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Sunday

A big day today! Matthew and I rode the train downtown and began a hike on the west side of the large City Park called the Tiergarten. First, though, we saw the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church -- unrestored large part of a grand "king's" church. The church was built by Kaiser Wilhelm II and its title was given in honor of his grandfather Kaiser Wilhelm I. The foundation stone was laid on March 22, 1891, Wilhelm I's birthday. Designed by Franz Schwechten, who planned a large church in neo-Romanesque style, the church was consecrated on September 1, 1895, but the entrance hall in the lower section had not been completed. It was opened and consecrated on February 22, 1906. The church was badly damaged in an air raid on the night of November 23, 1943. The ruins have been left standing as a memorial to the destruction of Berlin during WWII. A new tower stands side by side with the ruins. A plaque on the ruin shows how the original church looked.


Then, we walked by the Zoo. Located on the southwest side of the Tiergarten, entrance to the Zoo is made through the famous elephant gate. We walked along the side of the Zoo and were able to catch glimpses of some of the animals including llamas and an ostrich, among other exotic animals. That brought us to the edge of the Tiergarten at a place where the Spanish Embassy is.

The Tiergarten (which means the animal garden) was once a hunting ground of the Electors of Brandenburg. It was designed in the 1830s by landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné, and at 630 acres, the Tiergarten is the city's largest park. I had plotted on my map all of the 23 or so monuments in the park, and our goal was to find each one. Some of these monuments date to the early 1900's and are not well taken care of. The signage is extremely poor, too. But, we zigzagged across the park, through the forested trails, though the flower gardens and over bridges crossing the canals until we located all but two of the monuments and statues. We even found a couple that had been added since the maps were printed. The tree-lined walkways contain several ceremonial sculptures of Prussian aristocrats partaking in an 18th century hunt. Several notable sculptures, including the four-tiered Siegessaeule, the Bismarck Memorial and several other memorials to prominent Prussian generals, celebrate the prowess of the Prussian empire.

Although the Tiergarten is now an appealing combination of dense forest and sunny meadows, it's woodland is post-WWII since the park was largely deforested after 1944. It's trees served as a source of firewood for the devastated city. You would scarcely believe that today. We ate a picnic lunch on a bench in a wooded section of a trail -- and, out of sight of the nude sunbathers!! Apparently, that is quite the thing here when the weather turns nice, and that it was -- warm and sunny, near 70 all day.

As we made our way east toward the Brandenburg gate, the city had blocked of the area of the main boulevard and the gate in order to set up a stage for the 60th anniversary of the German Democratic government. The roadblock was at the circle where the Siegessaeule stands, but we were able to get to the memorial through the tunnels that go under the busy street. The Siegessaeule (Victory Column), designed by Heinrich Strack in 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War. By the time it was inaugurated in September, 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and France in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). These later victories in the so-called unification wars inspired the addition of the bronze sculpture of Victoria, which stands 8.3 meters high and weighs 35 tons. The Siegessaeule originally stood in Koenigsplatz (now Platz der Republik) in front of the Reichstag. As part of the preparation of the monumental plans to redesign Berlin in 1939, the Nazis relocated the column, and several statues of Prussian generals, to its present site.

Just to show that the park retains some of its hunting characteristics, a red fox sauntered out of the brush and on to the trail in front of us. A dog passing on the cross trail ahead of caught a whiff of the fox and began to bark excitedly while his owner hung on tight. The fox quickly disappeared into the under story. We continued our survey of the Tiergarten and passed large open areas where the favorite park pastime of "grilling" was in full swing on this Sunday afternoon. Not far from the Siegessaeule, we passed the Schloss Bellevue. The magnificent palace is situated beside the Spree River and it has been the principal residence of the German President since 1994. Its name derives from its beautiful view over the Spree. Bellevue was built in 1786 for Prince Ferdinand of Prussia, the younger brother of King Frederick II of Prussia. It was designed by architect Philipp Daniel Boumann as a summer residence.


As we walked back across the Strasse des 17. Juni, we stopped to see the Soviet War Memorial, built in 1945, the only major structure on the course of the street between the Brandenburg Gate and the Siegessaeule. If nothing else, this memorial to the Russian soldiers who died in the quest for Berlin is massive. The twins tanks that flank the entry might even be considered somewhat gaudy.

