Okay, we are now entering Germany, “the beer capital of the world” also the country with a lot of past. There is so much history here and I did do a couple of walking tours, one in Munich and in Berlin but to be honest I don’t think I can remember it all or do it justice. I did not realize the extent of the things that happened here, some horrific things. But, don’t get me wrong, don’t want to paint a bad picture of Germany as it is nothing like that now and there is so much more. The people are very friendly and they like to have a good time…..hence “the Beer” thing….lol. So, I will do my best to give you some of the great information I learnt on my tours and show you some great pictures of some spots I visited.
So…welcome to Germany!
1st stop - Munich
Day 52 Thur. June 11
Did breakfast, and then packed my things, worked on my blog quickly and finished Belgium, then walked to the tram stop. I stopped in the grocery store and grabbed some fruit and snacks for the train ride and then jumped on the tram to the train station. I got on at 1:36pm and worked on my blog on the train, snacked and listened to some music. The scenery was nice for some of it and others was just open areas, nothing special. We finally arrived in Munich at 5:28pm, right on time (kinda funny how their train rides are such odd times). I walked out of the station and from my directions they said to cross the street and turn left and walk one block and you’re there, and they were right, so convenient, great! I picked the Wombats Hostel here, and it was a great place, there was a small computer area, a nice lounge or atrium as they referred to it, with hammocks, some lounge chairs, bean bags and some couches, very relaxing in there when it was quiet. There was a bar on the first floor and then up to the rooms, I was in an all girls dorm with 3 bunk beds, lockers and a full bathroom…perfect. I checked in. Here are some pics…
My room, my bed is on the other side, and ya pink, the only thing I didn’t like…..lol
The lounge or Atrium
The bar, and this is where we had breakfast also.
I grabbed some pamphlets to find out what to do and see in Munich and they offered a free walking tour from our hostel and there was a tour for Dachau Conservation Camp, as well as Neuschwanstein Castle, the world famous fairy tale castle built by King Ludwig II. Known as Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty Castle”. After that I walked back to the train station to find out prices and times to go to Frankfurt and Berlin to get ahead of the game, they were very helpful at the station, I found out all the information and there was a deal from Frankfurt to Berlin, and they were also able to give me times and prices for further then Germany. I went back to the hostel to look up some hostels so I could make a decision on days, etc before I booked the tickets. I grabbed my puter and went down to the lounge area and there I saw Andy and Steph, the couple I met in Amsterdam and hung out with one night. Hi guys! (lol…ur 2nd feature in the blog) They were just waiting around to go and catch a train to move on to their next destination, so we chatted for a bit and they had already been there and Berlin so they recommended the walking tours, good stuff. So, logged online (internet was free..yahoo!) and I researched some hostels, made a decision of how long I would stay in each city and where I would stay and booked a couple. Then I went up to my room and there was 4 Chinese girls and an Aussie, I chatted with her quickly, as she has been here for a few days so I asked for some tips, she didn’t know too much but she said it was pretty easy to get area here so that was good to know. I went back down to the computer area to charge my puter as the rooms only had 2 outlets and they were taken, and so I sent an email to one of the hostels in Berlin and looked up the location of the Volkswagen Museum to see if it would be possible for me to go and check it out and take some pics for some of my friends back home. (Hi Will and Joel….I tried but not possible to get there easily, damn it). Then I finished up and back to the room to crash.
Day 52 Fri. June 12
Got up early so I could go to the train station and book my tickets and go on the walking tour. I went down and paid the 3.70 euro for breakfast and it was pretty good, the usual bread, jams, but they had peanut butter…whoo hoo!, cheese, meats, yogurt, cereal, fruit, juice, coffee and tea, the standard breakfast it seems for most countries. I saw a girl take a sandwich she made for later, and some fruit and I asked about it and she said she does it even though they have signs on the table saying “do not take food from here”…I don’t blame her, we paid for it and if I want an extra sandwich for later, why not. So finished and went and got ready, quickly walked down to the train station and I booked my tickets, I had an open ticket to Frankfurt but for Berlin and Prague I had to have a set date, so all good, that is done and out of the way. I walked back to the hostel just in time for the walking tour. He gave us some information on how to see the Conservation Camp Memorial Site and the Castle on our own and much cheaper….cool. Then off we went, our guide was Ozzie and he was part German, he has been living there for the past 8 yrs. He was very thorough with all of his information and he made it clear how very Catholic Munich is, the city of monk (that is what the name Munchen means) it was founded in 1158 symbols are a Monk and a Lion, the monk is bc they founded the city I believe many years ago. It is the capital of Bavaria, which is like a province of Germany. He mentioned how Munich wanted or wants to separate from Germany (kinda like Quebec from Canada). There was several reasons and one big point he made is that Berlin is the capital of Germany but Munich has done so much and deserves it more. He stated that there seems to be a very big difference between Munich and Berlin and they don’t ever mix, almost like rivals. Most of Munich is under 60 years old, as after the war, everything was rebuilt, they did however rebuild them to look the same, and the story is that Hitler had his solders take pictures of the city because he knew it would be bombed and so he wanted it to be rebuilt the same….very interesting. There is only 4 buildings that made it through the war and are over 60yrs old, I will point them out if I got a picture of them. We started in a square, Marienplatz,there is the town monument, Mariensäule (Mary's Column), after which the square is named. The Mariensäule dates from 1590, and commemorates delivery from the plague.
