Berlin, Germany. August 6, 2018

Berlin is an intriguing city. It doesn’t grab you by its architecture, it doesn’t even try to make a first impression on you, good or bad. It slowly reveals itself and the more you patiently discover the city, the more it fascinates you. It grows on you in a very intellectual way.

Reminders of some of the darkest chapters of our modern history are openly exposed throughout the city - the Berlin Wall, the Nazi dictatorship and its persecutions - all with total honesty and humility and without any shame. The city vibrates optimism and youth, it seems to care more about the future than the past but at the same time it clearly doesn’t want to forget.

It is also a city where you can find in every bars and restaurants any brand or type of beer in an alcohol-free version. Pierre loved it!

We stayed at The Titanic Hotel (Interesting name!) very conveniently situated in Mitte on Französische Straße from where we could walk or take the metro. On the first day we decided to bike around to get a feeling of the city. We started with the French Cathedral and the boulevard “Unter den Linden” to Brandenburg Gate.

The Berlin Wall and the Cold War:

One of our first stop was Checkpoint Charlie. The famous border crossing between East and West Berlin during the Cold War (1947–1991). At the height of the Berlin Crisis in 1961 U.S. and Soviet tanks faced each other rigth here.

The Berlin Wall was erected to encircle the West Berlin enclave located within the East Germany territory, splitting the city in two and essentially creating an “Island” under the Allied control within the Soviet controlled East Germany state. West Berlin was connected to West Germany through several “umbilical cords”: an air bridge, a train line and a heavily controlled road, all providing the vital mean of supplies to this “Political Island”.

The main purpose of the Wall was to prevent East Germans to escape and seek asylum in West Germany (sounds familiar?).

Today, the Wall is omnipresent and is an integrate part of the city landscape as an obvious and purposeful reminder of this oppressive and inhuman creation.

As you interact with the Wall in its various locations, it takes on different faces reinforcing the power of this unique and multifaceted historical record. We saw the “Touristic Wall” at Check Point Charly (above) with its fascinating museum detailing all the ingenious ways people employed to escape.

The “Engineered Wall” at the Berlin Wall Memorial, the “Geographic Wall” represented by the Cobblestones Trail that runs through the city marking the exact Wall foot print, the “Integrated Wall” as a perfect medium for modern street art, the “Barbaric Wall” at the Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears) and its exhibit of the human impact of this arbitrary separation of people and families.

The Berlin Wall Memorial is the central memorial site of the German division, located in the middle of the capital. Situated at the historic site on Bernauer Strasse, it extends along 1.4 kilometers of the former border strip. This is where the “Engineered Wall” is exhibited, the memorial details the actual design and construction concepts behind the Wall as well as the way it evolved over time to improve its impenetrability.

The “Geographic Wall” and its Cobblestone Trail keeps popping up as you travel the city wether you are passing by The French Embassy (designed by Christian de Portzamparc) on the Pariser Platz, or visiting the Postdamer Platz, or walking near the Brandenburg Gate, it is there for you to fully grasp its physical space.

The “Integrated Wall” is in full display at The East Side Gallery. This open-air gallery consists of a series of murals painted directly on a 1,316 m long remnant of the Wall. A perfect emulation of the Wall within the modern life of Berlin and a tribute to the creativity of this city.

The “Barbaric Wall” is clearly presented at The Tränenpalast. The Palace of Tears, located at the East Berlin Friedrichstraße Station, gives an emotional look into life during the division and the human impact of the Wall. From 1962 to 1989 it was the border crossing for travellers by S-bahn, U-bahn and train between East and West Germany. The name derives from the tearful goodbyes that took place in front of the building, where western visitors had to say farewell to East Germans that were not permitted to travel to West Berlin. This very emotional memorial also displays photos of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, marking the deliverance from this abuse.

As we were walking from one facet of the wall to the next in the heat of August witnessing the full dimension of the Berlin division, we could not help the urge to scream:

Mister Trump - Forget that Wall!

The Nazi Dictatorship and its atrocities:

While the reference to Trump above was not intended as a lead in to this section of our blog, the testimonies and reports on the rise of Adolf Hilter and the German National Socialist in the early 30’s exhibited in the Topography Of Terror Museum have an eerie resemblance to what we are experiencing today in the States (and other countries) and one can only hope that man has learned its lessons and the Democratic institutions will prevent further degradation of the situation and its eventual frightening consequences.

