The day started by not, at least not early. One of us was wide awake at 4 am. Cheryl, on the other hand, had to be awakened at 8:30 when Billie texted to say that they were waiting for us in the lobby.
We quickly assembled ourselves and presented at the hotel’s buffet. They serve a spread with everything you could think of (and some things you’d never have considered). It was a fitting setting for Cheryl’s mantra; ‘Breakfast like a king, Lunch like a prince, Dinner like a pauper’.
Feeling like kings, and having purchased 24 hour bus passes, we headed down the street, ostensibly to do a bit of shopping, but really to view the Kaiser Wilhelm church.
Bombed during WWII, the tower section of the church was reinforced and continues to stand as a reminder of the destruction that war brings. To the left of the ruin is a more recent sanctuary.
The next stop was downtown where we marveled once again at the Brandenburg Gate.
Read a bit of history…
Grabbed some lunch, toured the Holocaust Memorial…
The memorial consists of a series of concrete plinths of increasing height. It was designed to be a gathering place.As the plinths get taller it’s easy to feel isolated with only brief glimpses of people crossing the path you are seeing. Also, the fact that no plinth is perfectly straight lends a sense that everything in your world is a bit ‘off’
Crossed the street to the US Embassy…
The bear is the symbol of Berlin. This form of bear is seen throughout the city – decorated in various themes.
and presented ourselves at the Reichstag in time for our 1:00 admittance to the dome.
Another view of the GateThe hill in the far distance is man-made – rubble from bombings during WWII. The included audio guide provided significant amount of information about what we were seeing from the dome. The woods in the foreground are the Tiergarten. Once the private hunting grounds for the Kaiser, they were opened to the public after WWI. Following the defeat of the third reich people were allowed to cut the trees to provide fuel for the upcoming winter. So everything you see was planted in the mid 1940s.The tower in this photo is a television tower erected by the East German government. West Germans were delighted when it was discovered that the sun reflects off the bulb in the shape of a cross – an embarrassment for that non-religious communist regime.The center of the dome floor looks down in to the plenary chamber of the parliament. This column of mirrors directs sunlight down into the chamber. To the right of the column you see the movable screen that keeps the column from frying the legislators (although I can think of a few…).
Following our tour it was time to head back to the hotel for a bit of a rest before…
At 4:45 we presented ourselves in the lobby for the introductory howdy-do by the cruise director and the handing our and turning on of the radio receivers that we use to hear the tour guides. Watching old people try to figure out how to turn on an electronic device is not my idea of fun, but I keep telling myself that I’m headed that way too.
Speaking of old people…
We met Freddy and Gitta at one of their favorite beer gardens. Good food, great to catch up, more than passable beer, and Billie and Steve seemed to enjoy it as well.Monday evening in Germany.
After dinner it was back to the hotel to research bus routes for tomorrow, upload a few photos and write.
Tomorrow is museum day with a possible trip to ‘the room where it happened.’