You can’t really see but there is an angel on top, bc of course they are very catholic, and then there are 4 statues around the bottom and they represent plague, war, heresy, and hunger. (sorry the pic is a bit small so you can barely see them)
There is also a very large old building which most of it did survive heavy damage in the war, so most of it is older then 60yrs old, Neues Rathaus (New City Hall).On the face of the tower is the famous Glockenspiel
The Glockenspiel plays (spiel) three times each day: 11 AM, 12 and 5pm. There are two different themes, the first in honour of the marriage of Herzog (Duke) Wilhelm V. Jesters and jousters circle each other three times in front of the seated duke and his bride, and on the third pass the blue knight unseats the red knight. The lower performance then begins what is called the "Dance of the Coopers" signifying the deliverance of the city from the plague. There are over thirty different characters as part of the carillon. It is kinda funny that all the tourists including us, come to see this performance and wait in anticipation for 12pm to come around just to see it and then it happens so fast and is not so exciting after all, but still pretty cool….lol
I videotaped it, not sure how clear it is but try these and see if you can see it ok…enjoy… :)
Just beside that is Altes Rathaus (Old City Hall) it was destroyed in WWII and later rebuilt and is now a toy museum, it was where Hitler and Goebbels planned Kristallnacht in 1938 ... He told us that a few of the Nazi offices, have now been taken over obviously and this is one, funny it once was part of the Nazi army and now is a toy museum and there is another one I never got around to, to take a picture but it is now a camping and gear store, or something like that. Here is old town hall.
So, we move on, as Germany is well known for beer, apparently Munich is called the “Beer Capital of the World” and we walked along and came across the Hofbräuhaus, it was one of the beer halls used by the Nazi Party to declare policies and hold functions so it is a traditional beer hall, not the oldest, that is the Augustiner-Keller (didn’t go and didn’t get a pic, sorry) anyways, it is a traditional beer hall and beer garden in the heart of Munich, always lots of tourists and for sure three is the old men with burly beards and pot bellies wearing their lederhosen, and ya, I missed getting a pic of that, so disappointed. gggrrr. They play traditional Bavarian music and dance, the beer is served by the litre (6.40 euro, most expensive, you can get it much cheaper at other beer gardens or halls) and the waitresses serve huge pretzels.
From there we walked along to Karlsplatz.
This is the church that was suppose to be built with no windows, Legend has it that the Devil visited the Frauenkirche while it was being built. Seeing that it was tall and windowless, he wanted it as a shrine for himself. He made a pact with the architect and promised to help build the church if the architect wouldn’t add any more windows. A few years later when the Devil returned to visit the church, he was furious to see full length windows across all sides of the church. But the architect was prepared. The windows had always been there. But because of the tall pillars in front of them, the Devil hadn’t noticed the windows the first time he’d visited. In his fury, the Devil stamped his feet hard and left his footprint in the church.When you look through the front door, it seemed as though there was no windows, due to the columns that hide them
here is the devils footprint
This too is one of the structures that survived the war, but just the 2 tall towers, and one is a slight bit taller then the other
sorry, only took a pic of the one tower as the other one was under construction for constant repairs.
During the tour he talked a lot about Hitler taking over power and how Munich became his “capital of the movement”, also about the social and communist movement, etc. I would go on but you can always Wikipedia it, as I would have to do to remember it all. Munich is known for more then that, it is home to corporations like Siemens and BMW of course to mention a few. You see tons of BMWs and Mercedes all over, in Canada or the US you have to have a lot of money to own one but here, anyone can afford them and the taxis are even BMWs and Mercedes. (u’ll see that in the Berlin entry) It was quite interesting to see some monuments along the way that we would never had noticed if we did not do the tour. There are some bricks in the road in a line, that were barricades for the armies and there was a golden line that was for people to go around in order to get to the other side without going through the barricade, also a plaque in the sidewalk commemorating the police men that died during the Beer Hall Putsch (of 1923). He talked more about the beer gardens, the history, stories of Oktoberfest, the first one was a wedding celebration for Ludwig I and Therese in 1810. In honour of the bride the Oktoberfest grounds were renamed ‘Theresien-wiese’. Everyone agreed it was a decent piss up so it is still repeated each year ever since. Nowadays, it attracts 7 million visitors each time, who manage to slurp 6.5 million steins of beer. It always starts on the 2nd to last Saturday of September and ends on the 1st Sunday of October. Munich being very catholic, everything is closed on Sundays. Here are some random pics
This is called Maibaum (meaning may tree - known in English as a maypole) and the villages compete who has the tallest and the straightest one. It is cut down every three to five years and re-erected in the following year. It is part of their May 1st celebration, holiday-Maibaumaufstellen-Men in Lederhosn and girls in Dirndln carrying long poles and meet on the central square where this is located.
