Danube Cycling Day 3

Day 3:  Berlin Sightseeing

After yet another scrumptious breakfast ala Iwona, Jeri and I were going to check out the Pergamon Museum on our own.  We thought it might be fun to take the U-bahn, but with the rain yesterday, it was partly flooded. So, we cabbed it instead.  We thought we got here early enough, but found out that we could have bought tickets on line and skipped the 1 ½ hour wait.

The Pergamon is one of the most famous museums in the world with many enormous exhibits including the Ishtar Gate from Babylon,  

and the Market Gate from Miletus (Roman). 

We only spent about 1 hour there because we had to meet up with Katherina, Iwona, and Lothar for lunch at a restaurant in the old Jewish Quarter.  

On the walk to the restaurant we passed walls pockmarked by bullets late in the war in house-to-house fighting in Berlin at the close of WWII.

The restaurant was in an old Jewish girls’ school, and featured pastrami sandwiches.  It was pretty darn good pastrami.

Iwona had arranged for a private guide for us for the afternoon and for tomorrow as well.  Before we met up with him, though, we made a quick stop at the Neue Synogoge (New Synogogue) just around the corner from the restaurant.  It was built between 1859 and 1866 and was at one time the largest in Europe.  It was a center for the German Reform movement and had the first organ  installed in the late 1800’s.  At one time, there were 7 rabbis that worked here at one time.  They even had one of the first woman rabbis.  During Kristallnacht, the Nazi SD tried to burn it to the ground, but it was saved by a German police lieutenant, sustaining only moderate damage.  Further damage occurred from bombing during WWII and then, other than the façade, was razed by the East German Government.  After reunification, the façade and tower were reconstructed and converted into a museum.  A small portion is still used for services.

Holocaust Memorial to the Child Deportees

One of the most Beautiful Bridges in Berlin

We now met up with Konrad, our guide for the next 2 days.  Our first stop with him was to visit the East Berlin Wall Gallery, a kilometer long remnant of the Berlin Wall (Maure) that has been adorned with murals.  From a small platform on the banks of the River Spree, we had a good look at the wall and a guard tower that remained that sat atop a nearby hotel.

Remnants of the Wall

One of the most famous panels on the wall is “The Kiss” a picture of a photograph of Leonid Brezhnev being kissed by the last head of East Germany Erich Honecker in 1979.  

"The Kiss"

Next we walked through old Berlin which had been completely destroyed during fighting in the waning days of WWII.  After reunification, this area was reconstructed and now gives a sense of the early days of Berlin. 

Die Neue Rathaus

Nikolaikirche, the oldest church in Berlin dating from 1230 sits in the center of this area.

Along the river is a famous statue of St. George and the Dragon.

We stopped here for a rest and a beer.   

Craig, Jeri, Iwona, and Lothar

Berlin Bär

the Hotel Roma, 5+ star hotel where Katherina is the F&B manager,

Hotel Roma, Katherina's hotel

the Holocaust Memorial, where the gray granite is purposely place askew to give the impression of  gravestones,

the 1936 Olympic Stadium Complex which is still in use,

and the Schloss Charlottenburg, designed as a summer palace for Fredrick I, naming it after his wife who died shortly after its completion in 1701.

Ever since we learned about “spaghetti Eis” or spaghetti ice cream from our language course, we have been dying to try it.  Iwona and Lothar took us to their favorite “Eisdeile” (ice cream parlor) that made great spaghetti Eis.  Basically a strawberry sundae, but it’s all about the presentation.  Very cold vanilla ice cream is run through a potato ricer creating the spaghetti.  Then strawberry sauce is added (tomato sauce), followed by either crushed almonds or shredded coconut (cheese). 

Before we came home, we drove around the area and saw Phillip's and Katherina's high school, where Lothar grew up, and his nursery (which he sold a few years ago, but still keeps an eye on the place.

Yet another beautiful with our German family.