We emerged from the subway last night at Breitscheidplatz into the brisk Berlin air and walked a few hundred meters to our hotel. While crossing the street I just barely caught a glimpse of an oddly deformed building sitting just half a block away. This morning we ventured off on a walking tour of Berlin, and on our way to the meeting point, we grabbed a closer look at what turned out to be Kaiser William Memorial Church. And just as I suspected… it was indeed deformed!
The 1890 protestant church was badly damaged in a WWII bombing raid in 1943.
The damaged spire of the old church has been persevered as is and its ground floor has been converted into a memorial hall. A new church was later erected nearby that consist of an octagonal building and a hexagonal tower. Both of them are made of a concrete honeycomb containing soothing blue stained glass blocks.
For some reason, it seems that churches are THE place for street performers. On the sidewalk out front was another set of breakdancers. Once they got into their routine it became clear why they pick this oh so holy location…
…it’s cuz they are performing death defying tricks, and need to be as close to the man upstairs as possible in case there is an accident.
Don’t think that’s the last of the churches we’ll see. Remember, we’re in Europe here folks.
After a brief train ride to Hackescher Markt, our tour guide took as to Berlin Cathedral.
Yup, really original naming right? Jakob the guide explained that a lot of the landmarks in this city are named exactly for what they are. So for example, a new museum would be called “The New Museum” it’s not rocket science people!
POP QUIZ!!
Q: If you had a memorial dedicated to the victims of war and tyranny, what would you call it?
A: The National Memorial To The Victims Of War And Tyranny.
If you got it right, give yourself a gold star and a pat on the back.
Speaking of school, next door to the self describing memorial is Humboldt University where Mr. Albert Einstein studied. I know I know… it should have been named The School Where Einstein Studied. But it’s not. So deal with it. Across the street from the school is Bebelplatz, best known as the site of the book burning ceremony held by the Nazi’s in 1933.
Under the plaza is a monument to remember all 451 of the degrees that once engulfed the many volumes of “non-Germanic” novels. Under the glass are empty book shelves.
Powerful.
Perhaps the most famous landmark of the city is The Brandenburg Gate.
And rightfully so. Many historical figures have passed through the gate. From Napoleon, to Hitler, to JFK and now ME! It was here that Ronald Regan said:
“Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Ah yes, the wall. The former location of The Berlin Wall can be traced all around what was once East Berlin. Where the wall once stood is now marked by a two-stone wide cobblestone path. Here you can see it slicing across the road on the other side of the gate.
You can see now why this walking tour was so brisk. There is just SO MUCH history in this city. We were just barely skimming the surface today. Of course one of the most significant times in this country was the reign of terror when Adolf Hitler was in power. Standing above the area where his bomb shelter was located sent chills down my spine. The same bomb shelter where he shot himself after ingesting poison. WHOA. That happened here!
How’s this for irony… literally a block away (no pun intended) from where Hitler breathed his final breath is The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It’s a very cool geometric memorial. It’s meaning is best left up to the individual to interpret.
One of the fascinating things that Jakob pointed out was that apparently Hitler — the loon that he was — actually had a sliver of logic in his warped mind. Once he realized that the “pure” Germans were going to be defeated in the war he came to the conclusion that they actually weren’t the superior race, and so he ordered all of the Nazi monuments destroyed.
Today the German people are very conscious of their efforts to not try to cover up the horrible past. Definitely a commendable move on their part. How else can one learn from past mistakes?
One of the only remaining Nazi buildings still standing is what was once the Ministry of Aviation…
…where much of their world domination planning sessions took place. The building is now Berlin’s Ministry of Finance. I’m not sure how you could go to work each day and walk the same halls that those heathens once walked. Creepy!
On the other side of the building is the last remaining still-standing section of The Berlin Wall.
It was getting late, and the 4-hour walking tour was coming to a close. We had just scrapped the surface of a lot of the landmarks in Berlin, and tomorrow we will dig deeper into some of the more interesting POI.
