Day 11
Our last day in Berlin and the end of the Ladies on the River story......boohoo! For our last day, a beautiful day, we decided we would go to the zoo, go to the gedachtniskirche (memorial church in rough translation) of Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, visit the Tiergarten to see the Victory column and maybe do a little souvenir shopping. It was the day of the Assumption and therefore a holiday and pretty much EVERY store was closed so it became solely a sightseeing day. We took the Ubahn to the station where we could go to the zoo and the church and found that every person in all of Germany was in line for the zoo so we ditched that plan and went to the church. The gedachtniskirche is a protestant church that was bombed during the war and the damaged skeleton was left as a memorial. It's still a beautiful building despite the gaping wounds left by the bombing.
A new church has been built next door that is modern, functional and unimpressive except for the attractive stained glass windows.
After the church visit, we took the Ubahn to the Tiergarten where the station was a nice walk to reach the Victory Memorial in the center.
Nicki and I braved the traffic and finally figured out the traffic avoiding under-street tunnels to reach the memorial where we went through a small museum. Michele and Joanie wisely sat on a bench in the shade while Nicki and I made our pilgrimage.
Another Ubahn ride and we made our way to the Topography of Terror Museum located on the site of the destroyed Nazi headquarters buildings. There are extensive displays both inside and out that document the rise of the Nazi's and their subsequent destruction.
It's an overwhelming amount of history to try to absorb with many, many photographs to accompany written information.
Then onto the Checkpoint Charlie area (our home neighborhood) for some souvenir shop time (the only open stores) and checking out the Trabi's (Trabant) once again. Here's some info from Time Magazine re a car I had never heard of before: This is the car that gave Communism a bad name. Powered by a two-stroke pollution generator that maxed out at an ear-splitting 18 hp, the Trabant was a hollow lie of a car constructed of recycled worthlessness (actually, the body was made of a fiberglass-like Duroplast, reinforced with recycled fibers like cotton and wood). A virtual antique when it was designed in the 1950s, the Trabant was East Germany's answer to the VW Beetle — a "people's car," as if the people didn't have enough to worry about. Trabants smoked like an Iraqi oil fire, when they ran at all, and often lacked even the most basic of amenities, like brake lights or turn signals. But history has been kind to the Trabi. Thousands of East Germans drove their Trabants over the border when the Wall fell, which made it a kind of automotive liberator. Once across the border, the none-too-sentimental Ostdeutschlanders immediately abandoned their cars. Ich bin Junk!
After all this, we went to the same Italian restaurant that we enjoyed on our first day in Berlin for a wonderful dinner with delicious wine where we toasted the end of our fabulous trip with wonderful friends. Then it was back to our hotel to pack for our early morning flights....home for Nicki. Michele and Joanie and a flight to Venice for me for part two of my trip.
Our last day in Berlin and the end of the Ladies on the River story......boohoo! For our last day, a beautiful day, we decided we would go to the zoo, go to the gedachtniskirche (memorial church in rough translation) of Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, visit the Tiergarten to see the Victory column and maybe do a little souvenir shopping. It was the day of the Assumption and therefore a holiday and pretty much EVERY store was closed so it became solely a sightseeing day. We took the Ubahn to the station where we could go to the zoo and the church and found that every person in all of Germany was in line for the zoo so we ditched that plan and went to the church. The gedachtniskirche is a protestant church that was bombed during the war and the damaged skeleton was left as a memorial. It's still a beautiful building despite the gaping wounds left by the bombing.
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| New church |
After the church visit, we took the Ubahn to the Tiergarten where the station was a nice walk to reach the Victory Memorial in the center.
 |
| Nicki in the lilacs of the Tiergarten |
Another Ubahn ride and we made our way to the Topography of Terror Museum located on the site of the destroyed Nazi headquarters buildings. There are extensive displays both inside and out that document the rise of the Nazi's and their subsequent destruction.
 |
| Outside part of Topography of Terror Museum with fragment of wall and photo displays |
Then onto the Checkpoint Charlie area (our home neighborhood) for some souvenir shop time (the only open stores) and checking out the Trabi's (Trabant) once again. Here's some info from Time Magazine re a car I had never heard of before: This is the car that gave Communism a bad name. Powered by a two-stroke pollution generator that maxed out at an ear-splitting 18 hp, the Trabant was a hollow lie of a car constructed of recycled worthlessness (actually, the body was made of a fiberglass-like Duroplast, reinforced with recycled fibers like cotton and wood). A virtual antique when it was designed in the 1950s, the Trabant was East Germany's answer to the VW Beetle — a "people's car," as if the people didn't have enough to worry about. Trabants smoked like an Iraqi oil fire, when they ran at all, and often lacked even the most basic of amenities, like brake lights or turn signals. But history has been kind to the Trabi. Thousands of East Germans drove their Trabants over the border when the Wall fell, which made it a kind of automotive liberator. Once across the border, the none-too-sentimental Ostdeutschlanders immediately abandoned their cars. Ich bin Junk!
After all this, we went to the same Italian restaurant that we enjoyed on our first day in Berlin for a wonderful dinner with delicious wine where we toasted the end of our fabulous trip with wonderful friends. Then it was back to our hotel to pack for our early morning flights....home for Nicki. Michele and Joanie and a flight to Venice for me for part two of my trip.
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