Last Day in Berlin

Wow, it feels as though we have been away from home forever. Nevertheless, we have seen more of Germany than I ever imagined we could see in 10 days. From Munich to Wolfsburg to Berlin – we have seen ancient history, evidence of recent changes in history and modern art and technology. Today, the sun even came out for the first time since we arrived.

Our last day here was a free day for everyone. Many faculty and students spent the day on Museum Island. Museum Island is located in the Spree River, and it is home to five major museums:
1. The Altes Museum (the Old Museum): houses the Prussian Royal family’s art collection.
2. The Neues Museum (the New Museum): the big attraction is the Egyptian collection, which includes a famous bust of Queen Nefertiti.
3. The Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery): includes collections of Classical, Romantic, Biedermeier (more realistic type paintings), Impressionist, and early Modernist artwork.
4. The Bode Museum: includes sculptures, Byzantine art, coins and medals.
5. The Pergamom Museum: include several reconstructed huge and historically significant buildings such as the Pergamom Altar and the Istar Gate of Babylon. We hate that we missed this visit.

Sarah Veal and Sarah McCary planned to visit a concentration camp today, so we are interested to hear more about their adventures today. We saw them briefly at dinner, but did not sit with them, so we have yet to hear what all they did, but they seemed to have fun. Several other students visited to the Berlin Zoo. We heard from Andrew Phillips that the visit was most interesting, and that they were extremely impressed with the quality of the zoo.

Tony, Sherry Walker and I started our day at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Checkpoint Charlie was the name that Allied Powers like the UK, US, France and other allied countries gave to the most famous Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War. Even though I had visited this museum 11 years, I am still amazed at how much I had forgotten about the brutality that people endured in their desperate attempts to escape East Germany. What struck me even more during our visit is that most of the students on our trip were not even born when the Berlin Wall came down! Yikes!

After our visit to Checkpoint Charlie and a few photos, we took Sherry with us to Mass at St. Hedwig Cathedral. The Cathedral had an extremely modern design inside for a church located inside such a beautiful old building. After Mass, we brought Sherry back to the hotel and moved onto the afternoon portion of our plans. Our first stop was the Sony Center, which is also home to the Filmmuseum Berlin. This was not our destination, however. Tony was determined to visit the Dunkin Donuts in the Sony Center. He continues to be put out that we only have one Dunkin Donuts in Chattanooga, and we have seen at least three in Berlin. Granted, Berlin is a much bigger city, but he argues that Chattanooga is so much closer to the home of Dunkin Donuts (Quincy, MA) that we should have more. Dunkin Donuts, are you reading this?

After a brief visit to Dunkin Donuts, we moved along to see remaining pieces of the Berlin Wall, then found the Führerbunker (Hitler’s Bunker). Hitler’s Bunker was tricky to find because it is essentially just a parking lot now marked with a simple plaque. The German government has purposely refused to more elaborately mark the bunker because it wanted to try and prevent neo-Nazi groups from making shrine out of the location. The bunker was very large, and the government placed a children’s playground on the area above where Hitler and Eva Braun’s burned bodies were allegedly discovered.

From Führerbunker, we trekked to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. In includes 2,711 concrete slabs of different sizes in a grid pattern on a slanted field. Walking amongst these slabs was very moving.

Beyond the Memorial was the United States Embassy and then the Brandenburg Gate. The Brandenburg Gate was built in 1791 and was once one the gates of Prussia. The gate served as the backdrop for many Nazi propaganda films, but it also served as the backdrop when US President Ronald Reagan demanded “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” We sauntered onto the Pariser Platz, which is a large city square that “celebrates” the German occupation of Paris in 1814. Now it house many banks, restaurants, hotels (included the Hotel Adelon where Michael Jackson infamously held his baby over the balcony), museums (including the Kennedy Museum – Berlin still loves the Kennedys evens 37 years later!) and cheesy photo ops like fake Indians, fake statues, re-enactors, etc.

The Reichstag – the seat of German Parliament – was our next stop. A mysterious fire in the building in 1993 (some believe it was started by the Nazis, but it was blamed on the Communists) resulted in increased power for the Nazis and decreased freedoms for the people. Despite many repairs and work on the building since reunification, the building has yet to be fully restored, and you can still see Soviet graffiti inside on the walls. Next door to the Reichstag building is a more modern structure that serves as a meeting place for Parliament as well as a personal residence for current German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

We stopped for a quick lunch at a small German restaurant on our route, and their special today was “fried chicken, cole slaw and chips.” We got a kick out of that. I ordered a baked potato (Germans LOVE potatoes), and Tony ordered a German favorite – currywurst. Currywurst is basically hot pork sausage with curry sauce.

We came back to the hotel to find that at least three more members of our group have come down with a stomach virus that seems to be making the rounds. Tony and I spent the rest of our afternoon buying multiple bottles of ginger ale at the hotel bar and delivering them to student rooms while waiting for the doctor in our group to return from museum visits. He has arranged with our guide to go to an Apotheke (drug store) and some prescription anti-nausea drugs that should help keep everyone hydrated. We are hopeful they will feel better before we leave tomorrow and that no one else will get sick. We are always glad to have an ER doctor with us for moments like this, but he does not think it is anything serious.

We enjoyed one last group dinner tonight, and now everyone is packing and getting ready for our flight out in the morning. Assuming everything runs on schedule, we should be back on campus between 10 and 10:30 tomorrow night, maybe a bit later. We can never tell, but I would predict about that time. Tony and I ready to sleep in our own bed and see our little Ruthie.

Thanks for following our adventure.

Joanie and Tony