As fate would have it, we were in town just in time for the Festival Of Lights, thus tying it all together! Get it? Festival Of Lights? A.k.a. Hanukkah. The Jewish holiday. What a coinkiedink!
It’s a little early in the year to actually be related. I’m not sure if there is an intentional connection or not. But what I am sure of (from what I’ve been told) is that the Festival Of Lights is a public art festival where artists illuminate areas of the city in interesting ways. Here are a few of some of the more interesting images that I was able to capture despite the lack of a tripod. I’m as steady as a rock!
And here’s an animated GIF of one of the light sculptures on display.
Despite it’s checkered past (Berlin, not the light sculpture above) this city is definitely one of my favorite cities thus far. Top 5 for sure.
Authored by: Jason on October 19, 2008.
Filed under: Europe,Germany,Travel | 2 Comments »
Ahh how appropriate. Our 100th post here on HaveYouSeenUsLately.org, and it also happens to coincide with my birthday today! I don’t know if you know this or not, but the cool thing about turning 31 26 is that you can officially start lying about your age now. Awesome!
A birthday in Berlin. Who could ask for anything more??
We are now nearly 3 months into our trip around the world (88 days to be exact) and it has been nothing short of spectacular. 13 countries, 3 continents, and over 30 cities later and we are still standing. We’re still the best of friends with no major fights or disagreements. We haven’t suffered any major illnesses or injuries. No major setbacks in plans. Haven’t gotten too homesick (it helps that we both no longer have homes). Nothing has been stolen. And we’ve been able to keep the business running from the road without any hiccups. All in all, it’s a perfect trip thus far, and we’re really looking forward to the remaining ~140 days of adventure!
Thanks to everyone that is reading about our travels, we wish you could all be here with us! Thanks for posting your comments too. And we look forward to the next time we get to see you all!
Authored by: Jason on October 18, 2008.
Filed under: Europe,Germany,Orgish,Travel | 2 Comments »
It’s really coming down to the wire now. It just about that time when Eastern Europe starts getting really cold — which is our cue to get the heck outta dodge! The trip was strategically planned around trying to migrate around the world in tune with the seasons in order to maximize warmer weather. After all, we each only have one bag of clothes with us for the 8-month trip, and you can’t really pack a whole lot of warm (read: bulky) clothes in a single bag. More shorts and t-shirts equals more variety, and that’s a very good thing.
Oh, and speaking of ‘cutting it close’ here’s a handy little travel tip from me to you:
Don’t get a haircut if the barber doesn’t understand the language you speak.
During our brief 2-day stop off in Dresden, we decided it was time to chop the mop. Our CouchSurfing host Joyce told us that all the barber shops required appointments, so we were thrilled when walked into a nearby salon and they were willing to take a couple of walk-ins. Problem was, the only person in the place that spoke any English was a lady in the middle of getting a perm. She was kind enough to translate our hair cut style requests to the hair stylist.
“Clippers on the side with a #2 guard, and take a little off the top to even it out”
At least I think she did. It came out of her mouth sounding more like:
“Machen Sie diese Touristen sehen aus wie ein Paar von Zirkus-Clowns”
For all I know she could have just as easily been pulling a practical joke on some tourists.
Hopefully I don’t offend any beauticians reading this, but I don’t think cutting guys hair is really all that difficult. I’m fairly confident that after 30 years of watching people cut my hair, that I could do a pretty darn good job of cutting my own hair. If only I could figure out how to stand behind myself.
Anyways to make a long story about long hair getting shortened short, the lady (who by the way had the hair style of a cockatoo) spent all of 4 minutes with a quick buzz and a few snips and then dusted me off and sent me on my way. Since I had no way to communicate my thoughts…
Thanks for nothing. Now I look like a Swedish punk-ass emo kid, do you have any Rogain?
