Danube Cycling Day 2

Day 2:  Berlin Sightseeing

Forecast today is again for rain, but perhaps our luck will continue to hold.  First thing this morning, it looks beautiful.  The pool right outside our room looked so inviting, I had to give it a try before breakfast.  It was a great way to start the day.  While I swam, Jeri went on a shopping expedition with Iwona to the Backerei.  Breakfast rolls and pastries here are fantastic!  Breakfast rivaled any excellent hotel. 

With breakfast behind us we were off to see Checkpoint Charlie.  Katherina was able to take off for the weekend to join us (as well as being our superb driver) from her position as the food and beverage manager at the Hotel Roma, a 5+ Star hotel in Berlin.  She assured us we would get a tour before we left. 

Checkpoint Charlie is the famous border crossing between East and West Berlin.  After WWII, Germany was divided between East Germany, a Soviet satellite, and West Germany, an independent democratic republic.  Berlin, which was in the middle of East Germany, too was divided into east and west halves with the US and USSR facing off at the border between the two.  The Wall was erected in August 1961, ostensibly to stop the flow of East Germans (trying to find jobs) to the west.

The Checkpoint Charlie Museum was fascinating, telling the stories of the many attempts to escape to freedom in the west.  It is amazing the lengths to which people will go for the right to be free.  On display were balloons piloted by fathers’ with no prior knowledge or training in ballooning bringing their families to West Berlin, inflatable kayaks used to cross the Behring Straits, specially fitted cars with false gas tanks or floors, and my favorite, the one young lady in the double suitcase trick. 

 

Our next stop was the Reichstag, the German seat of government.  

We had a tour scheduled, and we were a bit ahead of time, so we decided to stroll through the Tiergarten,

and visit the Brandenburg Gate.  The “Brandenburger Tor” was built in 1791, modelled after the gates of the Temple of Athena in Athens.  It is iconic Berlin.  My Dad took a photo of this from 

about  this same location in 1945.

On the return to the Reichstag, we passed a fence of crosses, memorializing the 15 people killed in failed attempts in this area of the wall to cross into West Berlin by border guards until the Reunification (die Wiedervereinigung”) in October of 1990.  Somewhere between 150 1nd 250 died trying to escape all told  in Berlin (another 1200 died throughout the rest of East Germany.)

We were still a little early, so we decided to stop at an outdoor café for a drink.  The sky start to look a bit threatening in the west, but overhead, we had bright blue skies.  I ordered a small Berliner, local popular beer, which turned out to be a ½ liter, much more than I normally drink, especially in the afternoon.

The Reichstag was built between 1884 and 1894 as the German Parliament.  It was destroyed by arson in 1933 (supposedly set by a Dutch arsonist, but more likely by the Nazis to use it as an excuse to limit German rights) and heavily bombed by the Allies during WWII.  After Reunification, it was renovated and is now one of the most modern parliamentary buildings in the world.  Sections of the original walls have been left untouched covered with Russian graffiti.

One of the Offices we passed on the tour

It is topped with a huge cupola over the main plenary hall.  A column of mirrors that extends to the top directs natural light into the hall, and also acts as a vent for warm air to circulate out during the summer to reduce AC load and to be recirculated in the winter to maintain the heat.  There is also a screen that follows the sun to reduce direct radiant warming. We took the  spiral walkway to the top of the cupola for views of the city.  As we climbed the rain and lightning increased in intensity.  I was pretty sure that the cage effect for the lightning would protect us.  You have to believe in physics.

When we finished, the rain was coming down in torrents.  Poor Katherina, as designated driver, had to brave the elements and make a dash for the car.  It had been so beautiful earlier that we had left our raincoats and umbrellas in the car, so now we were paying for it.  While we waited for her, we took refuge in a gift shop doing a brisk trade in umbrellas and plastic ponchos.

We had an early dinner reservation and were supposed to be going to an outdoor concert nearby afterwards, but were afraid it might be cancelled due to the weather.

Dinner was at Boucharts, a Berliner restaurant where you come to see and be seen.  Katherina told us that celebs are often spotted here. 

I had their famous Wiener schnitzel, which was too large for the plate, served with “luke warm potato salad”, another Berlin staple.

While we ate, the weather improved dramatically, and by the time we left the restaurant, it was gorgeous.  The concert was on!

The concert was part of a week long festival called Classic Open Air.  The stage was set up on the steps of the Berlin Concert Hall and a few thousand seats filled the square.  I’m not sure how they did it, but even after all the rain earlier, the seats and the ground were completely dry! 

Tonight’s show featured Italian opera music, and though we are not huge opera fans, it was actually very enjoyable.  The finale was accompanied with pyrotechnics, making it very exciting.

Another long but very enjoyable day.  For the most part, we have been very lucky with mostly wrong weather forecasts.  More rain predicted for tomorrow, though.