Berlin 2018

In June I went to Berlin, which was my first time in Germany. Here are some highlights from the trip.

I stayed near Bernauer Strasse, where the Berlin Wall memorial (an open air museum effectively) is.

This large open area has various exhibits and information about the wall. The yard lights appear to be original and preserved as part of the exhibit, and are powered with it, switching off at 10pm when I visited that evening.

The metal poles are not part of the original wall. I guess they're erected to show where it once was, without creating a feeling of being an actual wall. This was done recently; google maps from 2009 shows that this whole area was a building site! https://www.google.com/maps/@52.5337613,13.3879938,3a,75y,106.91h,94.2t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1suYOffhkTmKTQbmhv2Zhadg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The next part of my journey was to walk towards the Brandenburg Gate, or Brandenburger Tor as said locally.

Not far from the Gate is the German Government Building; the Reichstag.

A little further along is the Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten.

I can pronounce some of the Russian alphabet but couldn't make much sense of this, apart from the keywords relating to fascism and the Soviet Union. Thankfully a friendly couple were on hand to help nearby and we got talking about the memorial. The text above reads, translated: Eternal glory to heroes who fell in battle with the German fascist invaders for the freedom and independence of the Soviet Union

As I was halfway there already, I decided to wander over to the Checkpoint Charlie tourist attraction.

I say tourist attraction, because my understanding is this is mostly a fabrication and not the original Checkpoint Charlie. The guard hut is a reconstruction (the original is in a museum) and I don't think the "you are leaving the American sector" sign is original either. People line up in the middle of the road to get their photograph taken with the security guards which are really just actors. It's all a bit cringe, but as a tourist I passed by anyway.

On my second day I made much the same initial journey but this time walked away down to the Victory Monument or the Siegessäule, which I'm not even going to pretend I can pronounce.

Thankfully there was a tunnel under the road to get to this, although some daring characters still decided to cross over the roundabout in between all of the traffic!

I appreciate this kind of artwork.

I then went and saw a very bizarre thing; the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe (I think I got that right).

I revisited Bernauer Strasse to find the guard tower of the Berlin Wall (Berliner Mauer, in German) that I had been told about.

It is well hidden behind a big metal wall.

Behind it lays the original switchgear which energised the electric fence. That's grim!

Naturally, I took a trip over to the East Side Gallery, heading generally towards Friedrichshain.

Pretty much everyone in the history of ever takes this photograph, but it was beyond crowded even at the late hour I visited. Thankfully a moment of sanity ensued and I was able to take this photo before more crowds appeared.

The end (or the beginning, depending how you look at it) of the open air gallery after walking more than 1KM.

Now for some evening shots.

The Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse, at around 9.55pm, moments before the lit exhibits switch off. The yard lights go off with it too, and appear to be maintained as part of the attraction itself.

An ornate gas street lamp in Kreuzberg. There are many of these (and other designs) around in Berlin, from this to very bright post top lamps that light entire streets.

The Checkpoint Charlie tourist attraction at night. The fluorescent lighting sure looks nice but isn't so bright!

Look, it's Handsome Harper!

And that's it from this one. It was a brief visit, and for the three nights I was there I barely stopped to breathe, but it was nice to experience a country I had never visited and explore the history which I have had an interest in for a long time.