Berlin day 1

Visiting Berlin was an amazing experience. Berlin has so much to teach.  My only memories of Berlin are quite scary beacuse they have been the pictures in textbooks and history videos that tell of its devastation during World War II, Hitler's Reign, and then the Cold War and infamous Berlin Wall.  Modern day Berlin has moved forward and only shadows and monuments of its sordid past remain.  It gives me hope for all places riddled with dark times brought on by corrupt government. 

Berlin's Main Train Staion:  The Hauptbonhauf.  Every morning of our visit we road a bus from our apartment to this station and then boarded the subways.  We were pretty swift at getting on and off.  Don't be fooled by our group of 15!  We never lost a kid, only got squished in the doors a few times, and separated once.  Pretty good I'd say. 

The kids had to take turns with the scooters.  They were a good distraction for kids at sites that weren't their favorites and helped save their little feet from getting too tired.   

Berlin had a tumultuous 20th century.  After the city was devastated in World War II, it was divided by the Allied powers; The American, British, and French sectors became West Berlin, and the Soviet sector East Berlin.  In 1948 and 1949, the Soviet Union tried to starve the Western half into submission, but the siege was foiled by the Western Allies' Berlin Airlift, which flew in supplies from Frankfurt.  The East-West division was set in stone in 1961, when the East German government boxed in West Berlin by building the Berlin Wall.  The Wall stood for 28 years.  In 1990, less than a year after the Wall fell, the two Germanys-and the two Berlins-officially became one.  When the dust settled, Berliners from borth sides of the once-divided city faced the monumental challenge of reunification.  (Rick Steves GERMANY pg. 544 2011)

Cutie little boys hangin out at a segment of the wall right by the "Checkpoint Charlie Museum".   The Museum showcases and tells the stories of daring escapes in, under, and through the wall.  It has plenty of neat pictures showing how women would curl up inside speaker boxes, people would hide in the jimmie rigged engine/hood areas of cars, and even one lady sewn into the seat cushion of her boyfriend's car.  As the escapes continued the wall got more and more fortified. 

My favorite picture of the early days of the wall.  This soldier was thinking about lifting this boy to his loved ones.....hours later he was removed from his post.  (I wonder what kind of punishment he recieved?)

The sight of the US Army Checkpoint Charlie so named for the fact that it was number 3 Checkpoint as in Alpha, Bravo, Charlie.  The most famous Checkpoint between the American Sector and the Soviet Sector where cars could pass with the appropriate papers.  Now they have paid soldiers dressed up that you can get your picture with. 

These plaques are here and there along the cobblestone trail marking the path of the wall.  Mauer translates to "wall". 

One foot in East Berlin.....one in the WEST! 

As you walk along through Berlin, its interesting to note when you see this double cobblestone path. It marks the trail of where the wall used to stand. It now is under buildings and on major roads.

  

Family Pictures at the remnants of the wall. Big sections of the wall are nearly nonexistent downtown, but near the intersection of Wilhemstrasse and Zimmerstrasse is located this quite sizeable section.  

Cute Johnson Family and Travel buddies:  They came up from Heidelberg the Monday before our trip to give us a FHE lesson on the history of Berlin and show us some historical clips to prepare us.

Every one wanted a picture by the wall....even Gnomeo our family's travel gnome!  

Behind the big chunk of remaining wall is this outdoor museum called "The Topography of Terrors". Its a long line of documents, literature and pictures telling the story of the Third Reich and the atrocities they were responsible for. It sits on the once most feared address in Berlin: the headquarters of the Reich Main Security Office. It served as the engine room of the Nazi dictatorship as well as the command center of the Gestapo. (secret police)

This touring company drives these cars all through Berlin...I thought they were so cool

Berlin is the "City of Bears".  They have these brightly colored bears all throughout the city decorated from different countries.  The kids loved searching for them and getting their picture taken by them.  While the reasoning behind the bear isn't completely known, many think it goes back to Albrecht I who was nicknamed "the bear" and an early conqueror of the Brandenberg region. 

The bear is on the city's Coat of Arms.   

The next stop was the Gendarmenmarkt.  This historic square has two twin churches and Berlin's Symphony Hall.  Most Berliners consider it to be the finest square in town.  The kids enjoyed a chance to run around, ride scooters, and climb on benches, and of course eat a snack or two or five! 

The square is also home to one of Europes finest chocolate shops.  Fassbender & Rausch.  Whether it is the finest or not....who can say no to chocolate in Europe?  Interestingly, we found that over half of the chocolates that you can hand pick at the counter contained liquor.  We were careful to not choose those! 

The Reichstag in chocolate...YUM 



Cole seemed to think the chocolate was great.  Coming from the kid who asks for chocolate each morning for breakfast, that is saying something! 

After our Chocolate snack, we had enough energy to climb to the top of one of the twin churches of the Gendarmenmarkt.  It was a mere 275 steps!  The kids did awesome with very little carrying of the little guys. 


The Man Hole covers in Berlin are really cool and have all the iconic images on them.  I thought the cigarette butt was a nice addition to the iconic symbols of Berlin....too true. 
 

When the kids all started looking like this, we decided to head back to the Hauptbonhof via the subway, catch our bus connector to our street, and walk the block to our apartment.  On the way we grabbed sandwiches, pretzels, and cheese bread for dinner from the many subway vendors.  A very European meal! 

This apartment the Johnsons found online was amazing!  It was a great location, had 5 good sized bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and this large great room with the world's largest leather couches.  The table was perfect too for lots of little breakfast eaters!  All fifteen of us fit great.