{"id":305,"date":"2016-06-16T06:44:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T10:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/?p=305"},"modified":"2016-08-07T02:12:19","modified_gmt":"2016-08-07T06:12:19","slug":"june-16-last-day-in-berlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/2016\/06\/16\/june-16-last-day-in-berlin\/","title":{"rendered":"June 16: Last Day in Berlin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hackescher
Hackescher Markt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We finally had a lovely day all day. After breakfast outdoors in the Hackescher Markt, we took the train (the underground U-Bahn this time) to Checkpoint Charlie to see what it looked like. No big deal. Three men dressed like American soldiers (NOT) were collecting money, one pound per person, from tourists to pose with them for selfies.<\/p>\n

\"Checkpoint
Checkpoint Charlie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next we went back to the Nordbahnhof station to see what we missed on Tuesday at the Berlin Wall Museum. First were the descriptions of the\u00a0\u201cghost stations\u201d\u2014inside the station itself\u2014of the train stations that had to be blocked up and put out of service at the borders to prevent the citizens of East Berlin escaping to the West. Horrible the lengths the\u00a0East German government\u00a0went through to prevent ordinary citizens from leaving their repressive regime.<\/p>\n

Then\u00a0we went to the small Reconciliation Chapel that replaces and commemorates the Reconciliation Church that the SED (the government of East Berlin) blew up in 1985 because it was inside the border zone and a constant reminder\u00a0to everyone with its high steeple and graveyard between the two walls.<\/p>\n

Finally, we went to the Visitors Center to view two short films\u2014one about the history of the wall and the other an animation of what the border defenses looked like.<\/p>\n

After leaving the Berlin Wall Memorial, we discovered the Museum f\u00fcr Naturkunde (Natural History Museum) and spent about an hour going through their fascinating displays. They have the largest complete dinosaur skeleton in the world and a T Rex (which they have named Tristan)\u00a0uncovered\u00a0in Montana. An hour barely scratched the surface, but we were glad we went.<\/p>\n

\"Natural
Natural History Museum, Berlin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next, we took our first tram ride (completing the list of kinds of public transportation in Berlin) and another S-Bahn train to visit the Siegess\u00e4ule again, so we could climb it this time. We got off the train at Bellevue and strolled through the Tiergarten park and past the Bismark monument to reach the tower in the center of the Gro\u00dfer Stern (Great Star), the\u00a0rotary around the monument.<\/p>\n

Tunnels under the roadway allow you to get past the incredibly busy traffic at the base. We climbed to the first level and\u00a0stopped to\u00a0view the impressive Prussian mosaics that encircle the base at close range.<\/p>\n

\"Siegess\u00e4ule
Siegess\u00e4ule Mosaics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then we climbed the rest of the circular staircase to the top. The entire monument is about 66 meters high (or about 220 feet). At the top, you can walk all around, viewing the city and the\u00a0streets approaching like spokes of a wheel (very similar to\u00a0the Arc de Triomphe in Paris). \u00a0You can also look up and see the skirts of the winged angel overhead.<\/p>\n

\"Winged
Winged Victory, Siegess\u00e4ule<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After taking the bus back towards our hotel, we visited the Nikolai Viertel, or Nicholas Quarter, which contains some of the oldest houses in Berlin. In between, there is a construction zone for a new branch of the U-Bahn. In fact, the entire city is under construction. You can\u2019t go three feet without finding a building wrapped in gauze or plastic or scaffolding. There are barricades and fences and cranes everywhere you look. Prosperity brings money to spend.<\/p>\n

\"Statues
Statues on the Spree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For dinner, we walked to the Hackesche H\u00f6fe and ate at the Hackescher Hof restaurant that shares the tiny courtyard with the Oxymoron restaurant where we dined\u00a0the first night.<\/p>\n

After dinner, it being a fine night, we walked back to the Spree, past all the fans in lawn chairs rooting in every outdoor restaurant for the German-Poland soccer (football) match on the flat-screen TVs everywhere. The collective cheers and groans echoed in unison from every establishment. (The game still ended 0-0.) Fu\u00dfball is very big here in Europe, especially now in the lead-up to the Euro\u00a0Cup\u00a0on July 10th.<\/p>\n

\"German
German Football Fans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To end our time in Berlin, we strolled along the Spree towards our home base opposite the Berliner Dom, enjoying the lovely\u00a0evening air as long as possible before retiring to our hotel room.<\/p>\n

\"Our
Our Berlin Home on the Spree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Photographs \u00a9 2016 P.J. Gardner<\/a>. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We finally had a lovely day all day. After breakfast outdoors in the Hackescher Markt, we took the train (the underground U-Bahn this time) to Checkpoint Charlie to see what it looked like. No big deal. Three men dressed like American soldiers (NOT) were collecting money, one pound per person, from tourists to pose with … Continue reading “June 16: Last Day in Berlin”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":564,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}