Berlin, with it's many diverse neighborhoods, had a unique and hip feel.
We managed to meet up with Sascha, a guy we met back near the start of our trip in Cuzco, Peru and a native Berliner. He took us out for some currywurst and drinks while giving us some tips on the city.
As part of the public transportation system Berlin had bike’s available with docking stations strategically placed all over the city. While many European cities have similar services available, we’ve often run into issues with registering with US credit cards (our technology is a little behind) but we managed to sign up and hope to use the bikes in all our German destinations. The system offers the first 30 minutes for free, so we sped around town trying to get from one site to the next without being charged.
Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral)
The view from Berliner Dom.
The East Berlin TV tower. Constructed in the late 60’s by the German Democratic Republic, the tower was supposed to be an imposing symbol to nearby West Berlin, but an ironic and unforeseen design effect causes a crucifix to appear in the middle of the ball when the sun hits it, giving rise to the name “The Pope’s revenge”. Today the tower is the symbol of Berlin and the tallest structure in Germany at 1,198ft.
The Berlin Holocaust Memorial. The 4.7 acre site sits on rolling hills and is covered with 2,711 concrete pillars of various heights. You can wander through, around and on top of the pillars giving the memorial a limitless number of different perspectives. The memorial was designed “to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason” Underneath the memorial is an information exhibit about those murdered during the holocaust.
The longest remaining stretch of the Berlin wall was converted into a 1.3 km long gallery of 100 paintings in 1990.
Checkpoint Charlie, once a heavily guarded crossing point between East and West Berlin is now a museum and touristy guard station.
Some of the original signs for the check point still stand.
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