Berlin calls Munich backwards and so a funny thing is this clock in the next picture actually does work backwards.
At the exact same time I took a pic of the one clock and it says 5 to 11, then across from it there are 2 other clocks that were the correct time, 5 after 1, so it works backwards, I guess Berlin is right…lol.
Most of the fountains in Germany you can drink the water, and go ahead and fill up your bottles. same as Switzerland. There are 2 in the whole of Munich that you can not and they are labelled with a small plaque, but for a joke sometimes, some people will come along and remove the plaques, but our tour guide kindly let us know which one these were. I got a pic of one and ironically enough the statue on top is of little red riding hood and the wolf. The other fountain is safe.
We stopped for lunch right near this fountain, in Viktualienmarkt which has a bunch of different booths of foods, sausages, cheeses, fruits, etc. We had a Bratwurst sausage sandwich, and you ordered red or white (for the kind of sausage), mustard or no mustard and beer or no beer….so for me it was red, no mustard but ketchup and I got a terrible look from the girl, as they would never eat bratwurst with ketchup, oh well I do…and no mustard, and no beer for me either unfortunately. We ate the yummy sausage and then continued on,
We went to “The Residence”, which is the royal family home, just a pic of a part of it. This is right along the same street of the monuments I mentioned before.
The same area there is Odeonspltz and Ludwigstrasse,and the street Residenzstrasse this is the area where Hitters “Beer Hall Putsch” was stopped. Ok, now you need some history on that since I mentioned it twice- The Beer Hall Putsch also known as the Munich Putsch was a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of Thursday, 8 November and the early afternoon of Friday, 9 November 1923, Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludenodorff, and other heads of the Kampfbund unsuccessfully tried to gain power in Munich, Bavaria and Germany
here is a link if your interested in it (sorry don’t want to type it all)
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/beer_hall_putsch_of_1923.htm
some pics of the building that was built for Ludwig- Feldherrnhalle
We walked through the Residence park and there were paintings depicting some of the history in Germany on the walls of the building, here is just one I got a shot of
This is the University, it was destroyed in the war and rebuilt with the steel and glass
We walked through the path of the art museum and since Hitler had a passion for art, he left a sign of himself there, as he apparently did for some other spots throughout Germany.
Can you figure it out? of course the swastika in the mosaic pattern, sorry not the greatest pic for making it out but it is there.
That was technically the end of the tour but he decided to walk us along to see the some lighter side of things …. “the surf wave” pretty cool stuff, it is just under a bridge and the water pushes through so strong and it makes waves and guys just go with their wetsuits on and try some surfing. The water is not very deep at all either.
here are a few of the Isar river where it is calm
This is on the way to “Englisher Garten, Munich’s famous 1000-acre park (twice the size of NY’s Central Park) is best known for its four beer gardens (Chinesischer Turm, Seechaus, Hirschau, Aumeister) and nude sunbathers (missed that too, oh well) this is the heart and soul of Munich. So we ended at the Chinesicher Turm, and they had a band playing there and lots of people just chilling out and drinking beer, I missed out on taking a pic of some of the men in their lederhosen, crap!
Well, that is the end of the tour and I am sorry I could not convey the complete tour to you as Ozzie did for us, but I did my best, and I hope you liked it. I decided after that 4 hr tour, that since I was not a beer drinking I wasn’t going to stay and hang out at the beer garden, so I headed back to the hostel. I got in the room and I met a girl who was from the Northern part of Germany and she was here visiting some friends, I grabbed my puter and went down to search for a hostel for Berlin, and check out some other options of things to do in Germany. Then I went back up and I met 2 other new roommates, Lauren from Virginia and Jessica from Pittsburgh, they were telling me about this great little place in Croatia that they were just in Split, and I think I might add that to my travels, just to check it out. Finally I ventured out to find some food and sadly enough I ended up at Burger King, yuck….it was cheap but you have to pay for extra ketchup or mayo, and actually the packet of mayo says "’pomme frites sauce’, thought that was kinda funny since I am one person who does us it for my french fries…lol. I went back to the hostel after, did a load of laundry and had to wait forever for a drier as 2 out of 4 were not working, and then I finally turned in for the night.
