Marx and Engels Platz monuments still standing of communim's founders in the former East Berlin.
Inside the State Opera House
Checkpoint Charlie by night - check out my hat!
The wall side on - it's quite narrow and notice the piping!
Topography of terror exhibit.
The wall side on - it's quite narrow and notice the piping!
Topography of terror exhibit.
The Marienkirche - one of Berlin's oldest churches, built from 1270 and reconstructed after a fire in 1380. The tower was not completed until the 16th century.
Berlin Cathedral built from 1893 - 1905, restored in 75-80.
The Reichstag - restored parliament house, the site of one of Berlins final WWII battles.
Victory Column
Riding through the Tiergarten in the afternoon, the rain had stopped by then!
War memorial built days after WWII and where 2500 soviet troops are buried.
Berlin Cathedral built from 1893 - 1905, restored in 75-80.
The Reichstag - restored parliament house, the site of one of Berlins final WWII battles.
Victory Column
Riding through the Tiergarten in the afternoon, the rain had stopped by then!
War memorial built days after WWII and where 2500 soviet troops are buried.
An old guard tower, it has been moved off from it's original site - though it is the only one still standing!
An old Nazi building, typical archetitecure, that Hitler thought looked good - square and bland! From this building window some people actually attempted and completed their escapse of East Berlin, the top window had a winch and pully system where an entire family escaped!
The death strip! - the large pavers are where the second wall would be.
Looking serious at the Berlin Wall - we were smiling for the photo and told we had to look serious! The wall is fenced off now because people keeping taking souvieners and as you can imagine if everyone takes a little - eventually none left to sightsee!
Sign at Checkpoint Charlie.
The guard at checkpoint charlie - he would hide behind his flag if you tried to take a photo with him without paying him! What a cheeck!
An old Nazi building, typical archetitecure, that Hitler thought looked good - square and bland! From this building window some people actually attempted and completed their escapse of East Berlin, the top window had a winch and pully system where an entire family escaped!
The death strip! - the large pavers are where the second wall would be.
Looking serious at the Berlin Wall - we were smiling for the photo and told we had to look serious! The wall is fenced off now because people keeping taking souvieners and as you can imagine if everyone takes a little - eventually none left to sightsee!
Sign at Checkpoint Charlie.
The guard at checkpoint charlie - he would hide behind his flag if you tried to take a photo with him without paying him! What a cheeck!
Gendarmenmarket and the French Cathedral, the German Cathedral on the otherside is identical
Gendarmenmarket. This is the theatre
Gendarmenmarket. This is the theatre
Bebelplatz - This is the monument of the book burnings of 1933.This is the site of the book burnings of 1933, the monument is just an empty bookshelf, very simple and effective.
The old royal library in Bebelplatz square
Bike tour
The old royal library in Bebelplatz square
Bike tour
Soviet Union hats we brought at the market - they were nice and warm - mine was fake but Josh's is animal fur - yuck!
Neptunes Fountain
TV Tower
Neptunes Fountain
TV Tower
The town hall
Today we all went on a bike tour around the sights of Berlin - heaps of fun! Berlin has lots of interesting history and the guide was excellent. The tour was called 'fat tire bike tours'. We saw the Berlin wall, the brandenbury gate, the red town hall - the city hall of unified Berlin and saw where Hitlers bunker was (now a carpark). We saw the victory colum, Bebelplatz (site of the Nazi book burning), the memorieal to the murdered Jews of europe, the Reichstag (restored parliament house). Then we went to a beer garden the rolde our bikes back through the gardens (Tier Gardens), they used to be hunting grounds. The victory monument was built in 1873 as a memorial to the Prussian war. The godess on top of the Brandenbury gate is the godess of victory, built originally in 1789 but damaged during the war, so the one ontop of the gate now is a plaster caste of the original. We also saw the Berlin cathedral and the marienkriche (built in 1270's), however it has been rebuilt over the years. The square with the 3 buildings is the Gendarmenmarkt, it has a theatre, french and german church - the 2 churches are mirror images at each end of the courtyard. Josh sits infront of Neptunes fountain.
