We
left Rostock for our 3-hour drive to Berlin... The drive was pretty scenic with
lots of farmlands and small villages along the way. The fields of yellow rapeseeds were very
striking! On arrival in Berlin, the tour
began in West Berlin at the Charlottenburg Palace...we drove through the former
British sector along Berlin’s Champs-Élysées...the Kurfürstendamm Germany's
most famous shopping boulevard with a stop at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial
Church and victims memorial...this Church was bombed in 2016 during the
Christmas market... this area of Berlin is the home of KaDeWe, the largest
department store in continental Europe...nearby was the Reichstag, Parliament
House, the glass dome designed by architect Sir Norman Foster is one of the
city's major landmarks...next we drove by the Victory Column, a landmark that
celebrates the military successes of Prussia over Denmark and then we passed,
Bellevue Palace, the official residence of the President of Germany, the Congress
Hall, the Soviet memorial, the Memorial to the Murdered Sinti and Roma as well
as the Paris Square. During the lunch break we walked through Potsdamer Platz
and tasted a delicious German sausage. Next, we headed to East Berlin and the
to the site of Hitler’s bunker… Not much
there anymore, just an acknowledgement of the location. A highlight was stopping at the spectacular
Brandenburg Gate, the only remaining city gate of Berlin -- formerly used to
represent the separation of the city between East and West Berlin. Ironically, the Brandenburg Gate has now come
to symbolize German unity. Some almost naked guy on a platform was a truly
unnecessary addition to this historic place. We made a stop at the and nearby Memorial to
the Holocaust victims (The memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe). It
was very moving, hard to get your mind off the atrocities that happened during
WWII to the Jewish community all over Europe.
Next, we stopped at the only
remaining Berlin Wall watchtower. I
climbed the narrow and steep ladder to the top through a confined space. In
1961 the East German State closed the last "loop hole" in the Iron
Curtain with the construction of the Berlin Wall. Until 1989 this barrier
divided East from West in and around the city. Today a few remnants can be seen
in the city of the remaining pieces of the Berlin Wall before reaching the
former site of the Headquarters of the SS and Gestapo, today known as the
Topography of Terror open air museum. A brief stop was made at Checkpoint
Charlie guardhouse, the most famous crossing point between East and West Berlin
during the Cold War. It has devolved into a tourist stop in somewhat poor taste. We continued to Gendarmenmarkt...17th-century
square and the site of the twin French and German cathedrals...then to
Schauspielhaus Concert Hall, a masterpiece of German classical architecture
along Unter den Linden the tree-lined street stopping at the beautiful State
Library, Humboldt University and Bebelplatz, the square where the Nazi Party
held its infamous book burning. In keeping with the theme, we passed the World
War II Memorial next to the Bebelplatz Square. Before boarding the bus for our
return to the ship, we saw the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Museum Island and
the Berlin Cathedral. On our way out of Berlin, we passed the Alexanderplatz
with its iconic TV Tower and Red Town Hall. This was 12-hour day filled with so
much history...we enjoyed every minute….
Thanks to Alla tours for another wonderful tour!
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