Day 53 Sat. June 13
Got up and headed down for breakfast and I brought a baggy with me so I could make a sandwich for lunch also. I had the usual and made an extra sandwich for lunch, I ended up sitting with this guy and we started chatted about our travels. Taylor,from North Dakota, he is travelling a bit before he heads to Prague to study, so we exchanged emails for when I am in Prague we can meet and he can maybe show me around. Cool. I made a sandwich and packed up some of my fruit and headed back to my room to get ready to go. I chatted with Lauren and Jessica again quickly and then made my way to the train station to head out for what might be a depressing entry, going to Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. I wanted to see this as unfortunate as it is, this is part of German history. There are many of these Memorial Sites throughout Eastern Europe. this one in particular, on March 22 1933, a few weeks after Adolf Hitler had been appointed Reich Chancellor, a concentration camp for political prisoners was set up in Dachau. This camp served as a model for all later concentration camps and as a >school of violence< for the SS men under whose command it stood. In the twelve years of its existence over 200,000 person from all over Europe were imprisoned here and in the numerous subsidiary camps. More then 43,000 of them died. On April 29 1945, American troops liberated the survivors.
The Memorial Site on the grounds of the former concentration camp was established in 1965 on the initiative of and in accordance with the plans of the surviving prisoners who had joined together to form the Comite International de Dachau. The Bavarian state government provided financial support. Between 1996 and 2003 a new exhibition on the history of the Dachau concentration camp was created, following the leitmotif of the >Path of the Prisoners<
(information straight from the leaflet)
Ok, so I had to take the train there and then a bus right to the grounds, and I have to say, you automatically get the mindset of what it must of been like for them to be travelling to the place, not knowing what they are in for, probably thinking good thoughts that they would have work and make some money for their families, but that was not the case.
You get up to the Jourhuas, it was the only entrance to the prisoner camp
‘ARBEIT MACHT FREI’, that is set in the middle of all the camps gates, and it means “Work sets you free”
I am just going to add pictures and enter some information for them, I apologize for the depressing entry again but like I said it is part of German history and is interesting to know exactly what went on, as of course we don’t learn that in school and it is worse then we may have ever thought.
These are some pics after walking through the entrance, just of the grounds and buildings and the roll-call area, the prisoners were forced to line up mornings and evenings to be counted and often had to stand motionless for several hours. If a prisoner was missing, such as after an escape attempt, this torture could be drawn out for many hours. (there is a photo of them standing in roll-call)
The maintenance building is not the site of the exhibition, there are tons of photos, and information about everything that happened here, as well as some items on display that were found of some of the prisoners. They show a short documentary about the camp and it really was graphic, but made you realize the extent of it all.
this is an International Memorial built in 1968
some of the things inside and some photos
a monument that was made
something they used for torture, you tie the prisoner to the table and then they beat them
prisons uniform
The Bunker (the camp prison) was a central site of terror with the concentration camp. Punishments (whippings, pole hanging) and executions were conducted in the courtyard. The pic of the wall, if you look closely you can see bullet holes from where they would shot the prisoners on the spot. The rooms are from all inside this building.
this is taken through the small hole in the door
The camp fencing was made up of grass strips, ditches with an electrified barbed-wire fence and the camp wall. SS men guarded the camp grounds from seven towers. If a prisoner stepped onto the grass strip he was shot at. (and apparently alot of the prisoners would do this on purpose to be shot out of their misery)
The camp road, the poplars were planted by the prisoners and ran between the barracks. This was the main meeting place for the prisoners during the few free hours they had.
Seventeen barrack blocks stood on both sides of the camp road.The first two barracks on both sides were used for different purposes. In the course of the years, the canteen, the camp orderly room, the library, a SS museum, training rooms for the prisoners personnel and production facilities for the armaments industry were all located on the left side of the camp road. Located on the right was the sick bay with the death chamber, which in the course of the war was extended from 2 to 13 barracks. In the blocks 1, 3 and 5 the SS conducted horrific medical experiments on the prisoners from 1942 onwards.
The only 2 Barrack buildings left there
These housed the prisoners and every barrack was divided into four so-called Stuben, comprising of a day room and dormitory. Designed to accommodate 200 prisoners towards the end of the war each barrack was catastrophically overcrowded with up to 2000 prisoners.
Here is a look at the dorms, the wash area, and the toilets
I could not imagine, what that would have been like for those people. Very sad.
