlin and returned to the main drag, the Unter Den Linden,
near the site of the famous book burning episode at Bebelplatz in 1933 when the Nazi
students burned the forbidden books. A glass plate in the plaza is a
memorial to the event. It is the Bibliotek Denkmal die
Buecherverbrennung vom 10. Mai 1933 by Micha Ullman, built in
1994/1995. Nearby, a plaque quotes Heinrich Heine, who in 1820, said:
"Das war ein vorspiel nur dort, wo man buecher verbrennt, verbrennt man
am ende auch menschen (That was only a prelude, where one burns books,
in the end one also burns men)."Turning west up the Unter den Linden, we headed toward
the most recognizable symbol of Berlin to most Americans, the
Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). Near the gate is the
new US Embassy. At the gate, we
turned left and went two blocks south to the Denkmal fuer die
Ermordeten Juden Europas (the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe),
often simply referred to as the Holocaust Memorial. This memorial
covers a complete city block. Although it appears to be a simple display of gravestone-like pillars, totaling
2,711 in all, the memorial is actually a complex labyrinth of narrow passage ways
and deep lanes. The location of the memorial was only intended to be in
a place where it would be experienced by large numbers of people. In an
irony of history, it also stands in the near the center of power of the
perpetrators. In the northeast corner of the memorial, the former
bunker of Joseph Goebbels was uncovered during construction. It was
left buried. Adolph Hitler's bunker was only 200 yards away as well,
and is similarly buried under a parking lot.We
crossed north of the Gate to see the Reichstag,
and walked around the north side of the building to Friedrichstrasse
where we had Berlin's famous curry wurst
and fries at the Checkpoint Curry Imbiss for lunch. Taking a few of the
back streets, we headed down Oranienburger Strasse and by the Neue Synagoge with its golden dome,
then we passed by the IES Abroad offices where Matthew's school is
located. Afterwards, we walked by the busy street shops along Kastanienallee on the return the my hostel.
For dinner, we went to a Doener
Kebab place in the mall near Matthew's apartment. I had a broiled
chicken and salad while Matthew had a kebab pizza -- very
tasty and low priced.Thursday
Matthew had classes all day so I walked over to a section of the old Wall. Very ugly. Since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, there has been much reconstruction and new construction in Berlin. In some places, the only evidence of the wall is the brick work that has been laid
along the course of the wall. In other
areas, especially in the more remote neighborhoods, parts of the wall
still stand. One such place is along Bernauer
Strasse. For almost a city block, the original wall extends along
the east side of the street. Beyond the wall in the notorious dead
zone, a space of some 40 yards or so which was a cleared area between
the East Berlin neighborhoods and the wall. A no man's land. Today,
there is some construction within the zone, but in many places, the
barren strip of land lies vacant. A silent reminder of the recent past.On Bernauer Strasse, near the Nordbahnhof S-Bahn Station, the wall separated a church from its parishioners. The wall crossed the entry to the church and kept its people from using the church for services. In the 1980's, the DDR finally demolished the church. After reunification, the Chapel of Reconciliation was built on the site of the former church.
Memorials to the victims of the Berlin Wall line the
sidewalk on Bernauer Strasse. A large granite
stone in a small park in the former West zone also calls us to
remember those who died trying to escape the East and find freedom in
the West.After his classes, Matthew made us sandwiches and we went downtown to the free night at the Egyptian Museum. The museums on
Museuminsel (Museum Island) have a free admission time
during the final four hours of opening on Thursday evening. There are
some exceptions, so check ahead of time. At this time, the Pergamon
Museum had suspended its free admission time, however, the Egyptian
Museum and the Bode Museum where both free after 6:00 pm.The evening was clear and quite pleasant. After a quick
train ride to the Oranienburger Strasse Station, we walked about three
blocks to a park along the river. Many Berliners were enjoying the
nice weather in the park, but we did find a bench on which to eat our
sandwiches. At 6:00, we walked across the bridge onto Museuminsel and
over to the front of the Egyptian Museum. The Museum occupies the
northwest side of the Lustgarten, a greenspace on which the Berliner Dom faces the northeast
side. The highlight of the Egyptian Museum is definitely the display of
the bust of Nefertiti.Since we finished our tour of the Egyptian Museum in about two hours, we decided to swing through the Bode Museum of fine art. I was surprised to find the large quantity of woodworking art through many centuries in the Bode. But, considering the reputation for wood carving
that the Germans have, it is probably reasonable to
display it here. Many of the buildings in this part of town still show
signs of the struggle for the control of Berlin in 1945. I am not
certain why the government has failed to patch the bullet holes and the damage from small
arms fire on the otherwise restored structures. Maybe as a reminder?Friday
Friday, we rode the train out of town to the Grunewald Forest which is about 20 kilometers southwest of downtown Berlin. We hiked over to the Havel River and ate lunch on the Schildhorn Peninsula. Heard cuckoo birds all over the place. And, they were not even in a clock!! About a 12 km hike in all.
