Ok, it has been a while since the last posting, but I did say it would happen...
Anyway, to put out a teaser, in addition to the new posting regarding the trip to Berlin (below), I will be getting two more up in the next few days, one about Finland (it is absolutely freezing here) and about the next two years. Then, right around Christmas, I will get one up summarizing the Christmas Market extravaganza we will have next week.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
The Wall that once was...
For those of you that read my wife's blog, she covers the topic of the trip to Berlin a lot better and you might want to just go there for the Berlin update, I completely agree with all she says!
But if you are still here, Wow! what a trip. I really did not know what to expect. I had read that there were bits of the wall still around to see, which I really wanted to, but knowing how my colleagues in Western Germany react when you bring up the war, I did not know if it would be easy to find or if it was a "hidden" thing that you had to search out. I was very surprised to see how much Berlin has memorialized it. Although I know it was a horrible time and a lot of people lost their lives, it would be just as bad to not recognize the Holocaust or the existence of the wall and what it meant in the lives of the residents of Berlin. The city has done a great job of marking out where the wall was and in some areas including plaques which talk about the impact of the wall to the residents and the lives that were lost when people would try to get to the other side.
In addition to the wall, the city itself is just great. You have the Reichstag (basically the equivalent of the capital building) with it's neo-classical architecture and right across the river is the ultra modern central train station. Speaking of the train station, a visit to it is a must! There are 16 tracks, however unlike older train stations (like Köln) the tracks aren't lined up side by side, instead they are on 3 different levels, two of which are above ground level. One level goes North/South and the other two go East/West. Throughout the rest of the city you have structures from the post war - pre reunification era, one of which is the TV Tower which made me think of Sputnik, as well as others that have been built within the last few years.
The area around Potsdamer Platz was really cool. They had a Christmas market going on and a few Lego displays as well. In addition, there was a sledding hill set up in the middle of the Platz! Little man and I took a ride down the hill. I will try to get a video of it up in the next few days. It was great. The hill was rather steep and it went really fast and bumpy. After we got going I looked over at him and he looked like he was totally freaked out, then as soon as we got to the bottom and stopped he had a smile from ear to ear and yelled "THAT WAS SO FUN!!!" It was really cool.
Finally, there is so much history here and so much to be learned from the history, I can not wait to get back and learn more.
But if you are still here, Wow! what a trip. I really did not know what to expect. I had read that there were bits of the wall still around to see, which I really wanted to, but knowing how my colleagues in Western Germany react when you bring up the war, I did not know if it would be easy to find or if it was a "hidden" thing that you had to search out. I was very surprised to see how much Berlin has memorialized it. Although I know it was a horrible time and a lot of people lost their lives, it would be just as bad to not recognize the Holocaust or the existence of the wall and what it meant in the lives of the residents of Berlin. The city has done a great job of marking out where the wall was and in some areas including plaques which talk about the impact of the wall to the residents and the lives that were lost when people would try to get to the other side.
In addition to the wall, the city itself is just great. You have the Reichstag (basically the equivalent of the capital building) with it's neo-classical architecture and right across the river is the ultra modern central train station. Speaking of the train station, a visit to it is a must! There are 16 tracks, however unlike older train stations (like Köln) the tracks aren't lined up side by side, instead they are on 3 different levels, two of which are above ground level. One level goes North/South and the other two go East/West. Throughout the rest of the city you have structures from the post war - pre reunification era, one of which is the TV Tower which made me think of Sputnik, as well as others that have been built within the last few years.
The area around Potsdamer Platz was really cool. They had a Christmas market going on and a few Lego displays as well. In addition, there was a sledding hill set up in the middle of the Platz! Little man and I took a ride down the hill. I will try to get a video of it up in the next few days. It was great. The hill was rather steep and it went really fast and bumpy. After we got going I looked over at him and he looked like he was totally freaked out, then as soon as we got to the bottom and stopped he had a smile from ear to ear and yelled "THAT WAS SO FUN!!!" It was really cool.
Finally, there is so much history here and so much to be learned from the history, I can not wait to get back and learn more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