Located behind the accommodation barracks was a separated area with production facilities and offices. These included a camp market garden and hutches for rabbit breeding. During the war a disinfection building for the prisoners clothing was built. In the spring of 1944 the SS set up the so-called special barracks. This was a bordello in which female prisoners from the Ravensbruck concentration camp were forced into prostitution. These buildings were tore down prior to erecting the Memorial Site. Three religious buildings were built in this area.
Catholic Chapel
Jewish Memorial
Protestant Church
in addition Holy Blood Covent
Russian Orthodox Chapel
The crematorium area. In summer 1940 the SS had a crematorium built because the number of dead risen dramatically. this area was located outside the prisoner camp and was only accessible by passing through the SS camp.
In 1942/43 a second large crematorium (called barrack X) with four furnaces and a gas chamber for mass extermination was built; it was, however, never put in operation. Executions and murder operations were though carried out in the crematorium.
Disinfecting chambers
waiting room
disrobing room
gas chambers
Incineration room and execution
That was rather strange walking through there, totally unbelievable that it could happen but it did
These are some memorial sites on the grounds behind the crematorium,
the first one is the burial of the ashes
Grave of many thousand unknown
Pistol range for Execution
So, that is it, I know rather depressing but it was interesting to see, as like I said there is a lot that we did not learn in history class about it, most of that is the more horrific, graphic side but still German history. And, really Germany of course is not like this now, the people are quite friendly and everyone was very happy, well with so many beer gardens how can you not be….lol But seriously Munich is a great city and has come very far since the war.
I left the concentration camp and waited for the bus and there I met Sowmya, she is from India and she is working in Munich and was lives in the U.S. We chatted for awhile, she was very interested in my travels and to know how safe it was as she had a desire to do so but was hesitant being a single girl traveling alone, but I assured her it was not bad at all. We took the train together back to Munich and from there I headed off to the grocery store and got some things and then back to the hostel. I met another roommate, Lindsey from San Fran, she was teaching English in Spain I believe and now was doing a bit of traveling. I went online to try again to book a hostel and then went back to the room again and I met Tiffany, from Florida, she was studying in France and decided to take a wkend trip to Munich, good for her. It was her 1st time traveling alone and she was nervous but again I reassured her it was safe and I have met a lot of single girls traveling alone. We went down to the bar to use our coupons that we received when we checked in for a drink at the bar, and just chatted for awhile, then I went and grabbed something to eat and we went back to the room. All the girls were in the room, we had an Aussie just travelling around, a girl from Singapore, Lindsey, Tiffany, the other girl from Germany and myself, so a room full of single girls all traveling alone, how appropriate. We all chatted a little about our travels and then turned in for the night, I have a very early train to catch in the morning to head to Frankfurt.
2nd stop - Frankfurt
Day 54 Sun. June 14
Got up bright and early, got ready and off I went, checked out and walked to the train station. I saw my roommate from Singapore, she was also catching an early train out, we grabbed a bite to eat and then went out separate ways to our platforms. The train was late about 15 min, and we had to change platforms, so finally got on and found a good seat and just relaxed. Even though the seats on the train are much bigger then those on a plane, I could not get comfortable to sleep at all, but I have to say that 2nd class is pretty good, pretty pretty pretty good. I guess the only real bonus of 1st class is extra service and I am not really worried about that too much, so happy with the train rides I have had to take so far, lots of leg room and bigger seats.
We arrived in Frankfurt at 10:30 am and I walked right across the street and there was the hostel, so convenient, I love it!
this is a view up to the hostel, we are the 2nd floor with the balconies
I checked in but could not go in my room yet so I put my bags in the luggage room, and logged online for a quick bit to finally book a hostel for Berlin. I was waiting for Sabine to arrive and we were going to do some touring. Just a recap, Sabine is the girl I met and toured around with in Ireland, she lives just north of Frankfurt, so we got in touch and we are hanging out today. She arrived and off we went to go to the Open-air Museum Hessenpark, it is a reconstructed half-timbered houses of classic home in Germany from many years ago. They actually dismantled the homes where ever they were and brought them here and reconstructed them to build like a small village. The homes are from all different areas of Germany. They also have some museums in them showing how soap is made or bread, and meats. There is a whole farming area with all the old equipment used. There was one building that had some of the statistics of how many German people were packed up and shipped out of Germany, into other countries. They had a display of an old train car, that you go inside and there is an audio playing of the German people talking, it was like when they were all stuffed in one car and shipped off, there were small cracks in the sides that you could see some video playing showing what these people would have seen when this happened. It was a very interesting little place, like walking back in time I guess for some people.
