Day 8 - BERLIN

Despite a relaxed morning, with a family breakfast 'at home' in the apartment, we had a packed day today. We started off with a visit to the Brandenburg Gate - it was awesome to see it towering as we emerged from the U-Bahn station.

Just a few minutes away on foot was the Reichstag building, with its glass dome, designed to assure the visibility of government activities. The Reichstag burned in 1933 and was not reopened until 1995, when it included the dome as part of its new design.

Along the back side of the Brandenburg Gate, they were still cleaning up from Sunday's celebration of 25 Jahre Mauerfall (25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall).

Set along the streets between the Brandenburg Gate the Reichstag are a number of memorials. Among them, we saw the memorial to the those who lost their lives trying to escape over the border and the memorial to the members of the government who were murdered by the Nazis when they took over the government. We found the last cross for the East Germans attempting to flee to West Germany particularly depressing, as the man was killed on the 5th of February, 1989 - just months before the border opened.

The Holocaust Memorial was on the opposite side of the Brandenburg Gate. It has a unique set-up - the stones are different sizes and the ground is uneven. The stone blocks, which somewhat resemble tombstones, seemed to go on forever and one has the feeling of being lost in the middle of the memorial.




 We walked down the famous boulevard 'Unter den Linden'. As seems to always be the case with much of Berlin, there was a huge amount of construction along the street. Despite the construction, the shops seemed to be prospering - a stark contrast to the situation when I was there on June 30, 1990 - the final shopping day with the East German Deutsch Mark.

At the far end of 'Unter den Linden' was the German History Museum - it was a fascinating and incredibly well put together museum about the development of and changes in German society and government from medieval times up to current day Germany. We were very impressed by the quality of this museum.

We made a stop at the Ritter Sport store, where you can create your own chocolate bar, on the way to our final stop of the day - Checkpoint Charlie. Yes, we paid the 2 Euro to take a picture of the boys with the actors in front of the replica of the checkpoint.