I would like to buy a bicycle, so I can ride my bicycle, (bicycle, Biicycle). It would make travel a little faster but for now I walk and pretend like it keeps me healthy.
It was a colder day than it had been in a long time but still above freezing at about 2 degrees Celsius. I am getting used to measuring the temperature in Celcius and actually getting good at the conversion thanks to my handy-dandy-Mac-unit-converter. So at a balmy 35.6F, Steffi and I made a day of it.
The park is right near my apartment and a pleasant place to stroll. We saw first the Schloss Bellevue where the German President lives (the president is more of a figure head there – the chancellor, Angela Merkel, who is more like the prime minister is the one, and she is responsible for governmental policies). It was a much shorter walk than we thought it would be and we arrived by the Berliner Philharmonie after only 25 minutes. A strange façade of bright yellow, the buildings are home to some of the worlds greatest orchestral ensembles and soloists. I did not see a show. I am waiting for visitors to do that with.
Walking onwards, we arrived at the giant shopping mall. OK, it’s a little more than that, however, it had a lot of English speaking tourists and really felt like Time Square for a moment. Except for the giant Lego Giraffe that made me think more of Downtown Disney. In the giant shopping mall, which was in fact out destination, we headed for the gelato place. A small sit down café that served coffee, crepes, and gelato. I don’t need much more to be happy, but they provided it, in the form of the most delicious pistachio ice cream I have ever eaten in my entire life. Topped with strawberries and served on a warm crepe, it was as close to heaven that I’ll ever be ☺ 
I point out here again the striking contrasts that persist in Berlin. Once leaving gelato joy, we walked outside and visited the Holocaust-Mahnmal (Holocaust Memorial) which is a field of stone blocks on uneven ground that mimics waves disturbed and in motion.
Next we followed the Berliner Mauer marking, i.e. the former path of the Berlin Wall. There are four panels remaining in the Potsdamer Platz, near where the wall first came down. A young man, dressed in checkpoint-uniform, would stamp your passport with the old stamps as though crossing to and from the west and the east from or to the British or American sector. All in all something like 10 stamps were branded in the passport of a couple bright-eyed Japanese tourists as I listened to their make-believe journey through a divided Berlin. It was pretty unreal and hard to imagine – it was of course life at one time.
The Berliner Mauer stood directly in front of Brandenburger Tor the former city gate into Berlin. This picture is of the restored gate viewed from the East. You can’t see her too well, but Else is peaking up in the background over my head from where she stands in Tiergarten. During the Cold War, this view would be impossible, and the gate would be backed by the Mauer. It was at this spot that the wall first came down.
We then headed back towards my place stopping off at some additional government houses. There we saw the Kanzleramt, the building where Chanellor Merkel (is supposed) to live – kinda like the White House, and like Bush she spends more time elsewhere. She’s a bit different though and actually remains in Berlin where she governs instead of on a ranch in Texas. I offer peace and ask you to forgive the American stigmatism of selfish greedy pigs that precedes me. We are not all like the citizens you hear about most.
That ended the day and we shuffled on back home. It was a good day. Only 999,999 other things to do before I head back to the States.
Check the post above for a link to one of my favorite songs and one that I hear often in Berlin. Scorpions, "Wind of Change" -- it's starts and finishes at the Potsdamer Platz. It is nearly two decades later, but it is still touching.
No comments:
Post a Comment