Various other types of statues and monuments are found closer to the eastern end of the park. A big fish sculpture looks quite modern, and it is certainly whimsical. A statue of Frederick Wilhelm III overlooks a pretty and pleasant flower garten, while the very modern Global Stone Project has several intriguing features. More conventional monuments are dedicated to Goethe and another is a triple memorial to musicians Mozart, Bach and Hayden. A rather bleak memorial to homosexuals persecuted by the Nazis is a single gray block that looks like it somehow got lost from the Holocaust Memorial across the street.




About 3 pm, we made a tour of Potsdamer Platz, one of the big new developments that have been built where the wall and its no man's land stood. The SONY Center is an architectural marvel of high rise buildings and a huge interior covered courtyard. A large plastic Berlin Bear -- in electric blue and not unlike the cows that can be found in Houston -- graced the foyer of one of the new buildings. The life sized giraffe of Legoland also turned a lot of heads.


After a long day of walking, we were beat. Fortunately, the brand new Potsdamer Platz Station was right there, and we jumped on the S-Bahn train for home -- 20 minutes!! Back in Prenzlauer Berg, Matthew treated to Kaffee und Kuchen at a local bakery shop with a few tables situated on the sidewalk, and I had my first Cappuccino with a sweet roll. That night, we met Christian at the Prater Biergarten. The Prater was built in 1837 on the hill far outside the city walls. Today, it is in the Prenzlauer Berg district where Matthew lives, and is only about a 5 minute walk from my hostel. We had a good meal and some great conversation, but it turned out to be a late night. I slept well.



Monday

We had a little rain this morning, so I made it my museum day. Matthew had class all day, but he had showed me enough of how the trains work and where to go in the downtown area that I felt comfortable going by myself. The museums open at 10:00 am and the streets were damp from an early shower. There was no rain, however, as I walked to the museum district from the train station. Passing the Bode Museum and walking down the side street called Universitaets Strasse, I mingled with students heading to class at Humboldt University before I came to the "old Fritz" statue of Frederick the Great at the Unter den Linden avenue. One of the university buildings proudly displayed a bronze plaque on the wall by the sidewalk, proclaiming that "Max Planck taught here." Unless you are into physics and Planck's constant, you may not appreciate that Planck was one of the superstars of elementary particle research.



The Bebelplatz that we had been to a few days earlier lies across the street from Humboldt University, and this day permitted me a different view of the plaza. In the far corner of Bebelplatz is the Catholic Cathedral of St. Hedwig, a strangely shaped building, much less a church. The east side of the plaza is bounded by the Stadts Oper (State Opera House).


Next to the Humboldt is the Neue Wache (the New Guard House), built in 1816 to house the emperor's guard. Designed after the Pantheon in Rome, the Neue Wache became a national memorial for victims of war and tyranny after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the center of the otherwise empty square room of the building is a replica of the Kaethe Kollwitz sculpture entitled Mother with Her Dead Son. If you can manage it, wait for the waves of tourists to leave and stand in the interior as the light from the oculus alone provides light to the solemn scene.

I then went over to the Deutsches Historisches Museum (German History Museum) which is next door. Housed in the former Zeughaus (arsenal), this museum tells the complete story of the German people. I spent 3 hours there. I could have stayed longer, but my head cannot absorb so much at one time. It is an absolutely fabulous museum with a well organized and consistent story, supplemented with most extraordinary collection of artifacts, documents and maps. It is, without a doubt, the best museum I have ever been in.

Some of the more interesting artifacts to me were the Meissen porcelains from the 18th century, including a tea set and an ornamental set of the Four Continents with the highly unusual representation of the continent of America. A painting from the Napoleonic period reminds us that Wellington was almost doomed to defeat at Waterloo until Marshal Bluecher arrived with his cavalry to save the day. In the 1870's, the emperor re-instituted the military decoration for valor, the Iron Cross. The World War II exhibit has an actual combustion chamber from a V2 Rocket -- the predecessor to Werner von Braun's rocket science that put a man on the moon. The Cold War section highlights the success of the West German recovery with a Volkswagen Beetle -- which is green just like the one I myself owned in 1966!


