Epic Summer Part III: Mega Trip--Berlin

After a wonderful week in the Alps, it was time to head north to Berlin. The parents were excited to visit someplace entirely new, and the kids were excited about the promise of a bike ride. And, after many days of heavy sightseeing, we all were looking forward to a couple of days at a more relaxed pace.

We found a great apartment in a wonderful little neighborhood in East Berlin. Prenzlauer Berg is one of those places that used to be considered shady and run-down, and is now experiencing a revival. There are lots of great little cafes and restaurants in buildings that are getting a face-lift and the tram line that runs through the center of the neighborhood takes you into the heart of Berlin in just minutes. Within a block of our apartment we walked by a Mexican restaurant. I know there are many reasons, big ones, to get excited about visiting Berlin, but this did it for us. We hadn’t had anything approaching real Mexican food since leaving the States, so we were pretty stoked.

Our apartment was fabulous. It was big and airy, with lots of windows, beautiful wood floors, and a cute little balcony. I really wished we could swap it for our apartment in Rome, but A reminded me that our tiny little apartment in Rome is one of the reasons we could take this great big trip. Priorities!

Breakfast on the balcony.

It's been a while since we had space to spread out!

The colorful buildings in Prenzlauer Berg. And the tram just outside our door.

Outside our apartment. We're the middle balcony.

And you’re probably wondering about the Mexican place. It was great! We are definitely not foodies, we’re not picky about what we eat, and food has never played an important role in our travel experience. So we didn’t feel the need to eat anything “authentic” (regardless, we had already been dining on schnitzel for over a week…). It put us in a happy place to have pinto beans, cotija cheese, and sour cream. You have no idea how much we’ve missed sour cream. But anyway, I digress…

The sights in Berlin are fairly spread out, so we decided to spend our first full day sightseeing by bike. It was the first time riding in a city for the kids (and really, for me too) and S’s first time on a big bike. Biking is a big deal in Europe. It’s a form of transportation rather than recreation. I’ll admit I was pretty intimidated. But we all managed fairly well and enjoyed the day.

We started off by pedaling across East Berlin from Alexanderplatz and it’s famous TV tower (looks like a giant toothpick with a disco ball stuck near the top) to the Brandenburg Gate. The gate is topped with the goddess of Victory in her chariot. When the gate was built, she was the goddess of Peace, but was renamed after a war (hmmm). This is a busy spot, with many of the big Embassies nearby and lots of people watching. It’s hard to imagine it closed off by the wall all those years ago.

We parked our bikes for a bit to visit the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Germany is making an effort to use honest language when recounting the war. You see words like “murdered” used instead of “perished.” I imagine that’s difficult on the part of the government and its people, but necessary to move forward. The memorial is made up of 2,711 concrete pillars of the same coffin-like dimensions, but with differing heights. The ground is also uneven, so although you can see over the pillars at one point, a few steps later they are over your head. You get an interesting feeling wandering around here. You may see a great many people, and then a few seconds later you feel as if you’re alone. It’s easy to get lost. Maybe that’s part of the point? The memorial sits atop Berlin’s holocaust museum, but as they don’t recommend visiting with children under the age of 14 we decided to save that for another time.

After leaving the memorial we reclaimed our bikes and pedaled through the Brandenburg Gate to the Victory Column. The goddess Victoria stands atop the column that was originally built in the mid 1800s to celebrate the victory over the Danes (then it was fancied up even more after the defeat of the French a few years later). Hitler moved the column here from its original place in front of the Reichstag. He thought it would make a grand impression for the capital of his empire. The column allowed us to do our requisite tower climb. In the base there are a bunch of models of various important buildings in Europe. I was once again hit by the realization of all the amazing places my kids had been. They saw the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Leaning Tower, the Sagrada Familia, and of course the Coliseum and Pantheon. All places they’ve visited. Pretty cool. 270 steps later we made it to the top. We had an amazing view of the city, Brandenburg Gate, and Tiergarten Park.

The Victory Column 

The underpass leading to the column had this fun light board you could play with.

The chunks of column that are missing are from WWII fire.

The view from the top over Tiergarten Park to the Brandenburg Gate. 