I will just post a bunch of the pics I took along the way
that is me in the middle of the made up town square
this is what a general store used to look like
an old farm house and stables
a lot of the houses back in the day in the villages, had writing on them, it states who built the house, the date, something like that
an old school house inside
this is the train car I was talking about
It was a very interesting little place and really neat that they could take down homes, label and number them and then rebuild them here to look the same. They had a lot of work ahead of them as there was a lot more to be built.
We had a quick bit to eat, and I had a German potato, it was like a baked potato but boiled and they take the skin off, serve it just cut open with lots of sour cream, and their sour cream is really tangy but good. Then we indulged in some classic German dessert, we got a piece of apple crumble and a cheese cake, was very yummy! Then we headed back to Frankfurt. Here is Sabine and her BMW…
I went and checked into the hostel and got my room, dropped my things off (this is the first time I forgot to take a pic of the room) it had 4 bunk beds and a full bathroom, no lockers but all good, you could get one out in the hall with a small deposit. This particular hostel had a deposit for a lot of things, guessing they have had problems in the past. The common was a few tables and there were 2 small balconies. I met one roommate, Gina from Florida, she was just doing some traveling before going back to school, visiting friends and her grandparents. We left and went for a walk down by the water, and through the town square and I took some more pics of course…
this is town square, it is pretty classic of the old style buildings
some street performers
Frankfurt is mostly the industrial part of Germany, lots of different businesses, and there are restaurants of all kinds, as it is very international here (u will see all the glass, tall buildings)
this one pic is what was right beside my hostel, I did not realize that Germany was into the sex trade also, apparently a lot of other countries are, just not a bold as Amsterdam, forgot to mention that, when I was in Switzerland the trams had advertising for escort services, and here there were also peep shows, and lots of sex shops
the train station
I returned to my room and I met 2 other roommates, Liza, she was from Germany and was in Frankfurt to study dance, and Lorika, she is from Japan, and is living in T.O for a year learning English, she just decided to take a little trip while on a break. We all chatted for awhile about our travels, etc, then Lorika and I went into the common area and logged online, I finally booked a hostel for Berlin and checked some train information. We met a gentlemen that was from Holland, he was just doing some traveling for vacation. He runs an elevator repair business and he does do some traveling for business. He said he enjoys staying at hostels over hotels as you get to meet a lot more people, and I will tell you for the time I was there, I did see him talk to almost everyone and tell them all the same stories he told us. He talked about his business, where he has been, what he has done, etc. Very nice man. After that went and crashed for the night.
Day 55 Mon. June 15
I slept in a bit today, was a rainy, crappy day. Then got up in time for brkfast, they served the usual, I guess it is considered the continental breakfast of Europe. Bread, with cheeses, meats, jams, yogurt, cereal, muesli, coffee, tea and juice. I ate and then got cleaned up. I headed over to the train station to the post office and grabbed a large padded envelope to mail out some things, returned to my room and packed it all up and filled it out. I quickly spoke with my cousin to arrange to get together later in the day. I walked back to the post office an mailed the package off, easy enough. Then I jumped on the tram and headed over to visit with my cousin and my 2 new 2nd cousins. I arrived and the girls were a little shy of course, but so adorable….Sylina and Maria. Got a tour of their flat, very nice, different set up as there is a small room just off the kitchen eating area, and there is a second bathroom that way also. Very nice balcony and a nice garden area outside. We sat and chatted for awhile, got some information about getting my Maltese citizenship and passport possibly, and watched the girls. It is interesting to watch how twins are, there is always a battle of some sort, of course for attention and then both wanting the same toy, etc, but very cute little girls. I forgot to take a pic to put on here, but trust me they are very cute. I love how one looks like Chad, very Maltese and the other looks like Bernie, very German. So, after that little visit I headed back to the hostel and it was till raining, it just did not want to let up. I got back on the tram and back to the train station. I took a quick walk to find some food and I found an Indian restaurant, yum, I was the only one there so I got great service. I ate and then back to the hostel. I chatted with Gina for awhile and then took a nap. I got up later and went online to transfer some pics and search some more information about trains, etc. Then off to bed…tomorrow is Berlin.
Day 56 Tues. June 16
Got up to another rainy day, went for brkfast and I made a sandwich to go. Packed my things, checked out, and headed to the train station. I got on the train and I worked on my blog for awhile, we arrived in Berlin just after 1pm, and I had to call the hostel to find out how to get there. I had to take an s-bahn train to Friedrichstrasse station, and then walk out and over the bridge, it was just up the street from there. Helter Skelter, that was the name of the hostel, it was ok, you walk in and there was loud music playing, seemed pretty laid back. I didn’t like that fact that there was one key and it stayed at the reception desk, but what can you do. I walked in my room and it was scary, not the hostels fault but the people staying in there. I claimed my bed, made it and locked my things up.