I ate lunch along the river in front of the park that faces the Berliner Dom. Then, I walked over to the Pergamon Museum for the next 2-1/2 hours. They have some amazing stuff in that museum. Whole structures seemed to have been hauled back, eg, the Pergamon Altar, the Ishtar Gates and the Market Gate of Miletus, and displayed in the most realistic and remarkable way. Many statues of Greek and Roman gods make this quite a fine collection of one of a kind antiquities. The statue of the Boy with a Thorn is a classic. This one is a 2nd century AD Roman copy of a Greek original. The mosaic from the Via Aurelia near Rome demonstrates the Roman art at it finest. A small statue of Zeus has solved a personal mystery. I had seen numerous depictions of Zeus or Jupiter hurling a two pointed cylindrical object. According to the Pergamon Museum exhibit, that object is his thunderbolt!






The Great Altar of Pergamon, a massive stone podium about one hundred feet long and thirty-five feet high, was originally built in the 2nd century BCE in the Ancient Greek city of Pergamon (modern day Bergama in Turkey) in north-western Anatolia. The main excavation was carried out in two campaigns, in 1879 and 1904, and shipped out of the Ottoman Empire by the German archaeological team led by Carl Humann. The Pergamon Altar was reconstructed about 1910 in a museum that was built in part to receive it. The current Pergamon Museum was built in 1930.

The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. Constructed about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city, the gate was dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. The Gate was constructed of blue glazed tiles with alternating rows of bas-relief sirrush (dragons) and aurochs. The auroch (Bos primigenius) was a type of wild cattle, the ancestor of domestic cattle. The sirrush is a legendary creature that resembles a scaly dragon with hind legs like an eagle's talons and feline forelegs. It also has a long neck and tail, a horned head, a snakelike tongue and a crest. The name "sirrush" is derived from an Akkadian word loosely translated "splendor serpent."  Lions line the walls of the great hallway and other extensive wall panels from Babylon include the march of the warriors.


Miletus was an ancient city on the western coast of Anatolia (in Turkey), near the mouth of the Maeander River. One remarkable artifact recovered from the city during the first excavations of the 19th century was the Market Gate of Miletus. The enormous structure was transported piece by piece to Germany and reassembled at the Pergamon Museum. A large mosaic has also been reassembled from Miletus.

The whole day was spent absorbing as much as possible from these museums, and that really exhausted me. I picked up some fruit, yogurt, bread, cheese and snacks and ate a quiet dinner in my room. The forecast is for sunny weather tomorrow and the rest of the week. So, I am going to Potsdam tomorrow. Matthew said he will meet me after his morning classes.


Tuesday

Another big day in Berlin. Actually, in Potsdam, 25 miles southwest of Prenzlauer Berg, the neighborhood where I am staying. I did get an early start, hitting the S-Bahn station about 8:15 am. I rode the rush hour special (it was pretty crowded) to the Westkreuz (West Crossing) station where I got on the train heading southwest. Potsdam which is the last stop on the line. Got there about 9:20 am.

I was not expecting Potsdam to be such a big town. But, it is the capital of the state of Brandenburg, so it is a place of some importance. Although I had a small map, it took me a while to get oriented. Matthew had classes this morning, but told me he would meet me at "the big bridge." Now, I just had to figure out where that bridge was. Only one wrong turn, but I circled back and went across the bridge (called the Lange Bruecke) into the old town. The old town square lies at the end of the bridge. The St. Nikolai Kirche is wrapped in scaffoding while the being renovated along with the other buildings on the old square.


I hiked up the main road looking for the information office, but I missed it. After I passed the Rathaus and came to a main highway, I turned around and went back. I found a city map posted by a bus stop, and oriented myself. Then, I began to click off a few sites: the Jaeger Gate, the Dutch Quarter, the New Gate. On my way back, I found a city information office in the mall that houses the main post office.