Victoria

After climbing the column it felt good to get off our feet and we spent some time biking through Tiergarten Park. We found a place for the kids to play a bit and then left the park and pedaled along the river past the Reichstag building. This was (before the war) and is now Germany’s equivalent to our House of Representatives. It’s a really cool old building, but they’ve done something amazing to it. They’ve added a huge modern glass dome to the top. The dome is open to the public and here is some deep symbolization there. The premise is that the dome helps to make Germany’s government transparent. Visitors can climb it and look down and watch the politicians at work. The idea is that if the inner workings of the government are clear to her people, then Germany can avoid repeating the horror of her history. Climbing the dome was big on our list of things to do in Berlin, but as it is glass, it must be cleaned three times a year. Each cleaning takes three days. They started the day we arrived and finished the day we left. Oh well…it gives us a good reason to return to Berlin in the future.

Biking along the Spree River.

In front of the Reichstag. You can just see the glass dome.

We headed back to our apartment, but stopped for dinner at our new favorite place first.

Our second day in Berlin began with the boys heading out to get haircuts. It’s a pretty simple process. Find a barber. Show her a picture of yourself with the haircut you’ve had since high school. Point to yourself and say “bitte?” Then point to your son and say, “the same, bitte.” Return home looking fabulous!

Our agenda for the day was focused on the wall. Most tourists, especially Americans, flock to Checkpoint Charlie, but Berlin has put it’s efforts into creating a Berlin Wall Memorial along Bernauer Strasse that is informative, while also honoring and respecting those that were impacted by this tragic part of their history. First we visited the information center where we learned about the history of the wall and its actual construction, as well as how it functioned. Then we headed out to a section of the wall that is still standing. Being there, touching the concrete, and trying to imagine how people felt when this divider when up, almost overnight, and separated them from people they loved for nearly 30 years can evoke a multitude of feelings. I felt incredibly sad thinking of what it must have been like to have people literally cut out of your life. A said he just felt mad. That the idea of the wall could even be thought up and enacted by people made him angry. The area also recognizes the lives lost by those who tried to flee over the wall.

In Berlin you often see cobblestones marking where the wall once stood.

We left Bernauer Strasse and headed for Checkpoint Charlie, which was one of the main checkpoints when traveling between the east and west. The place is very touristy, with a recreated version of the checkpoint station and two actors, in American military uniform costumes, offering to take a photo with you (reminded me of the gladiators outside the Coliseum in Rome). There is also a large signpost letting you know you are entering/leaving the American Sector and another large double-sided photo showing an American and Russian soldier. Appropriately, I guess, there is a giant McDonald’s just across the border in the American Sector.

The sign on the left states you are entering the American Sector. So does the McDonalds.
The sign on the right shows an American border control soldier. 

Checkpoint Charlie

The reverse sides of the signs showing a Russian soldier
and letting you know you are leaving the American Sector.

We made our way into the Museum of the Wall at Checkpoint Charlie. The focus of the museum is on the ways that people tried to escape from the East to the West. They have some really neat artifacts that show how some people were successful. Some of our favorites were a VW bug that carried people across the border in its front trunk, a homemade plane flown by a man to rescue his brother, two suitcases that another man used to smuggle his girlfriend out, and the pulley system that a group of people used to dig a tunnel to freedom. Probably the coolest thing about the museum is that it was opened during the cold war and was literally just meters from the border guard station. Definitely an “in your face” message to the Eastern government. But the museum is also very overwhelming. The walls are literally covered with print (which you can read since everything is printed in German, English, French, and Russian). They tell many personal stories of brave people during the cold war, but it is hard to navigate and you don’t really know where to look. It’s also really crowded, so that can make the reading difficult. Regardless, we’re glad we went.

I have to take a moment to share about one of my favorite parts of Berlin. The pedestrian traffic signals in East Berlin are these adorable little men called Ampelmännchen. I love how much personality they have. Apparently, after the wall came down and the country reunited, the West was quick to begin transitioning various things like this in the East to match their versions. But people spoke up in an effort to keep their Ampelmän. He has survived and has become really popular. There is even an Ampelmän store, which we did not walk away from empty handed.

Next we headed over to Potsdamer Platz. This is a fancy, modern area in Berlin that until fairly recently was barren as the wall ran right through it. It is home to a really cool pentagonal traffic light that is supposed to be a replica of the first traffic light in continental Europe, which stood here. It is also home to the Sony Center, a modern glass and steel building. Even though we hadn’t had a super long day, we were all starting to drag. We’d been on the go for over a week and it was catching up to us. When we read that the Sony Center houses a movie theater that shows films in their original language, we went to check it out. The kids were super excited that Despicable Me 2 was showing and would start in 15 minutes. So we all decided to go see our first movie since moving to Europe. It was just like going to the movies at home—lots of popcorn, soda, and giggles.

First traffic light 

Looking up at the roof inside the Sony Center.

The next morning we left Berlin to head north and add a new country to the kids’ list—Denmark!