I left and walked down to find out where the walking tour started for tomorrow and how long it would take me to get there. I found it, took some pics along the way
there is a Mercedes taxi cab….lol
and a few more taxis
Here are some of the dealerships that were on the bottom floor of buildings along the city streets….pretty wild
Here u go Will and Joel, got a few of the VW’s at the dealership show room
a bunch of police blocking off a side street
So made my way out of the city center area, and decided to walk over to the Ramones Museum. It isn’t that they had anything to do with Berlin, it is a museum that was made by a guy who followed the Ramones throughout their career and he had a bunch of different paraphernalia from concerts, to some of backs items, so I took a walk through there. Here are just a few pics
walked back to the hostel and happen to come across this cool artsy fartsy area, some pretty neat things all made out of old scrap metal
Finally I went to the grocery store for some things and stopped for a quick dinner and that is where I finally had a beer in Germany, it was a special brand and they mixed it with Fanta soda, and it was good. Then I got back to the hostel, put my groceries away, logged online and then went to crash. There was a guy and girl already sleeping, and very early in the morning the two other roommates returned from their late night out. There was one in the bunk above me and throughout the rest of my sleep, all kinds of things kept falling from his bunk and he for some strange reason had plastic bags of things that kept making noise whenever he moved….drove me crazy!
Day 57 Wed. June 17
Up to my alarm and decided to sleep a little longer. Finally got up, had to pay 3euro for brkfast so I did, and it was the same standard one again, and if you wanted juice you had to pay an extra .50, so dum. I finished, got ready, packed a lunch and made my way to meet for the walking tour. There was a lot of people there, but they broke everyone up in different groups and we had Adam as our tour guide. I was very interested in this tour after doing the Munich one first and I was told this will continue that one and of course give a bit of a different view of the the whole thing, with Hitler and the war. So to start a bit of Berlin information
Berlin is the capital city of reunited Germany. Berlin is a young city by European standards, founded in the 13th century.
again here is a link and it is rather interesting to read it, explaining how it was divided as East Berlin and West Berlin and many families were separated and they could not see each other for several years, as no one could cross over to either side for any reason what so ever, read the link (again, sorry i don’t want to type it all but it is important information)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin
So we started right at Brandenburg Gate, Berlin’s main landmark and former gate to the city, it was located right behind the border inside the Soviet sector during the years of division. Pariser Platz was part of the border strip and thus inaccessible to the public. The sealing off of the border began at the Brandenburg Gate.
this is some of the sculptures in between the columns.
Pariser Platz is the square immediately behind the Brandenburg Gate when approaching the centre of Berlin from the Tiergarten in the west. Until 1814 the square was known simply as Viereck (the Square). In March 1814, when Prussian troops along with the other Allies captured Paris after the overthrow of Napoleon, it was renamed Pariser Platz to mark this triumph. The statue on the top of the Gate is an angel on a horse and it is looking over at the French Embassy. There is also the American Embassy there and the the Academy of Arts. Also the famous Hotel Adlon, it partly survived the bombing in the war, and it is also known as the hotel where Micheal Jackson stayed when he dangled his child over the balcony. (ironic that I am writing this just a few days after his sudden death, so crazy… he’s gone)
From there we walked along to the Reichstag, the first parliament of the German Empire. another link on the history of this building
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_building
the big glass dome you can see is actually a walk way that you can go in and walk around and looking down in the middle you can see the parliament meetings, it is said that it was build this way so that those who were most important in the decision made in these meetings were the people of the city and therefore they should be able to see. This building is located just to the left of the Gate and then walking along to the right was came up to the New Holocaust Memorial ….The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, as it is officially called, was designed by the New York architect Peter Eisenman. It consists mainly of 2,711 gray concrete slabs of varying heights arranged in a tight, waving grid that extends over more than five acres in central Berlin. They tell you to interpret it whatever way you want, some examples is how families were separated and lost from each other, or how the Jews were buried several on top of each other which would be the different heights of the concrete slabs, it was interesting.
Next we walked over to a parking lot and not really sure why until Adam finally explained that right below us is the site of Hitler’s Former Bunker, where he killed himself. The point of it being a parking lot was that the people of Germany of course did not want any type of monument for him or any reminders either, there is only a sign that states what it is and shows a floor plan of what the bunker looked like. So it was demolished many years ago and filled in and now just a spot for people to park their cars or bring their dogs to poop, very fitting…lol
Here is a pic of a building that was affected my the war, it stayed constructed but you can see the damage.