The Topography of Terror Museum, is an indoor-outdoor museum built on the site where during the "Third Reich" the headquarters of the Secret State Police, the SS and the Reich Security Main Office were located. It is a very well executed chronological and detailed retrospective of the Nazi destruction machine from its beginnings to its collapse. The very disturbing feeling one gets reading about the early phase of the Third Reich is that it happened gradually, it grew step by step, developed insidiously until it was too late to stop and reversed.

We then walked to the Holocaust Memorial. This impressive memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust was designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. According to Eisenman's project text, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. Walking through the memorial and its multitude of uneven concrete slab was a sobering experience.

The Berlin of Today:

After visiting all these very emotionnal places. We went on to discover some very cool neighborhoods, ex: Ackerstrasse, Koppenplatz, Auguststrasse with a lot od cool stores and restaurants. We liked particularly Anna Sykora porcelain. Too bad it was not easy to bring back home but she can ship, so we can think about it…

We ended the day with a drink at a Biergarten in Monbijou Park and a delicious diner at Oxymoron, situated in the first Art-Nouveau courtyard of the “Hackesche Höfe” in the heart of Berlin in a neighborhood called “Le Quartier des Granges”, followed by ice cream at Waffle oder Becher, very yummy!

The next day we went back to the Quartier des Granges for a very quite and yummy italian lunch at Petrarca.

Then we headed to Kreuzberg, the very diverse district known for its alternative scene and counterculture. It was hot and after a long walk through Kreuzberg, we went for a beer at Bar Klunkerkranich, a rooftop bar very unique and very challenging to find. You enter through a sketchy mall, get into the parking garage atop the mall. Walk up to last ramp with the walls adorned by a funky vertical garden and you arrive at one of the funkiest and coolest places to watch the sunset in Berlin.

Followed by a pizza at Holzmarket, another unique urban oasis.

Berlin and its Museums:

Berlin is also very famous for its museums, one of them is The Neues Museum on Museum Island in the Spree river, an other World Heritage Site, where we now can view The Nefertiti Bust: it is believed to have been crafted in 1345 B.C. It is breathtaking, we could have stayed watching it for hours… Immense beauty! They are currently building a new addition to this museum.

Out of the main areas is the Contemporary Museum of Art Hamburger Bahnhof. We were happy we went even though it is a lot smaller than we expected.

The plans for that evening included massages, diner at our hotel and concert of the Young Euro Classic! The Young Euro Classic, established in Berlin in 2000, is a significant international music festival for young musicians. It is one of the world’s most important platform for international young orchestra musicians in the European classical music tradition.

Next morning was planned for Charlottenburg Palace, it is the largest palace in Berlin, in a very residential neighborhood. It was built at the end of the 17th century and was greatly expanded during the 18th century. It includes much lavish decoration in baroque and rococo styles.

We had to go to Kufurstendamn, it is the famous and elegant boulevard and one of the best places in the city to go strolling and shopping. You will find there the famous KaDeWe department store where we had a delicious Japanese lunch. Isabelle got Adidas and Birkenstocks of course!!!

Next stop is in a very different area, Maybachufer: The Turkish Market, on the bank of the Maybach. It has almost everything you might find in the Bosporus. Its multicultural diversity gives the impression of a genuine oriental bazaar. The Turkish ambiance can be enjoyed along the Landwehrkanal, on the border between the Neukölln and Kreuzberg districts. Here you find the real mix: locals, newcomers, immigrants, tourists, families, couples, groups of friends, the poor and the rich.

Back in the Kreuzberg district, we walked around, dicovered the Marheineke Markthalle. Once there were 14 market halls in Berlin, now there are 2 left and this is one of them. The stands feature organic products from the local region as well as international delicacies and options for lunch and dinner.

We choose to have dinner a few block away at Osteria #1 highly recommended!

Our last day was devoted to the Pergamon Museum on Museum Island. The door of Ishtar Babylon Mesopotamia (Irak) and The door of the Millet market from Turkey were the highlites: absolutely stunning!

We ended our stay with the visit of the Dome of the Reichstag building designed by Norman Foster, it holds the Bundestag (the German Parliament). We had reserved at table for dinner at the Reichstag on the rooftop watching the sunset.

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Bye, Bye Berlin, we loved you! Your laid back young vibe reminded us of Austin, TX. We loved how you are very protective of the environment, living outdoors and biking everywhere. We were extremely touched by the way you acknowledge your history (when we think that Isabelle’s older brother lived there during the Cold War as he was doing his French military duty, it was really not so long ago…). And we loved your museums.

If you visit Berlin, you need to reserve all the Museums that are on Tinsel Island as well as the Reichstag visit including the dinner way in advance aa you have to fill out documents for the Reichstag visits.