Berlin
Aaron and I had a wonderful day in Berlin today. It is such a fabulous city! This is one place we definitely want to visit again. Since the city was basically destroyed only 60 years ago....and half of the city only really free as of 15 years ago....the whole city is very vibrant and new. It actually reminded me a lot of Chicago because there is a river that runs through the center and there are a lot of activities surrounding the river.
This morning...and into the afternoon....we took a walking tour of the Third Reich sites. The tour was fabulous! We learned so much and had such a new perspective about the events surrounding WWII. It was so interesting learning all these things while we were in the city where most of it unfolded. We learned more about how the Nazis were able to come into power....the situation in Berlin following WWI....the actual Battle of Berlin with the Soviets...and what is going on with the neo-Nazis today. It was fascinating. Our tour was supposed to last 4 hours, but ended up going about 5.5. Part of that was because the Berlin marathon was going on today, so the city was kind of crazy. Although it was neat because most of the roads were blocked off so we didn't have any traffic!
One of the neatest things we saw today was the TV Tower....which is a 1,000 foot tall spire which was built by Stalin in East Berlin during the Cold War. This tower soars above all of Berlin and you can see it everywhere. During this period, Stalin had ordered all the crosses and other religious symbols removed from East Berlin because the Communist philosophies did not allow for religious beliefs. However, after the spire was created--as a sign of the atheistic state--it was discovered that when the sun hit the mirrored ball at the top of the tower (the ball is HUGE and basically the spire is topped by big mirrored ball), the way the sun hit the mirrors caused a cross-like symbol to appear. Again...I'll have to show a picture....but the basic principle is that after removing all signs of religious beliefs and taking away religious freedom....the very symbol that they erected in place of religious symbols basically turned in to a giant illuminated cross during the daylight hours. The people referred to it as the 'Pope's revenge'. I think that it was God. Anyway, I thought that was so neat.
Afterwards we took a break from WWII and Cold War Sites (we also went to Checkpoint CHarlie during the tour), and we went to the Egyptian Museum and the Pergamon Museum. At the Egyptian Museum we saw the bust of Nefertiti, which has come to symbolize much of Egyptian art, and is very recognizable.
The Pergamon was so cool. They basically took a bunch of excavation findings from Pergamon in Turkey and other places in the Middle East and put them together at this museum. We saw the Altar of Zeus which this huge altar with steps that takes up a huge museum room...pictures to follow...hard to describe. The coolest was called the Processional Street...which is a street from ancient Babylon (now Baghdad) from King Nebukanezzer's time (I know I butchered the spelling!) It was gorgeous!
And for those of you who have been wondering. I don't know how much these two events have been in the American news....but they are heavily covered in CNN International. We left Budapest the day that the riots began over the economy and dislike of the current prime minister. We saw some mild demonstrations, but the demonstrations turned violent the night that we left and have been going on for about a week. We feel very fortunate because our guesthouse was only 1 block from the Parliament where all the violence has been occuring. So we would have been caught in the middle of it! Yikes! Also, there was a train wreck in Germany while we have been here and it killed everyone on board....but it involved the test run of a magnetic train line....so there were no real passengers on board....very sad. It was in a different part of the country too....so we weren't affected.
Anyway, we are taking the train to Copenhagen tomorrow.
This morning...and into the afternoon....we took a walking tour of the Third Reich sites. The tour was fabulous! We learned so much and had such a new perspective about the events surrounding WWII. It was so interesting learning all these things while we were in the city where most of it unfolded. We learned more about how the Nazis were able to come into power....the situation in Berlin following WWI....the actual Battle of Berlin with the Soviets...and what is going on with the neo-Nazis today. It was fascinating. Our tour was supposed to last 4 hours, but ended up going about 5.5. Part of that was because the Berlin marathon was going on today, so the city was kind of crazy. Although it was neat because most of the roads were blocked off so we didn't have any traffic!
One of the neatest things we saw today was the TV Tower....which is a 1,000 foot tall spire which was built by Stalin in East Berlin during the Cold War. This tower soars above all of Berlin and you can see it everywhere. During this period, Stalin had ordered all the crosses and other religious symbols removed from East Berlin because the Communist philosophies did not allow for religious beliefs. However, after the spire was created--as a sign of the atheistic state--it was discovered that when the sun hit the mirrored ball at the top of the tower (the ball is HUGE and basically the spire is topped by big mirrored ball), the way the sun hit the mirrors caused a cross-like symbol to appear. Again...I'll have to show a picture....but the basic principle is that after removing all signs of religious beliefs and taking away religious freedom....the very symbol that they erected in place of religious symbols basically turned in to a giant illuminated cross during the daylight hours. The people referred to it as the 'Pope's revenge'. I think that it was God. Anyway, I thought that was so neat.
Afterwards we took a break from WWII and Cold War Sites (we also went to Checkpoint CHarlie during the tour), and we went to the Egyptian Museum and the Pergamon Museum. At the Egyptian Museum we saw the bust of Nefertiti, which has come to symbolize much of Egyptian art, and is very recognizable.
The Pergamon was so cool. They basically took a bunch of excavation findings from Pergamon in Turkey and other places in the Middle East and put them together at this museum. We saw the Altar of Zeus which this huge altar with steps that takes up a huge museum room...pictures to follow...hard to describe. The coolest was called the Processional Street...which is a street from ancient Babylon (now Baghdad) from King Nebukanezzer's time (I know I butchered the spelling!) It was gorgeous!
And for those of you who have been wondering. I don't know how much these two events have been in the American news....but they are heavily covered in CNN International. We left Budapest the day that the riots began over the economy and dislike of the current prime minister. We saw some mild demonstrations, but the demonstrations turned violent the night that we left and have been going on for about a week. We feel very fortunate because our guesthouse was only 1 block from the Parliament where all the violence has been occuring. So we would have been caught in the middle of it! Yikes! Also, there was a train wreck in Germany while we have been here and it killed everyone on board....but it involved the test run of a magnetic train line....so there were no real passengers on board....very sad. It was in a different part of the country too....so we weren't affected.
Anyway, we are taking the train to Copenhagen tomorrow.
posted by Emily | 11:18 AM
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