December 8-11
Frankfurt, Germany
December 11-13
***My apologies for the lateness of this post. We were having way too much fun with family and friends over the holidays and I simply couldn't tear myself away to finish it even though it was half written when we came home!***
The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin
Here is my advice to you. Do not go second class on the night train from Vienna to Berlin if you are older than 25. It's just not worth the money you save. We opted to take the night train because it is roughly 8-10 hours to Berlin from Vienna and we wanted a full three days in Berlin. We figured by taking the night train we could save on a hotel room and we wouldn't waste a whole day traveling. Unfortunately, I was so beat up from the terrible night of train sleeping that I ended up getting my worst cold of the trip with only 5 days to go! I guess it isn't too bad though when you consider that I only had three minor colds in almost 4 months on the road! At least the train trip was uneventful!
Once we got to Berlin, we made our way across town to the Mercure Hotel where we were staying. We asked about the room and the woman at the desk said "We have one room available, but it is on this level. Is that OK?". Any time you get a response like that it is clearly something to turn down, so we put our bags in the luggage storage area and headed out to find breakfast. The woman at the desk gave us walking directions to Potzdamer Platz, a huge complex of shops and restaurants right down the street. We found a cute little place and ordered breakfast and lingered as long as we could. When we finally left the restaurant, guess what we saw? A Christmas Market! You would think we would both be bored with them by now, but they are all so different and just so cute so we wandered around for a while before heading back.
A Christmas market in the shadow of one of the cathedrals in Berlin. Love Christmas markets!
The room still wasn't ready but the lobby was comfortable so we settled in and worked on our respective blogs until a room became available. Around lunch time we got our room but by this point we were both beat and my cold was really coming on, so we decided to make it a planned "down day". I continued working on my Blog that afternoon while Shaun napped. Later Shaun headed out to find Cross-Fit Berlin, while I napped. It wasn't a very exciting day, but it was certainly what we needed.
The next day we got up early and headed down for Breakfast. We had picked the Mercure because it was way cheaper than most Berlin hotels, but also because it had breakfast included, which can be a big money saver. The buffet was very good, eggs and sausages and fruit and yogurt and breads and coffee. It was a nice start to a great day. We were both feeling refreshed and ready to see Berlin.
After breakfast we headed into town on the subway. Berlin's metro was very easy to navigate and we were on a main line so we were in the city center in no time. We headed over to the Brandenburg Gate where we were meeting up with a free walking tour of Berlin. It was the same group, Sandeman's, that had done the Dublin walking tour and the quality was very good. It lasted about three and a half hours (including a short coffee/snack break) and went all over the city. Even in the freezing cold we both enjoyed ourselves. That's when you know it was a good tour!
Berlin is a fascinating city with a history that directly reflects everything that has happened to Germany over the years. The city itself dates back to the 13th century and it was the capital as far back as 1701 when this area was still the Kingdom of Prussia. Berlin was the seat of power and the epicenter of the reign of terror when Hitler came to power and the third Reich began its short lived conquest of Europe. When they lost the war, Berlin was split into two sections, a democratic half and a communist half, just like the country itself. At first the split was more theoretical, along political and geographical borders, but in 1961, with the building of the Berlin wall, the separation became one of concrete and barbed wire. At that time East Berlin became the capital of the communist German Democratic Republic, aka East Germany. (Don't let the name fool you, there was nothing Democratic about the GDR). West Germany in the meantime, made Bonn the provisional capitol. And then there was Allied controlled West Berlin. This section of Berlin, right in the middle of the GDR, became the symbol of hope for those living under communist control, a little island of democracy. For the next 28 years, thousands of East Berliners would die in their attempts to escape to the West. Finally in 1989, when the cold war ended and the wall came down the people of East and West Berlin were united.