As Matthew and I began our hike into the forest along the main trail, we could see a large group of school children scrambling up ahead. We moved deeper
into the forest and within a half mile or so, there
was a huge sand pit off to the left
of the trail. A forest-type stair led down the steep enbankment to the
floor of an enormous depression in the land. It was the site of a
former sand pit that now served as a park. The embankment down which we
came also exposed a cliff of fine sand that about a hundred or so kids
were climbing up and sliding down. To the opposite side was a wetlands
and a small lake. After surveying the frolicking youths and their
teachers who had set down blankets, we climbed back up to the trail and
continued on toward the Havel River.Shortly thereafter, we came to a lake off the right side of the trail known as the Teufelsee. Various safety equipment and bouys in the lake indicated that the
lake was a popular swimming hole. On this weekday
morning, however, only one swimmer was resting on a table and a family
with two kids was walking the shoreline. In the distance, we could see
the abandoned radar dome that the US forces had constructed on a
manmade hill in order to gather intelligence on the Soviet regimes in
the East.A short distance later, we
stopped at a remote cemetery back
in the
forest. The Friedhof Grunewald Forst
is still being
used, but the most remarkable thing was the large number of graves from
May, 1945. Many of the men were in their late 50's, but their grave
markers indicated they were soldiers. I think the defenses were running
thin by then. There are several rows of soldiers and many "unknown
soldier"
graves. One grave site seemed to be a mass grave of civilian casualites from the period at the end of the war. The flowering plants
and abundant green vegetation in the cemetery provided a pleasant and
peaceful aura to the quiet resting place.The forest was fairly densely populated with areas where tall pine trees predominated, while in other areas a broad leaf tree, which I could not identify, grew as
a high canopy. Many trails crisscrossed our own trail.
Some were obviously smaller trails, but others were wide and well
maintained. Stone trail markers, placed at major intersections,
provided directions and distances to the various points ahead. One side
trail was a horse trail and as we came to it, two female horse riders trotted by on their fine
steeds.When we arrived at a paved road, we knew we were within a half mile of the lake. Our trail began a gradual, but fairly steep decline toward the river basin. A deep gorge fell off to the left of the trail. Stacks of cut timber along the trail showed us that the forest is still used for productive logging. As we approached nearer to the river, birch trees with their white bark were more common. The stacked timber was separated into two groups, pine trees and birch.
When we reached the beach at the river (which was as wide as a lake), we found that the water pumping station was under construction and the trail along the lakeshore was closed. We had hoped to hike along the shore north to the Schildhorn Peninsula to find a good place to stop for lunch. Instead, we had to backtrack up the trail and the hill. A side trail off to the left made us think we could follow it back to the lake. After several minutes and a climb over the hill there, we found that the short cut trail led right back into the construction zone (baustelle). Eventually, we went back to the paved road (the Havelchaussee) and followed it to the small community and yacht basin sheltered in the cove of the Schildhorn Peninsula.
Walking past the Schildhorn Inn and a public parking lot, within a few minutes we were at the Havel where we stopped for lunch in an overgrown playground.
