Riding and Learning Around Berlin

Berlin day two and three brought to you by Kelly (and edited by Malia).......Word of warning, my topic was not uplifting. Berlin has a very dark history. You might want to read this with a stiff cocktail. 

Day 2

We started day two in Berlin with a Fat Tire bike tour.  It was soooo good!  Here we are, with our tour guide Blakely, learning the rules.  They let you drink on the tour, so the rule talk isn't long.

This open field is the grass over Hitler's bunker where he spent his final days.  Until 2006, there was no sign or marker to indicate that this was the site of Hitler's death.  It was very important to the Germans that the focus was placed on the victims rather than the perpetrators. 

Our tour guide Blakely was an amazing teacher.  Here, he is teaching us about the construction of the wall and how Germany and Berlin were sectioned off to America, the Soviet Union,  France, and the UK.

The circle in the middle is Berlin which is where the wall was constructed.  It went around and down the center of the city.  After the separation of the country but prior to the wall, there was a mass exodus of East Germans trying to escape communism by fleeing to the West.   The wall was then constructed around West Berlin prohibiting anyone to enter from East Berlin and East Germany. 

Here we are at Checkpoint Charlie, the American checkpoint that seperated East and West Berlin. 

The Berlin wall was acctually two walls with a section of land between them. The land between them was known as the "death zone."  

In one section of the former death zone, the city built a memorial to murdered Jews.  There is no explanation for the piece, the American-Jewish artist has left it open to interpretation.  

The memorial is  2711 cement blocks, no two cement blocks are the same.  Some people see graves, some see train cars, others enter the memorial and feel the chaos of the Holocaust. 

This is the courtyard between Humboldt Univeristy and The Opera house.  The courtyard is the site of the orignal and most significant book burning while Hilter was in power.  One of the authors Heinrich Heine, whose work was burned, prophetically wrote in 1823, "where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings." There is a window to an art display below the courtyard of empty bookshelves. 

Just in case the wall and memorials didn't illustrate just how much Berlin has endured, there are also remaining scars from the World War ll air raids.  

We stopped for a mid-ride sausage and beer, it was a German bike tour afterall. Meet our new friend Ken.  He is from Ireland and was on an "interview" ride along.  If they know what they are doing, they will hire him.  We have been learning how to cheers in every country and Ken was gracious enough to teach us an Irish cheers.  Put your beer of mug in the air and yell an incoherent, consonant-less word like "uaaa."  Got to love the Irish!

The mid-ride suasage and beer was at an outdoor biergarten, which surprisingly translates in English to  "beer garden."  It was our favorite sausage and beer meal during our stay in Berlin. And, there were ALOT of sausage and beer meals during our stay in Berlin. 

A family from Montana joined in the Fat Tire cruising.  Naturally, they were great. 

Here is the whole bike gang in front of the Reichstag building. 

Here we are with Ken at the Brandenburg Gate.  The statue on top of Brandenburg Gate is The Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses driven by the Roman goddess of Victory.  We reenacted the staute, with Ken, for your viewing pleasure. 

It is a real testament to Blakely's tour guiding skills that we had this much fun on what can only be described as a tour of death.

Thank you Fat Tire and Blakley! 

Day Three

 We had a few hours to take in a little more death and destruction.  The Topgrophy of Terror was constructed in 2010 and captures Berlin's history from 1933-1989.  The site houses both the remnants of the Gastapo's headquarters as well as a portion of The Berlin Wall.  

Many and Johan visited the Jewish Museum.  The first floor had a display of 10,000 unique metal faces representing people who died in the Holocaust.  

The architecture and layout of the museum was intended to show the uniqueness of the poeple who lost their lives and impact on the world.  

Berlin has been making an effort to memorialize all groups victimized during the Holocaust.  The following is a memorial dedicated to the Romas or "gypsies."  In the middle of the pool is a black triangle that the Romas wore on their clothes during the Holocaust.   Each day a fresh purple flower is placed in the center of the pond. Around the edge of the pond is a poem written in both English and German. It says, "Pallid face, dead eyes, cold lips. Silence. A broken heart without breath, without words, no tears."

After a somber tour through history, we headed off to one of the happiest cities in the world, Copenhagen, Denmark.  I mean after all, check out our map of Berlin even it needs a break.

We had a drink, or two, at the airport.

Malia and Johan got themselves oriented to our final city on the train from the airport to Copenhagen.

During our first Danish dinner, Johan and I settled a three year debate.  Here is Lillenmon our all-knowing Danish waitress.  I will spare you the details, the picture says it all. 

Stay tuned for our tour through happiness...