THE CITY OF BERLIN

Paul, Sherry, Eric, Rebecca, Max and Sophie

This was our first time in Berlin, our second time in Germany (Heidelberg on a previous trip). We both remember people in our parent's generation saying that they would never go to Germany, and, in fact, they would never consider buying a Volkswagon because of the Holocaust. We both had some of those feelings in the past (we did, however, own and love a 1965 VW bus). 

Everyone we know who has been in Berlin told us what a great city it is; they were correct. We truly enjoyed being there - and yet.

Berlin has a population of 3.5 million people. It is a vibrant, diverse, well-organized (of course) city with many places of interest for visitors. We used the mass transit system every day, and found it easy to get around. People we met were very friendly and helpful. We actually wished we had planned to stay a few more days. 

We visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and a section of the Berlin Wall that has interpretive information. Both of these raised in my thoughts the basic human struggle between good and evil, as lived by Germans in the last century; my lifetime. Germany has very intentionally owned their role in the horrors of World War II, and, to their credit, is doing everything possible to educate young people about the past, without pulling punches (i.e. a memorial to the "Murdered Jews"). I couldn't help thinking about how my own country handles our racist history - many states prohibiting the teaching of "critical race theory" or anything that might make young white kids feel uncomfortable. It is ironic that the Nazi regime modeled many of their anti-Jewish laws on the racist laws of the United States at the time, and now the United States could learn from Germany how to deal with systemic racism and bigotry. 

We visited Checkpoint Charlie, and laughed about the McDonalds and KFC next to it (see photo link, below). We visited the interesting museum about the history of Jews in Berlin at the New Synagogue (new in the late 1800s). A modern art museum has wonderful, and some puzzling, exhibits. We appreciated the architecture of old and new buildings. We wondered about the blue and pink above-ground pipes in many neighborhoods. 

And we ate. And we drank. In the photo album (see link, below) there are numerous photos of us with beer and wine. We certainly had to sample German beer and wine, right? And German beer gardens. We ate everything from classic German food to the foods of immigrant populations. In fact, our favorite was a Turkish grill, where we ate two times. 

And so, Berlin is now on our list of great cities to visit. We barely scratched the surface of what Berlin has to offer. 

And here is the link to the photo album. Note: some of the photos have accompanying text, so click on a photo and then scroll down a bit to see descriptions.

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posted by paul