A full day in Berlin

Our first full day in Berlin was just that... FULL!! Jenn, Amy, Mike and I got up early to do a few things before we met the rest of the group at the Jewish Museum at 10:00. We walked across the city from our hotel to the Tiergarten. The Tiergarten is a large park/garden in central Berlin. Think central park in NYC. While on the way there we came across a marked ate where the Berlin Wall used to stand. After that we continued on our way to the Tiergarten where we walked around a bit.

These are on the ground outside of homes of Jewish families that were forced from their homes.  Each marker represents one person.  This was located next to our hotel.

Marker from the Berlin Wall

Amy, Mike, & Jenn taking a picture of where the wall was.

A piece of the wall.

The Tiergarten.  (Berlin's version of Central Park.)

At 9:00 the Gedenkstatte Deutscher Widerstand opened. This was an exhibit on German Nazi resistance. What's cool is the exhibit is located in the offices where a plot was created to assassinate Hitler. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful. There is a memorial in the courtyard where the conspirators were killed. (There is also a movie about this with Tom Cruise.)

From there we walked to meet the rest of the group at the Jewish Museum. The Jewish Museum chronicles the history of the Jewish Religion. There is a new special exhibition that we all wanted to see, but it didn't start until 2:00. Most of us decided to come back later for this.

Instead, we walked down the street to the Topography of Terror Museum. This museum was very interesting and sits on the location of the former Gestapo headquarters. The building is gone and in its place is a very unique building. I really liked this museum. It was a lit,of reading but it was very interesting.

Topography of Terror

From there we walked to Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie is where you used to be able to cross between east and West Berlin from 1961-1990. During the Cold War Berlin was separated in to East and West and if you wanted to cross over this is one of the locations. By now it was time for lunch, so we grabbed something quick to east before heading back to the Jewish Museum.

Checkpoint Charlie

We got back to the Jewish Museum and went through it fairly quickly. The museum was not my favorite. It was very disorienting and I found it to be very confusing. The special exhibit was interesting. It was titled "everything you wanted to know about the Jews,". The exhibit has caused some controversy because it feature a Jewish person in a box. No, I'm not kidding and I literally mean in a box. She is there and can answer questions. (See why we wanted to be there for 2:00?). I would best describe my reaction to this museum as puzzled. I still don't know how I feel about it or what I think about it.

 

Jenn speaking to the woman in the box.

 

From there we got a taxi to cross the city to see the synagogue. Jenn's great aunt was married there and she wanted to see it. The girls I was with took a can back to the hotel and I decided to walk back and do some shopping. It was a gorgeous day and I wanted to be outside!!

Tonight for dinner we went back to the same restaurant we went last night, but with a bigger group. We wanted to take Janet Applefield out to dinner. (Remember Janet?) It was a really great evening with friends and new friends. Janet shared some amazing stories and letter with us tonight.

Today was a busy day... I can't believe tomorrow is our last day then we'll be in our way home!!

We'll be back at school before you know it!!!

:-)