The bike tour went from 11-4pm. Before the tour Josh and I brought oursleves some 'lovely' soviet union hats! It was raining on the bike tour, notice the lovely ponchos! After the tour we went to check-point charlie, which was one of the checkpoints to get through from the east to the west and we went to the museum there and learn't about all the different stories of how people tried to escape - in suitcases, curled up in amplifiers etc! Then we went to the topography of terror musum which was an exhibit on the wall of the old gestapo building about the gestapo and SAS proceedings during the war. The most amazing part of all the information was seeing the actual photos, seeing the real flags people waved and the suitcases they hid in and even the clothes worn on their nights of excape. It brought the history alive to say the least! We took a photo of the 'death strip', the area between the inner and outer wall where guards manned towers and were told to shoot anybody they saw in this area. We took a photo of the only still standing watch tower. We learn't that after WWII the country was divided into sections and given to different countires, the west was given to america, UK and France and the east was given to the soviet union, who originally had all of Berlin but the others wanted some of Berlin as it was a resourced city, so it was divided down the middle. The division happened in the middle of the night and one minute families were a drive apart and the following morning soilders seperated them. it was then they began building the wall, not nearly as big as we expected! The concrete tubing along the top of the wall is piping the west gave to the east for their sewage system - only they never used it for that but cut it in half and put it ontop of the wall! One of the first bombs dropped on Berlin in WWII only killed one living thing - the only elephant in the Berlin zoo!
After all this learning and sightseeing, we had a nice german meal for dinner - trout for me and beef with bacon wrapped in it and fried for Josh, then back to bed!
Today we all went on a bike tour around the sights of Berlin - heaps of fun! Berlin has lots of interesting history and the guide was excellent. The tour was called 'fat tire bike tours'. We saw the Berlin wall, the brandenbury gate, the red town hall - the city hall of unified Berlin and saw where Hitlers bunker was (now a carpark). We saw the victory colum, Bebelplatz (site of the Nazi book burning), the memorieal to the murdered Jews of europe, the Reichstag (restored parliament house). Then we went to a beer garden the rolde our bikes back through the gardens (Tier Gardens), they used to be hunting grounds. The victory monument was built in 1873 as a memorial to the Prussian war. The godess on top of the Brandenbury gate is the godess of victory, built originally in 1789 but damaged during the war, so the one ontop of the gate now is a plaster caste of the original. We also saw the Berlin cathedral and the marienkriche (built in 1270's), however it has been rebuilt over the years. The square with the 3 buildings is the Gendarmenmarkt, it has a theatre, french and german church - the 2 churches are mirror images at each end of the courtyard. Josh sits infront of Neptunes fountain.
The bike tour went from 11-4pm. Before the tour Josh and I brought oursleves some 'lovely' soviet union hats! It was raining on the bike tour, notice the lovely ponchos! After the tour we went to check-point charlie, which was one of the checkpoints to get through from the east to the west and we went to the museum there and learn't about all the different stories of how people tried to escape - in suitcases, curled up in amplifiers etc! Then we went to the topography of terror musum which was an exhibit on the wall of the old gestapo building about the gestapo and SAS proceedings during the war. The most amazing part of all the information was seeing the actual photos, seeing the real flags people waved and the suitcases they hid in and even the clothes worn on their nights of excape. It brought the history alive to say the least! We took a photo of the 'death strip', the area between the inner and outer wall where guards manned towers and were told to shoot anybody they saw in this area. We took a photo of the only still standing watch tower. We learn't that after WWII the country was divided into sections and given to different countires, the west was given to america, UK and France and the east was given to the soviet union, who originally had all of Berlin but the others wanted some of Berlin as it was a resourced city, so it was divided down the middle. The division happened in the middle of the night and one minute families were a drive apart and the following morning soilders seperated them. it was then they began building the wall, not nearly as big as we expected! The concrete tubing along the top of the wall is piping the west gave to the east for their sewage system - only they never used it for that but cut it in half and put it ontop of the wall! One of the first bombs dropped on Berlin in WWII only killed one living thing - the only elephant in the Berlin zoo!
After all this learning and sightseeing, we had a nice german meal for dinner - trout for me and beef with bacon wrapped in it and fried for Josh, then back to bed!
