Today we planned to explore a bit more of Berlin, the first stop being the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernaur Str. This is an area where you can get a better feeling of the effects of the city being divided. There is an interpretive exhibition over a large area which reflects the scale and the futility of the division. It also included an open-air model of the area in steel and steel poles standing where the wall used to be. The exhibition explained how the East German government changed the wall over time in response the continuing desire of people in the east and west sides to communicate and the East Berliners to escape, either for a better life or join family and loved ones. In some cases East German government destroyed buildings and churches they found objectionable, for example a church whose spire was still visible on the western side. Diagrams also showed the contrast between the multitude of barriers and the eastern side versus none on the western side.
Next we went to the Brandenburg Gate. It is built on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg an der Havel.
It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace and completed in 1791. Having suffered considerable damage in World War II, it was restored from 2000 to 2002. During the post-war Partition of Germany, the gate was isolated and inaccessible immediately next to the Berlin Wall.
The area around the gate was featured most prominently in the media coverage of the tearing down of the wall in 1989, and the subsequent German reunification in 1990. (Wikipedia). It looked a bit of an anachronism, like broken teeth, surrounded by the bacteria of tourism. It was quite overcast with intermittent rain, so the photos are a bit dull.
From the Brandenburg Gate, it was only a short distance to the Reichstag Building, current seat of parliament and cultural symbol for Germans. It has a new central dome that the public can assess and view the city – only by prior booking. It was quite good with a fairly patronising audio accompaniment and a photo gallery of its history from the 19th century. If course it’s a bit sanitised, and refers to the Third Reich of Hitler as an illegitimate government.
Overall the Hitler years are treated almost as if they were different Germans to those of today. Of course they were, but not entirely foreign. With so much to see in Berlin, it’s easy to get into ticking off a tourist checklist of attractions. It’s more challenging to try to get a feel of the actual history and culture of the place.
Central Berlin is quite multicultural, and there is no homogeneous look to the people – a total failure of the Aryan ideal, especially since so many Germans (and others) were killed off during the two world wars. As we left and headed towards the Tiergarten we went through the Russian war memorial to the 2,000 soldiers who fell in the taking of Berlin.
All I could think of was the waste of life in the race by the allies to be the first into Berlin. We then walked through the adjacent Tiergarten which is a huge heavily tree-lined park – Similar in style to Hyde Park but on the scale of Centennial Park. The thing is that by the end of WWII, and the following year, every tree was destroyed or cut down for firewood. In other words, it has been totally restored and reforested since then. This had even more impact on us after seeing the immediate post-war photos.
It was my choice of dinner tonight, and I picked the Vietnamese restaurant with the really cool interior a couple of doors up the street. Because it was another European Cup night, every bar, café and restaurant had their big screen on, and this one was no exception. Also, most restaurants were empty tonight.
Fortunately the menu had German and English, and the waiter spoke English as well which made the ordering process quite easy. We ordered a Pretty Ginger Roast Duck and Little Miss Green Beef in Betel Leaves. The food was excellent, very fresh flavours and very well done – no photos unfortunately.
What was really good though, was the sense of humour in the menu. It’s a while since we had a laugh over a menu.
Entrees were:
Mains were:
Finally, deserts were:
Next we went to the Brandenburg Gate. It is built on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg an der Havel.
It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace and completed in 1791. Having suffered considerable damage in World War II, it was restored from 2000 to 2002. During the post-war Partition of Germany, the gate was isolated and inaccessible immediately next to the Berlin Wall.
The area around the gate was featured most prominently in the media coverage of the tearing down of the wall in 1989, and the subsequent German reunification in 1990. (Wikipedia). It looked a bit of an anachronism, like broken teeth, surrounded by the bacteria of tourism. It was quite overcast with intermittent rain, so the photos are a bit dull.
From the Brandenburg Gate, it was only a short distance to the Reichstag Building, current seat of parliament and cultural symbol for Germans. It has a new central dome that the public can assess and view the city – only by prior booking. It was quite good with a fairly patronising audio accompaniment and a photo gallery of its history from the 19th century. If course it’s a bit sanitised, and refers to the Third Reich of Hitler as an illegitimate government.
Overall the Hitler years are treated almost as if they were different Germans to those of today. Of course they were, but not entirely foreign. With so much to see in Berlin, it’s easy to get into ticking off a tourist checklist of attractions. It’s more challenging to try to get a feel of the actual history and culture of the place.
Central Berlin is quite multicultural, and there is no homogeneous look to the people – a total failure of the Aryan ideal, especially since so many Germans (and others) were killed off during the two world wars. As we left and headed towards the Tiergarten we went through the Russian war memorial to the 2,000 soldiers who fell in the taking of Berlin.All I could think of was the waste of life in the race by the allies to be the first into Berlin. We then walked through the adjacent Tiergarten which is a huge heavily tree-lined park – Similar in style to Hyde Park but on the scale of Centennial Park. The thing is that by the end of WWII, and the following year, every tree was destroyed or cut down for firewood. In other words, it has been totally restored and reforested since then. This had even more impact on us after seeing the immediate post-war photos.
It was my choice of dinner tonight, and I picked the Vietnamese restaurant with the really cool interior a couple of doors up the street. Because it was another European Cup night, every bar, café and restaurant had their big screen on, and this one was no exception. Also, most restaurants were empty tonight.
Fortunately the menu had German and English, and the waiter spoke English as well which made the ordering process quite easy. We ordered a Pretty Ginger Roast Duck and Little Miss Green Beef in Betel Leaves. The food was excellent, very fresh flavours and very well done – no photos unfortunately.
What was really good though, was the sense of humour in the menu. It’s a while since we had a laugh over a menu.
Entrees were:
- Season Green,
- Glass Noodle Dream,
- Sunrise Papaya,
- Glass Noodle Pool,
- Wan Tan Wonderland,
- Mr & Mrs Springroll,
- Baby Springrolls,
- Mr & Mrs Summerroll.
Mains were:
- Pho Ocean,
- Red Sea,
- Little Miss Green,
- Ricenoodle on Fire,
- Golden Egg,
- Curry Fiesta,
- Bollywood Curry,
- Mango in Town,
- Tomato Fight,
- Sweet Sour Revenge,
- Soya Kid,
- Hot Basil,
- Lost in Lemon,
- Pretty Ginger,
- Pineapple Beauty,
- Legend of Celery.
Finally, deserts were:
- Banana Pyjama and
- Pina Pyjama.