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Ozbrecht 2019 - Iceland & The Baltics
Berlin, Germany
August 21
Our next port was Rostock, Germany. However we spent the day in Berlin, a 3.5 hour train ride away. This is the Berlin train station
First was a quick 1 hour bus tour of the city
Fernseturm Berlin
St. Nicholas' Church Museum
Berliner Dom
Berlin Palace
The Brandenburg Gate, built in the 18th century by the King of Prussia, celebrating the successful restoration of order following the Batavian Revolution. That restoration of order was temporary.
Standing beneath the Gate, looking up at the columns
Reichstag, the German Parliament building
International Centre for Cultural Exchange
Bundespräsidialamt, a federal agency assisting the German President
The Victory Column, located in the center of Großer Tiergarten
Our first glimpse of a portion of the Berlin Wall
German Cathedral, and the end of the bus tour. We had 3.5 hours on our own.
Checkpoint Charlie. When the wall was dividing Berlin, this was one of the few crossing points between the East and West Berlin. It became a primary symbol of the Cold War
Of course Checkpoint Charlie has a McDonald's nearby
The Topography of Terror Museum. There is a building off to the left, accompanied by this long outdoor exhibit. Behind that is a long portion of the Berlin Wall
The museum documents the Nazi atrocities of World War II
The outdoor exhibit is ever-changing. Here, it is focusing on activites and events that occurred in Poland
Berliner Mauer - the Berlin Wall
The Wall at the Topography of Terror
Indeed
Commentary that is more current
"Greetings to Kathy(???)"
Also called the Holocaust Memorial, to the Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust
The memorial is a 200,000 square foot site with 2,711 concrete slabs, or "stelae" arranged in a grid pattern. The architect said it was "designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason."
On the site is also an underground "Place of Information," holding the names of approximately 3 million Jewish Holocaust victims.
A stunning, moving display.
It seems that the German people have done a well-balanced job of memorializing the atroscities without dwelling on them. They have committed to never forgetting
We only had 3.5 hours for our Berlin walking tour, and needed to carve out time for lunch. How about Löwenbräu?
Good German fare
Back to the German Cathedral, where we caught our bus to the train station and returned to the Viking Sea
Konzerthaus Berlin
Both the church and concerthouse are located on Gendarmenmarkt
The Spree River
Berlin Wall Memorial, in the northern part of Berlin
Meet Conrad Schumann. In 1961, Schumann was a 19-year old East German border guard. At the time, there was only a single coil of concertina wire at this location. West German guards yelled at him to "Komm' rüber!" - "Come over!"
Schuman jumped the barbed wire while tossing his submachine gun, and a waiting West German patrol car carried him away. All caught on camera.
Yet another iconic image of the Cold War.
Returned by train to the ship. Some views of the German countryside
Welcome back! (video)
View of the German port town of Rostock from the ship
German Apple Dumpling
Leaving Rostock
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