Berlin City Tour

On Monday, as I mentioned before, Katie and I took a bus tour of the city and saw a lot of major tourist attractions. Among my favorites were the Brandenburg Gate which stood separating East and West Berlin.

The Berlin Wall was approximately fifty yards from the gate and is marked all throughout the city with a double line of stones to remind us where we once would not have been able to cross.

Katie and I remarked how when we were in fifth (she in sixth) grade, we would not have been able to walk through the Brandenburg gate, as we freely did on Monday morning. Incredible. Being there made me remember my friend Jennifer Dean from elementary school. Her mom was German, and her father American, I think. Her parents divorced when we were maybe in 3rd or 4th grade and a month after the Wall fell in fifth grade (9 November 1989), her mother packed up Jennifer and her sister and moved them back to Germany. I've wondered what became of her ever since.

Later that evening, Casey drove us (Katie and me) around to see a few more things up close. We walked around by the fountain in front of the Altes Museum and the Berliner Dom (pictured).

Across from the Adlon Hotel (where Michael Jackson hung his baby from a balcony), and bordering the Tiergarten, we walked around the Holocaust Memorial which was opened to the public in 2005. In the pictures, you can see that there are rows and rows of cement blocks varying in height from maybe three feet to fifteen feet. According to the architect, Peter Eisenman, the cement blocks are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. Interesting.

We drove by the famous Berlin TV Tower.

Then Casey bought us a Berlin favorite, thanks to the large Turkish population in Berlin, Doner Kebabs. They are similar to gyros, but much different and MUCH better. Tasty! Thanks Casey!

Delicious! (Thanks Lindsay for insisting that we don't miss this delightful meal!)

Stay tuned for more adventures!