Berlin by foot

After a late night arrival we woke on a cool clear morning in Berlin with two days ahead to explore this historic city. There are so many ways to explore Berlin by bike, by hot air balloon, in convoy in little cold war era cars - or by foot. We kept it simple and spent most of the day on a walking tour.

The tour was lead by a German born history student and was a great way to see the city's main sites, get a historical perspective as well as hear some of the more comical trivia associated with the city. Highlights of the tour were:

• The site of Hitler's Bunker - notable by the absence of anything significant marking it due to a desire to ensure it does not become a place of piligrimage for Neo-Nazis.




• The Nazi Air Ministry - a huge building built by the Nazis despite the agreement for Germany not to rebuild its airforce after WW1 and the site of an uprising by the workers in the cold war era.


• Unter der Linden - the tree lined boulevard and home to many historic buildings.


• The Brandenburg Gate - the iconic symbol of Berlin.


• The Memorial to the Jews murdered in the Holocast.




• Other memorials, including an empty underground library in Bebelplatz with enough shelves to hold 30,000 books - symbolic of the Nazi book burning that occurred here.


• Checkpoint Charlie - sight of many ambitious escapes during the cold war era.


• Into the tube system, closed off to East Berliners during the cold war era but which still ran under East Berlin enabling West Berliners to travel to/from work on lines that crossed into East Berlin.

After the tour we returned to the Topography of Terror - an open air museum on the site of the SS and Gestapo headquarters which features many photos and descriptions of some of the atrocities of the war. The photo that sticks in our mind is of 3 Jews on their knees infront of a shallow grave they had dug. Nazis stand behind them with pistols to the Jews heads and others watch in the background - one of the Nazi executioners is clearly laughing at what is about to happen. Incredible to think that such things could happen in such recent history.

After a long day on our feet we enjoyed a beautiful meal at Lutter & Wegner Gendarmenmarkt - an old restaurant featuring Austrian cuisine and the place where German sparkling wine (sekt) is said to have been invented. Great food, an extensive wine list and a great ambience made for a very enjoyable evening.

Day 2 was a little less action packed. More walking - this time exploring some antique markets, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtnis-Kirche - the tower ruins which are now a memorial to the war and finally the Jewish Museum - which explores the persicution of Jews throughout history.

Packing the sites of a city like Berlin into 2 days was a challenge, but we enjoyed our time here and felt like we left with a better understanding of Germany's history, the wars and life under Soviet rule in the cold war era.