Day 14 October 21st Berlin



bombed church

Another warm, dry, sunny day for our 

new church!

organised tour of Berlin.  We had to be up, breakfasted and ready to start the tour by 0850.  The tour took us through the heart of the city and we were able to say familiar features and monuments.  We saw most places but it was disappointing that too many building projects and over zealous parking police meant that our excellent guide was not able to get us everywhere we wanted and so we only 

victory column (over Napoleon)

got a distant view of the 

Pregnant oyster!

Brandenburg Gate.  We saw the remains of a bombed church and the totally modern new replacement.  We saw the HQ of the CDU party with the building being called Angela’s steamboat.  Another building which I can’t remember the purpose of it was called the pregnant oyster.  The Reichstag Parliament building was impressive.

 



part of original wall

A lot of the city had been destroyed

wall artistry

 towards the end of the 2^nd World War but there were still many original or restored colonial/imperial buildings used as galleries and museums.  We saw a part of the Berlin wall which has been kept in tact and is now a useful canvas for street artists.  We also saw Checkpoint Charlie and went past some of the many open green spaces 

Cathedral

in the city.  Not being the financial 

ubiquitous Berlin bear

centre of Germany there were not many skyscrapers but there were lots of cranes and building sites – we were advised to come back in two years!   In the middle of this we had a coffee break and catch-up with others from the group.  An interesting but disrupted tour where we could not see all that we wanted.  We returned to the hotel, had a snack lunch and the afternoon for us was free.



Russian war memorial

This worked out fine for us as

With Michelle-Hannah at Brandenburg Gate

 we had arranged to meet Michelle-Hannah Martin who has lived and worked in Berlin for 8 years.   We had not seen her for some time and it was good to meet and begin our catch-up.  Michelle asked if there 

Holocaust Memorial

was anywhere else in Berlin we wanted to visit and

the fuhrer's bunker site

 we replied that we had not been able to see the Brandenburg Gate or the holocaust memorial because of road closures.  We walked through the Tiergarten (one of the large beautiful parks) and soon came to the road that led to the Brandenburg Gate.  We passed by the road barriers and passed the Russian war memorial which commemorated the sacrifice made by the Russian people and forces in the cause of freedom.  We paused for photos and carried on to the gate where we took more photos and walked round.  We then walked on to the poignant holocaust memorial site with its different sized blocks of concrete spread over a very wide area.  It represented the diversity and scale of the disaster.  After a good natter over a cup of tea Michelle-Hannah then took us to the site of Hitler’s underground bunker.  It is now a car park but there was a board giving the extent of the site and the degree of protection it offered. 

After this mini-tour, we made our way to Friedrichstrasse station where we looked to find somewhere to eat this evening.  We were very honoured because not only was today Michelle-Hannah’s birthday but also her boyfriend, Andrew, had just flown in from the US and we were to meet him for the first time.  We chose an Italian restaurant and Andrew arrived.  We enjoyed our meal in their company talking about past times and getting to know Andrew who was very nice.  After the meal they kindly offered to escort us back to the hotel, we resisted but they insisted and we took the tube to Potsdamer Platz and then walked the rest of the way.  We said our goodbyes and hoped it would not be so long before we met again.  We then went to our room and packed as far as we could before retiring for the night.