Next is Luftwaffe Headquarters…
This was the head quarters to the German air force. Also this building was huge; and extremely important, it somehow remained nearly untouched to the bombing. It's used as a government building today. When we were there since it was an anniversary for 17th of June memorial there were large flower wreaths and roses surrounding this picture that was in the sidewalk, it is a black and white pic of the people that gathered there years ago for a protest I believe, on the wall there is a painting depicting a happy, harmonious life back then which was not the case, and you can see the bullet marks on the building also.
this is Adam our tour guide also
Walking along the road a ways we got to one part of what was left of the Berlin Wall, there apparently a few locations throughout the city where parts of the wall are still standing, this is just one location
the walls used to be covered in graffiti, and as you can see most of it has been chipped off and people still to this date try to chip away at it.
Next is
Checkpoint Charlie "Checkpoint C" was the name given by the Western Allies to the most well known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Germany and West Germany during the Cold War.
the picture is a young us troop and he is watching the Soviets and on the other side is a Soviet troop watching the Americans
this is a photo of what it looked like years ago
We walked along to get to the next destination and there was a chocolate shop that had some huge forms of buildings and things in Berlin made out of Chocolate
Our next stop was Gendarmenmarkt and there is the Konzerthaus and the French and German Cathedrals
From there we got to Bebelplatz which is where the Humboldt University is
St. Hedwig’s Cathedral, Berlin's oldest Roman Catholic church
the Opera house which I did not take a pic of, as well as the Book Burning Memorial site
The Nazis burned around 20,000 books, there is a glass case set in the ground, giving a view of empty bookcases, commemorates the book burning. Furthermore, a line of Heinrich Heine is engraved, stating "Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen" (in English: "Where they burn books, they will also burn humans in the end"). Students at Humboldt University hold a book sale in the square every year to mark the anniversary.
here is the monument, if you look at it closely, you can see the book shelves
we needed to walk very quickly away from this area as there was a protest demonstration coming up the road, with lots of police and a huge crowd and it had something to do with the Students protesting University fees and ya I took pics
From there we walked past Neue Wache,(New Guard House)The building served as a royal guard house until the end of World War I and the fall of the German monarchy in 1918. It was later redesigned as a memorial for the German war dead. The interior was converted into a memorial hall with an oculus (circular skylight). The Neue Wache was then known as the "Memorial for the Fallen of the War." The building was heavily damaged by bombing and artillery during the last months of World War II, and a glass prism structure with an eternal flame was placed in center of the hall. The remains of an unknown German soldier and of an unknown concentration camp victim from World War II were enshrined in the building. Now it the "Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Tyranny,"and a sculpture Mother with her Dead Son. This sculpture is directly under the oculus, and so is exposed to the rain, snow and cold of the Berlin climate, symbolising the suffering of civilians during World War II.
I know all that writing for one small pic of a statue
Now moving onto the last part of our tour, Museum Island, and it is just that, you walk over the bridge and it is an island in the Spree river in the centre of the city and there is several internationally renowned museums, and we went up to Berliner Dom
our tour guide proceeded to tell us the story behind the Berlin Wall coming down, after 30 years of separation, at a conference the spokesmen for the party did not read his memo notes from a meeting earlier in the day and when asked by a journalist what they were going to do about the protests of the wall and the borders, he quickly glanced at the notes and saw that it stated that they would allow people to cross, but what he did not read was that it was as long as they had proper paperwork. So he answered the journalist that they would allow people to cross over and then was of course asked when and he paused and then said “affective immediately” and because this was on the radio, etc people from all over heard this and started on their way to the borders to reunite with their families. When they approached the border they pretty much brought it down, and there was nothing the guards could do when they were completely outnumbered. That is the story he gave us, not sure if it is 100% true but it happened and Berlin became one city again and people were reunited, that is a good thing.
That was the end of our walking tour and it was very informative, and I was glad to learn all that I did about German history as horrific as some of it was.
I walked along to explore some other sights and I ended up taking a train down to the center of former west-Berlin and stopped in the large Sex Museum, I am not going to add any pics, but it was interesting, there was some very old items in there, and Chinese influenced items, etc. There was a funny collection of ceramic bears that were dressed in all different outfits, I guess a representation of Berlin and Sex….lol. I left there and walked over to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche or Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is one of Berlin's most famous landmarks. The damaged tower is a symbol of Berlin's resolve to rebuild the city after the war and a constant reminder of the destruction of war.
I took the train back and walked back to the hostel, I went in my room and all the other roommates were gone, so the room was nice and clean so here is a much better look at the room, and I changed beds to one with out a bunk, nice for a change
I logged online for awhile checking things in Prague for my next stop and then charged all of my things and off to bed, at about midnight I got 4 new roommates, all from England, 3 girls and 1 guy, didn’t really meet them.
So tomorrow, train ride to Prague-Czech Republic…..just a few days there so will be short but good. Until then……..hope everyone is well!
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