Berlin

Last full day in Berlin and we’re sad to leave. Berlin is a city that will only keep on getting better! The city has embraced it’s past (both the good and the bad) and has successfully incorporated the new and exciting! There are so many things to do here!

On Saturday, our first full day here, we went on a free walking tour by Sandeman which was fun and very informative. Our guide Mathew was very enthusiastic and brought history truly to life. We visited the Brandenburg Gate with Irene on top and and saw the Reichtag parliamentary building with its awesome glass dome that we later walked around with brilliant night panoramic views of all of Berlin as a thunderstorm danced on the horizon (simply breathtaking).

We walked through the stones and pillars of the Holcaust Memorial (The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe) that reminded both Ben and I of isolation and Ben said it was like being in a city of the lost as it was very easy to lose your way amongst the gray stones. It was the most moving memorial we’d ever been in and below it are a few rooms that we visited after the tour that have first hand accounts from those persecuted and murdered as well as one room having a person’s name and their date of birth and death projected on all four walls and a voice in both German and English telling the person’s story. In this format, the whole data base would take 6 years, 7 months and 27 days for every name to be read. It was very powerful.

Also on the tour we saw Checkpoint Charlie as well as part of the Berlin Wall and the car park that marks the place of Hitler’s Bunker.

On Sunday we went to the Pergamon Museum and saw an exhibit on the city of Babylon, it’s myths and the truth’s unearthed by archeology. The altar and gates rebuilt entirely inside the museum were huge and quite overwhelming! I also gave Ben an early 21st Birthday present! That night we went to see the Blue Man Group and it was the best show we’ve ever been too. It was fun, interactive, colourful, intelligent and hilariously funny! Ben even got to play a small part in the show! We had awesome seats and we were so close to the stage that we had to wear ponchos so as not to get paint on us! It was worth ever cent and we got the CD of their music cos it is based heavily on music and drums in particular and we can’t wait to listen to it when we get home!

Yesterday we met Ben’s long lost cousin Alex and Alex’s friend Max and they took us out to lunch and dinner, showing us parts of Berlin that we hadn’t even known was there and then took us to two emotionally charged exhibits Man Ray: Unconcerned But Not Indifferent and Yevgeny Khaldei : The Decisive Moment.

So many great memories have been formed in Berlin and I look forward to returning soon to see what other new and unique events are happening here in this European hot spot!