It was only one year later, in 1990, that the two parts of Germany were unified. And just one more year before they voted to make Berlin the capital of unified Germany, a move that was completed in 1999. And now, just 22 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, the country is an economic powerhouse, and Berlin is a thriving city and the home of one of the most influential politicians in the European Union, German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The Reichstag in Berlin. The Parliament building now has a dome on top where citizens and tourists can look down over the government while they do their work. It is a symbol of the need for transparency in government.
Even though the country and the city have made a remarkable recovery, the scars are still evident everywhere you go. One of the most prominent scars for years was the Berlin Wall, but that has all but disappeared at this point. There are still tiny stretches visible in areas of the city, but mostly what you will see is a brick line that delineates the place where the wall stood for all those years. If you don't remember much about the Berlin Wall, you may not remember the "death strips" that lead up to the wall. If you were unfortunate enough to live on the East Berlin side, you couldn't even get near the wall without crossing the death strips, which were normally made up of a strip of sand (to make running difficult) an electrified fence before the wall and barbed wire across the top. But more dangerous were the GDR soldiers who would "shoot to kill" anyone crazy enough to approach the death strip. It was only during the discussion of this on the tour that we found out that Potsdamerplatz, the fabulous modern shopping and entertainment complex near our hotel, was once the site of one of the most infamous death strips in Berlin.
The brick pathway that designates where the Berlin Wall used to stand
And the city has not forgotten or tried to cover up the atrocities from WWII either. There are poignant memorials all over the city. The three most affecting for me personally were the Bebelplatz book burning memorial, the Holocaust memorial and the memorial to the fallen German soldiers. They are three very different memorials but they encapsulate three very different perspectives on war.
The book burning memorial at Bebelplatz deals with how the early signs of fascism in Germany were ignored and how that apathy eventually gave rise to the Holocaust. It was in the Bebelplatz plaza in front of Humboldt University in 1933 that Nazi soldiers and German citizens, organized by Joseph Goebbels, burned over 20,000 books from the University that had been deemed "subversive". It was one of the first major acts of intolerance and should have been a giant red flag. The memorial is a not so subtle reminder of where it all led. As you walk across the plaza there is a plexiglass window built into the pavement and the window looks down on an empty room full of empty bookcases. The bookcases have enough room to hold all the books that were burned that day and there is no entrance or exit to the room. Beside the window is a bronze plaque with a quote from a Jewish poet named Heinrich Heine that was written way back in 1820. The prescient quote translates roughly to "Where books are burned, in the end people will burn".
The empty bookshelves
The plaque about book burning. I got chills when the quote was translated.
The second memorial is commonly referred to as the Holocaust memorial, but it's actual name is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. (Berlin made sure to honor groups very specifically so that no group was forgotten. There is also a memorial to the gay men and women who were murdered and the political murders as well). This particular memorial honoring the murdered Jews was created by Peter Eisenman and it is meant to be a very personal experience. It consists of 2711 grey pieces of concrete. At first it looks like a graveyard of concrete coffins but as you get closer and start to walk through it, you realize that the cobblestone ground is rolling downhill and that the concrete pillars are getting taller and taller. Finally when you are standing in the middle there are concrete pillars towering over you in all directions. It is very isolating and a bit claustrophobic. Peter Eisenman chose not to comment on the meaning of the design so everyone is able to experience it in their own way.
The view of the memorial as you first start walking through it
By the time you get to the middle the concrete slabs tower over you. It feels like you are cut off from the world.
The third memorial, the memorial to the Victims of War and Tyranny, was the most spartan of them all. The building was a former royal guardhouse so it has the look of a neoclassical building with doric columns and a decorated facade from the outside. When you go inside however, you find a big empty concrete room with an opening in the middle of the ceiling. In the center of this otherwise empty room is a statue of a mother holding her dying soldier/son in her arms. It is their way of commemorating all the German soldiers who have died in war. The point was very clear. No matter which side you were fighting on and whether the cause was just, it didn't change the fact that every one of these soldiers was someone's child and that someone was grieving their loss. It was quite poignant.
Just a subtle reminder that every soldier is someone's child.