On a hill behind the playground was a path
leading to the Schildhornsaeule
(The Schildhorn Column). Friedrich Wilhelm IV commissioned Friedrich
August Stueler to build it in 1845 as an expression of the
Kaiser’s romantic ideas of Christianity and his wish to
glorify it. The column, destroyed in 1945 and restored again in 1954,
depicts a stylized tree crowned by a cross from which a shield is
hanging. It illustrates the legend of the Slavic
Prince Jaczo, who, after a devastating defeat at the hands of the
Germans at
Kladow, was attempting to escape when he came to the Havel River where
it spreads out into a lake. Pressed by his pursuers,
he drove his horse into the river. Feeling that his gods had deserted
him,
Prince Jaczo swore that he would become a Christian if the Christian
god would save
him. As he reached the far bank, he hung his shield and horn
from a tree and fulfilled his promise. The name of the peninsula and
the design of the column come from these events.Saturday
Matthew fixed omelets for us at his place, and then we headed off to Spandau, a small town to the NW of Berlin. We had light rain this morning and it was cloudy, but by noon it began to clear and we had a warm sunny day.
Spandau is most famous today for being the place where
Rudolf Hess was
kept a prisoner in Spandau Prison until his death in 1987. The prison
was demolished after the death of Hess. More interesting, though is
the Zitadelle (Citadel), a
fortress which guarded the Havel River and
commerce through the area. See:
http://www.zitadelle-spandau.de/index.htmlThe
Zitadelle is one of the most
important and best preserved Renaissance fortresses in Europe. Built in
the 16th cnetury, the Zitadelle is surrounded by water and has four
bastions, one on each corner of its square design. We crossed the
bridge and entered the main gate
where tickets are purchased. Near the gate house is the Julius Tower. Originally built as a
residential and defensive fortification with 3.6 meter thick walls, the tower
also provides a lookout over the region. Stairs lead up to the bastion
and the access to the tower. Inside the tower, a circular wooden staircase winds its way to the
observation deck at the top. An adjacent museum displayed the artifacts
of the Schuetzengilde, a
gun club that dates to 1334. German gun clubs recorder the result of
the annual shooting contest on ornate disks representing the shooting
target. The winner of the contest
was the Koenig (King) for the year.We continued along the path on the wall to the bastion
in the back corner of the fortress, Bastion
Kronprinz (Crown Prince) and then back into the courtyard. Near
this back of the Zitadelle is a small, protected "harbor" for boat access to the
fortress. In the interior courtyard, the armory building housed a
museum of rifles, cannons and other weaponry that had been manufactured
locally and used, at one time or another, in the defense of the site. A
historical museum of Spandau occupied the adjacent building.After a snack lunch on a bench in the courtyard, we
left the Zitadelle and walked the short distance to the bridge over the
Havel River, just below its junction with the Spree River which passes
through the center of Berlin. The Zitadelle was situated at this river
junction and could control the commercial traffic on the rivers. Even
today, the locks on the Havel River
control the important river traffic of the area.Within
a few blocks farther, we were in the old
town of Spandau, where a town market was underway. Every produce
vendor, it seemed,
was advertising his fresh crop of Beelitz grown spargel (asparagus). We had an ice
cream cone,
and headed back to Matthew's place where we fixed chicken schnitzel
with noodles and salad. On the way back, we stopped to check out
the
bus route for my return trip to the airport and also visited the city
park of Humboldthain. This park has a high hill (Humboldthoehe) on
which was built as a WWII flak tower
(http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkspark_Humboldthain). Today, the
partially damaged tower is an observation point with spectacular
views of Berlin. On the lower observation platform there is an
aluminum sculpture by Arnold
Schatz which was dedicated in 1967 as a monument for German
reunification. The local rock climbing club also uses the concrete
ruins as a practice site. A rose garden
in the Humboldthain was established on the ruins of the Assumption
Church which was demolished after WWII.Humboldthain is next to the large Gesundbrunnen S-Bahn Station. After several days of traveling around Berlin, I am learning to appreciate the Berlin train system. You can get all around town and the regional area on the combination of the S-Bahn (fast train) and the U-Bahn (underground train). With a prepaid ticket, you can ride when and as much as you want. The longest wait time for a train during the regular day is 8 minutes. Two large, modern multi-story shopping malls flank the Gesundbrunnen Station, one opposite Humboldthain and the other on the north side of the station. In Berlin, new shopping malls have been built adjacent to, and in some cases within, many of the S-Bahn and U-Bahn Stations. Since many Berliners use the transit system for all of their city travel, it is the obvious place to locate the malls. It makes it especially easy to shop on one's way home.
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