…I simply paid up and left to go look for a hat. Or a wig. And wished Jay good luck as he took his turn in the Funny Chair.
Luckily for me I was able to sort of fix my massacred scalp with a set of clippers I had packed. Jay on the other hand was a little less fortunate.
And by the way, having short hair really doesn’t help in the cold weather. Look out China! Here we come!
Authored by: Jason on October 17, 2008.
Filed under: Europe,Germany,Travel | 3 Comments »
Yet again, CouchSurfing comes through with a winner! Yesterday we met up with our new friend Anna and spent the night in her flat outside the city center. Today she took us to Karlštejn village which is about a 45 minute train ride southwest of Prague.
Exiting the train station we sampled some of the commie cola that we learned about a few days prior.
It’s sort of like a cross between RC Cola, root beer, and black licorice. You wouldn’t think it, but the advertising teams are fierce up here boy!
After getting our jolt on, we headed up the hill towards the castle.
Upon arrival at the castle gates, we discovered that entrance required a guided tour.
We decided to skip the tour since by now we’ve sort of overdosed on castles and jewels, and instead just continue on our hike along the path, deep into the wilderness.
The colors of the leaves were so vibrant my brain felt over stimulated! I hadn’t experienced a pallet like this since living in Connecticut over 17 years ago. It was nice to truly experience autumn again. If I only I had room in my bag to pack a rake so I could have made a pile of leaves to jump in.
We hiked for over 15 kilometers…
…that’s nearly 10 miles…
…past all kinds of colorful plants…
…and colorless animals…
…until we reached our destination in the city Beroun. We found a nice little resteraunt in the center of the city square where we ate a feast before taking the train back into Prague for our final night in the Czech Republic.
Authored by: Jason on October 14, 2008.
Filed under: Czech Republic,Europe,Travel | 1 Comment »
While you all are probably caught up in the marketing and fundraising going on during these last couple weeks before the general election, we are pondering how it all went down a thousand years ago.
If there is anything thing to praise organized religion for, it’s that they really know how to raise a bunch of money, and they really know how to market their beliefs to the little people — hence allowing them to raise more money. Smart. Real smart. We’ve seen evidence of their success in over 10 counties now, and today we saw yet another impressive representation of their ability for them to finance and build some really amazing structures.
St. Vitus Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral located within Prague Castle that was first built in the year 925.
It has undergone several upgrades since then as has the castle itself. Actually the castle as a whole is sort of ugly in my opinion. From the outside it looks pretty impressive…
…but inside the castle walls it’s a giant hodgepodge of new…
…and old developments all mashed together with no thought whatsoever given to continuity. Here you can see the cathedral in the background with a much more modern building in the foreground, and then some modern art version of an obelisk off to the right. Bleh.
You can still look past the eyesores however and appreciate the beauty of the ancient architectural accomplishments.
As well as the meticulous stained glass craftsmanship that went into the creation of the colorful windows.
It’s not hard to imagine how 1,000 years ago, people could so easily be manipulated into believing there was a higher power, and the church was a direct link to that higher power. I mean for goodness sake, just look at that building! No being of this earth could possibly design this cathedral! Right? I can’t say I really blame the peasants of the day for falling for the scam. Here, take my pence too.
Heck the gods even had the foresight to predict The Empire Strikes Back and foreshadowed it’s creation with this mid evil replica of Han Solo frozen in carbonite.
Damn they’re good!
And if that doesn’t convince you… well then, you just get stabbed and beaten into submission before you start to believe.
On to happier thoughts and images…
Autumn is in full swing and the colors throughout the city are eye-popping!
It’s starting to get cold and gloomy at night now.
Time to start planning our escape to Asia where we can wear shorts again. It’s hard to believe we’ve already been in Europe for 3 months now, and within a couple weeks we’ll be in Hong Kong! That’s just crazy talk!
Authored by: Jason on October 13, 2008.
Filed under: Czech Republic,Europe,Travel | No Comments »
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