The Platz der Einheit (Unity Square), opposite the post office, contains two memorials. Located at the edge of the park opposite the post office is the memorial for the victims of fascism, which was inaugurated on May 9, 1975. At the intersection of Strasse Am Kanal and Friedrich-Ebert-Straße stands the Memorial for the Unknown Deserter, designed by the Turkish sculptor Mehmet Aksoy (born 1939). The attempt to place the artwork in Bonn in 1989, the city for which it was created, failed because of the considerable resistance of conservative groups. In August, 1990, the city council decided to set up the memorial here in Potsdam, Bonn's sister city. The memorial which celebrates those who refused to fight in WWII was included in the re-design of the Platz der Einheit Square in 1999.



I circled back toward the Lange Bruecke so I could be there at 12:30 as we agreed. On the way, I went into the big Catholic Church, Sts. Peter and Paul. Nicely done interior. All freshly painted and renovated in 2005. The statue of Mary with a dagger piercing heart takes the cake for stark realism with a religious motif.


Behind the Catholic Church was a cemetery, so you can imagine my surprise when I went there and found that it was a cemetery and a memorial to Soviet troops who died during the taking of Berlin. No sings, no interpretive displays, everything in Russian. A nice park surrounds the cemetery and church and tourist bus parking lot (next door). In this park was something to warm Stephen's heart -- a disc golf course. I took a picture for proof!

On the far corner of the park and across the street was the French Church, a protestant church build round like the Pantheon in Rome with a columned entrance, etc. Very small scale, though, and very plain inside.


Finally, I made my way back to the bridge and waited for Matthew, who came along in about ten minutes. We went down to a park accessible from the bridge since it is on an island in the river. It is the Friendship Park and consists of gardens and playgrounds. We sat on a bench in the shade near the children's playground and ate our lunch. A "theme" boat, named the Moby Dick, cruised up the river and was quite a site. Painted to look like a whale (or perhaps, more like a shark), it even had an extension at the rear like a tail.

After lunch we walked back up to the French Church, the Soviet Cemetery and the Catholic Church so Matthew could see them. Our main goal for the day was the Sans Souci Park where the royal palaces of Frederick the Great and other rulers are. To get there, we walked down Brandenburger Strasse directly from the Catholic Church to the Brandenburg Gate (yes, they have one here, too), and then into the Park. We proceeded into the grounds along a small, tree-lined street called Allee Nach Sanssouci.

As this street ended in a "T", we turned north onto the entry to the main palace grounds. The Park is a huge wooded estate approximately 2 km across. The great palace of Sans Souci is the first that you come to. It sits high on a terraced hill with statues and fountains all around. To the east side of the upper courtyard is the burial plot of Frederick the Great, and his 11 dogs. In a move to make the palace self-sufficent, a windmill was used to process the agricultural products grown for the estate. It still rotates and towers over the palace complex.



A main road of gravel extends the length of the park from the obelisk portal on the east end, past the Sans Souci palace, to the New Palace on the west end -- 2 km away. We continued down the long, tree-lined street to the New Palace, seeing the Chinese House and the magnificent Orangerie Palace on the way back. Various other buildings of the estate served the fancy of the royal family. One of these is the Neue Kammern, a gallery of fine art. Just before exiting the Park, we came to the Frieden Church.



An oddity was found outside the park along the road. The site was established as a terraced wineyard on the hill (Winzerberg) for the palace about 1763. The Triumphtor (Triumph Gate) was commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm IV in 1848 and built according to plans by Friedrich August Stueler. In ruins today because of the air raid tunnels built into the mountain and subsequently destroyed by the Soviet army, it seems forelorn and detached from the palace. It is one of those items destroyed during the war and neglected by the DDR that are awaiting its historical restoration.

And with that, we headed back to the train station so Matthew could make his class at 6 pm. We did have time to stop along the way for an ice cream stop -- 2 kugels for 1.20 euro.

Potsdam is quite different than I expected, but, then what do I know anyway?

The weather has been great, though getting a bit warm -- mid-70's. They do NOT have AC here.

I did have an interesting experience on the train this morning. The ticket checkers came through the train on the way to Westkreuz. Not a problem for me, but a guy across the aisle got caught without a ticket. Then, on the train to Potsdam -- the same thing. And, the guy next to me got caught. I must be bad luck for them. These ticket checkers were very nice. They showed their BVG badges as they asked each person for their ticket. They were really dressed like no one special either. Quite a thing to witness. Trust, but verify.

