Berlin Dashing

Here is my travelogue on my recent jaunt to Berlin - I'm going on a day trip to NYC tomorrow, here's hoping this great weather holds out.


What to say about Berlin.... in a nutshell, it was a lot of fun! Three days is not enough time at all for this VERY fascinating city. There is so much history in every nook and cranny, you could spend a lifetime exploring.

Reached Frankfurt Friday to find much of Germany suffering from a major snowstorm, all domestic flights canceled. Joy. The group (my sister and two co-workers) decided to use the train to get to Berlin. It would probably have been a very nice train ride too if we hadn't been completely exhausted and slept through the entire trip.

Arrived in Berlin, my first thought, 'goodness it is so cold! What a change from two weeks ago in South Africa!' Got oriented quickly and than hit the town. For the three days we were there we simply sampled the city - each person had their own personal agenda but we tried to do something for everyone. We visited the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Space Needle in Alexanderplatz, Postdamer Platz, Holocaust Memorial, Two museums, the King Wilhelm Memorial Church and Checkpoint Charlie (where all non-Germans crossed from West to East Berlin).

But the most moving location to me was BabelPlatz in the middle of Humboldt University in the former East Berlin section of town. It was in this quiet, unassuming square that the Nazi's held their book-burning rally in 1933. A plain blank glass panel has been placed in the middle of the square, a square ringed by a library and a church, to mark the scene. For someone who loves to read, (me) book-burning is sacrilegious. What could one be afraid of in a book that you had to destroy it in such a vicious manner? To think that less than 100 years ago, a civilized society was taken over by fear and hatred, to the extent that they removed all logic and began burning books. Sounds familiar, no? (Some of the parallels of Nazi Germany and present day America are eerie). Actually that whole street which BabelPlatz is off of was full of Nazi history - it was so surreal to be standing and walking in places that held so much violence in the not so distant past (including Hitler's bunker). Lots of the buildings that are still around from W.W.II reflect the fires and bullet wounds they sustained during the war. Couple that with the communist era and its amazing that the people of Berlin are so upbeat.

Speaking of which, the people of Berlin were very nice. This is a great city to go to for lots of American lovin'. I suppose it comes from the whole communist period and America supporting Berlin with the airlifts and through to the collapse of the wall (which by the way is no longer standing anywhere except in museums). Lots of praise for Americans all over Berlin (they have a square named after JFK!). It was a bit weird when the rest of the world pretty much can't stand America right now (to put it mildly).

Last day there, walked into a grassy square where they were hanging up Nazi swastikas - uhh to say that was a little frightening is an understatement. We concluded it must have been for a movie since they were draping black cloth over the swastikas as soon as they got them up. Closed the night up by hanging out in typical Berlin fashion - in a coffee shop.

The cherry on top of the whole trip, for me, was arriving back in Washington DC, I got to talking to the INS guy and as he stamped my passport he said, "welcome home, your beautiful." How kind was that?! A pleasant way to end a lovely jaunt to a fascinating city.