One of the last things we did on our three days in Berlin was a visit to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It was considered a "model" camp for those terrible places that came later, like Auchwitz and Dachau. I believe these places need to be experienced rather than narrated, so I didn't take any pictures and I will refrain from commenting on our visit except to note that this "model camp" went from imprisoning Jews, homosexuals and political dissidents under the Nazis to housing East German political dissidents again for the 40 years of communist rule in similar harrowing conditions. It's no wonder this country tries so hard to make sure these things are not forgotten. They know better than anyone how history can repeat itself.
I know it may sound like Berlin is a sad and serious place, but it truly is a vibrant city full of wonderful shops, markets and restaurants. I think you need to experience both parts of the city to really understand how far they have come, and we did experience them both. We wandered the Christmas markets and saw kids tubing on an artificial tubing track in the middle of the city. We went to an incredible museum called the Pergamonmuseum that houses the Ishtar Gate from ancient Babylon and the almost in tact remains of the Altar of Pergamon from ancient Greece. We had some lovely meals there as well, from an Asian place that made fabulous soups to an Argentinean place with excellent meats and salads, to a lovely little wine bar in Potsdamerplatz. The people were friendly and the city was lively and full of Holiday spirit. If you get the chance to visit, take it! I promise you will always remember this incredible city.
The cool tubing hill in the middle of Potzdamerplatz!
When we left Berlin on Sunday morning, we headed to our final stop on this European Extravaganza. Frankfurt, Germany is known more for being the financial capital of Europe than anything else, but that was just fine with us. We had been on the road since August 23rd and we were looking forward to spending a few quiet days in Frankfurt before boarding a place home.
So we boarded the train in Berlin on December 11th for our last long distance train ride in Europe. Four hours later we arrived in at Frankfurt airport and checked into our hotel. We had used the remainder of my Starwood points to book two nights at the Sheraton Frankfurt Airport and we were really happy with our choice. The hotel was literally outside the airport check-in gates, but it also had great transportation into the city. At this point Shaun had gotten my cold as well, so we were both feeling pretty run down. We decided to take advantage of the nice hotel and just relax for that first night.
I was pretty excited for our last train ride!
The next day we headed into Frankfurt for the day. We spent the afternoon exploring the city, walking through the Christmas markets and just enjoying the day. In the evening we decided to seek out a Frankfurt specialty, the Apfelwein Tavern. The place we went to, Fichte Kranzi was just a small place with maybe 15 tables. The specialty, Apfelwein is similar to the hard cider we get in the US, only less sweet. Fichte Kranzi serves their apple wine with fabulous homestyle German cooking. Shaun had Schnitzel with mushroom sauce and spaetzle, while I had ridiculously good pork ribs with braised cabbage. That night there was a beautiful sunset as we walked back over the bridge that crossed the river Main and headed back to the hotel. It was our last night in Europe.
Yet another light meal. We've got some work to do to get back in shape after all this crazy food!
Sunset over the river Main in Frankfurt
The best thing about taking a really long voyage like this is the lack of regret you feel when it ends. When you are trying to build a career, you take one week vacations and spend the first half of the week trying to unwind and the last half worrying about going back to work. Even if you take an amazing trip, you always feel like you are trying to fit too much into too little time. When you take a trip like this, the ending is so different. We had very few regrets and we felt like we saw so many incredible things. But you do start to miss your friends and family and you get a little road weary from living out of a backpack. So we were almost as excited to go home at the end as we had been to take the journey at the start! And best of all we were going home for Christmas, so we would get to see all those friends and family members we had missed!
We boarded our plane home on the morning of December 13th and by 7:30 that night we were back at my sister Maura's house unpacking our bags. We were taking time off from planning and blogging and packing and unpacking but just for a few weeks. The road was calling. So a few days before Christmas we booked the next leg of the journey. On January 15th we start again! Cook Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Hong Kong are on the agenda. The journey of a lifetime continues!
One last picture as we settled in for our 9 hour flight home!
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