A day that came together

We started the day late with coffee and salmon bagels. The cafe had a life size cutout of David Hasslehoff. In 1989, after the wall had come down but before reunification, he sang a song “Looking for. Freedom, at a performance near the Brandenburg Gate that became the theme song for east Germany. Of course, we had a photo opportunity with him!

Then we started ambling in the direction of the Bradenburg Gate where we were to meet our guide for a walking tour focused on WWII and the Cold War.

As we strolled along the river Spree we saw ornate bridges, and surprisingly other tourists at this time of the year. We happened upon the Dom cathedral, so we decided to go in. We caught the tail end of a short service. The priest exhorted us to spread love, which was a message that was sorely needed. The organist also gave a musical lesson from the pipe organ.

Our next stop was Douglas, a cosmetics store similar to Ulta where we tarried for some time. I got the right face refresh product this time and a hand lotion for us to share. We kept walking to the BrandenBurg Gate and I snapped some photos of the Ampellman images used for the walk/don’t walk signs on stoplights.

Amy found our guide with the pink umbrella, and I was surprised that there were eight of us. Our guide Ciaran was Irish, and he was awesome. Beside the historical items, he threw in a few gems like we were standing by the hotel where Michael Jackson held his baby out the window.

I learned that the Soviets got the best parts of Berlin because they got there first, which explains while I was here in 1993, I could only see the gate and the Reichstag from the other side. Why I had not seen that church before and many of the other sitea we passed walking from Alexanderplatz to Brandenburg Gate!

Our next stop was the Reichstag where he talked about the fire that started in 15 different places at the same time but only one Polish guy was caught and executed for the crime. Hitler used that event to invoke emergency powers and take over as the ailing Paul Hindenburg was helpless to resist.

We then walked down what Hitler had planned to be his Champs Élysée to the Soviet war memorial. Soldiers were buried here and the monument built before it was determined that this would be in WEST Berlin!! The first tanks and last used guns in the Berlin fight are part of the memorial.

We strolled through the Tiergarten which was formerly the hunting ground for the royal family, but is now like Berlin’s Central Park. Nudist hang out here in the summer and Ciaran had a funny photo of one of them chasing a wild boar who had taken his backpack.

The next site was the Memorial to the Jews killed in WWII. It’s a site that once available after reunification was very desirable for many developers, but the government chose to have have the memorial. The architect purposely left it very undefined so everyone can have their own interpretation of the memorial. Ciaran added that if one goes through the memorial more than once, each experience will be different.

Our next stop was a car park. This was where Hitler’s bunker was. However, again the government made a decision and that was to not make it remarkable so it wouldn’t be a shrine or destination. His remains, except for a jawbone in Moscow could be part of parking spot 10 or 16.

The we arrived at the former headquarter of the Luftwaffe, which is the only building of Hitler’s planned Germania that remains. It has been repurposed. He wanted to rename the city because Berlin was the Slavic name for swamp. I couldn’t help draw connections to the swamp in the US.

Across the street is a large section remaining of the wall. Throughout the city there is a brick path that denotes where the wall was.

From here we arrived at Checkloint Charlie, which is NOTHING like it was when I was here in 1983 and crossed over into East Berlin. It’s just a non descriptive place with a phony replica of the checkpoint and a photo of an American soldier looking east and and East German soldier looking west. Lame. The cafe Einstein where John Le Caree wrote his no els is still there

Amy and I were chilled from being outside most of the day, so we took Ciaran’s recommendation to end our tour at the Irish pub with a hot whisky.