Tomorrow, I have a light day planned. One thing I must do is re-pack my suitcase. I hope it all fits! Matthew has class until 4 pm. We will go to dinner, then we'll get an early night's sleep since we have to be at the train station at 3 am to make my 6 am flight. That will be an adventure! It is hard to believe that the trip is almost over. I am really getting used to this place.


Wednesday

Just paid my bill, and guess what? They gave me a 10% discount for a long stay. These people (all young folks - I've met 4 of them) are very nice and very proficient. The guy who checked me out said his mother escaped from East Berlin, but now she hardly wants to come over here to visit. Since I am leaving very early in the morning, I asked the clerk if Matthew could drop off the key and get the 10 euro deposit. He said: "Heck no, here's your deposit, just leave the key in the room when you leave." What a place!

On this last day in Berlin, I planned only to explore the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood a little. This is the neighborhood where I have been staying on this trip, and like most neighborhoods in any city, it has its own special places and interesting stories which are not important enough to make the tour guides, but which are a part of the history none the less. On this pleasant and sunny morning, I packed a lunch and headed up Pappelallee across the S-Bahn tracks to the next main street. Turning to the right, I passed the local Catholic Church and then came to the main street of the neighborhood, Prenzlauer Allee.

This street definitely had the business activity of a main route. Commercial buildings, stores and lots of vehicles. I walked back south until I crossed the tracks again and came to the Zeiss-Grossplanetarium located on this end of Ernst Thaelmann Park. The park was formerly the site of the gas works on Danziger Strasse. The gas works burnt coal from the years 1873 until 1981 and was the oldest and longest active gas works in Berlin. In 1984, the DDR decided that the site should be a socialist park, with decorative high-rise residential buildings, a cultural centre with restaurants and a planetarium. The planetarium opened on October 9, 1987 during Berlin's 750th anniversary. The Zeiss-Grossplanetarium is one of the largest and most modern planetariums in Europe, with a dome of 23 meters (75.5 feet). I walked through the park to its eastern side where a monument to the park's namesake makes a statement, one that seems a bit passe these days.

Following a route through the neighborhood streets on the way back to my hostel, I came to a water tower and a park with playgrounds. The Wasserturm Prenzlauer Berg is Berlin's oldest water tower, completed in 1877 and in use until 1952. The water works system for north Berlin, built by English engineer Henry Gill in 1856, initially consisted of a reservoir and a supply line tower on Windmuehlenberg (wind mill hill), just north of the Prenzlauer Gate. Greater demand for water led to the construction of the massive new water tower, nicknamed "Fat Hermann," in 1877 adjacent to the facilities on the hill. In January, 1933, the Nazi SA-troops (Sturmabteilung, storm troops) used the boiler and engine rooms of the tower as one of the first concentration camps. Today, there is a memorial to the anti-fascists who were tortured and murdered there. The water tower was decommissioned in 1952, and playgrounds occupy much of the park built on the site. Excellent views of Berlin can be had from the top of the hill.

By now, I had made the circuit of this sie of Prenzlauer Berg, so I headed back to my room to pack up for the trip home. After his classes, Matthew and I met for a farewell dinner. By mutual agreement, we decided to eat at one of the local Doener Kebab restaurants in the area. These places are everywhere and serve braised lamb in a pita bread with lettuce, tomatoes and onions. It seems that most of these places are run by Turks, and they know how to do fast food! We went to a kebab stand on Schoenhauser Allee near the Arcaden. Matthew had the combo meal of Doener Kebab, fries and a coke. I had a kebab and a beer. All for 8.40 euros.

After the meal, we walked around the neighborhood in order to make room for a final ice cream cone at the local EisZeit shop.

Thursday

Woke up using my internet alarm clock program at 2:00 am. I met Matthew at his place at 2:30 and we began the early morning transit system ride to Tegel Airport for my 6:05 am flight back to the US. Smooth and efficient, even the Acsension Day holiday schedule pf the BVG went off like clockwork. It just took a little longer than the regular day time route. Soon, I was checked in at KLM and on the sunrise flight to Amsterdam and the connecting flight to IAH and Texas.





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