Emily and I have been VERY busy the last few weeks, packing up our stuff in Parma, going to Berlin for a few days to visit friends, hosting our friend Emma as soon as we got back, and moving to Bologna!
So we'll take it one major event at a time. Berlin was a very impressive city...both of us had been to Germany before but always to the west, which is very different than the east. Berlin has so much history behind it that you just can't help but be a little awed. It's a mix of the classic and the modern, the likes of which we've never seen. Sleek, ultra-modern steel and glass buildings stand shoulder to shoulder with stone behemoths that still bear the scars of Allied bombing attacks. It's incredibly sobering to be standing in a modern metropolis, full of people going about their normal daily business, and to look over and see a row of bullet holes at chest level in the facade you're standing in front of.
The city seems to have dealt with its past by erasing some of the more painful reminders, and preserving others so that the lessons of history won't be forgotten. Construction cranes mark the skyline everywhere you look, raising new developments in a frenzied effort to keep pace with Berlin's booming, youthful population. There's a thriving artist community, and the whole city has a feeling of youth and energy. But downtown, you can't go a block without seeing monuments, bronze plaques, or shrapnel-damaged remnants of GDR or National Socialist architecture to remind you of the role this city served not many years ago, within the memories of some of its inhabitants still walking around, in fact.
Typical GDR (German Democratic Republic, the ones who built the wall) architecture:
This one's a bit older...
A perfectly preserved section of the Berlin wall:
Emily and I made a break for the Western side!
Plaque commemorating the spot where the Nazis famously burned the books:
We enjoyed Berlin but to be honest it weighed on us a bit as well. How could it not? As much as it has moved on and revitalized itself, the city is still a reminder of what mankind is capable of. Of how, given the right conditions, people can behave in ways that seem to be sheer lunacy after some perspective is gained. Regardless of whether the creation of Nazi Germany was the result of a "perfect storm" of events that will never again be duplicated, I think it stands as a lesson of the dangers of becoming insular.
Mark and I in front of Checkpoint Charlie, where the US and USSR had a big tank standoff back in the day that could have turned into WWIII in a heartbeat...
The Berlin Cathedral, one of the largest Protestant churches in the world. Hermann Goring was married there, Hitler was his best man.
It was severely damaged in the war and has been reconstructed, but plenty of evidence of the bombs still remains:
The famous Brandenburg Gate. Napoleon stole the statue on top but the Germans got it back.
Berlin skyline
The Jewish memorial:
Top of the Reichstag (Bundestag), which is the German parliamentary building. Mark took us to breakfast up there at a fancy restaurant that is often patronized by politicians. If you look closely, you can still see the graffiti from the Russian soldiers who overtook Berlin...
There's also a dome up top that is amazing...
Anyways, apologies if I've gotten a little too "heavy" for the ol' blog. I just don't know how to treat the subject matter any other way. We'll just take the warning about being insular and use it as a convenient excuse to do even more travelling while we're here...
And, most importantly, we DID have a fantastic time seeing our friends Mark and Maria, and their two wonderful kids Emily and Anthony! One of my favorite moments was little Emily's 8th birthday party, which had a "Pippi Longstocking" theme. She had a bunch of friends over, and they all came dressed as little Pippis. The phrase "SOOOOOO cute" was thrown around like it was going out of style. You have to feel a little sorry for the one boy who attended though...
Poor little dude in the lower right....he was severely outnumbered. Lucky he came out of there without having to wear an orange wig, I suppose.
Little brother Anthony was the odd man out so we did some coloring. When the orange wheels fad hits, you saw it here first.
The city definitely has its lighter side too.
The little "walk/don't walk" guy is very unique there, and apparently, inexplicably, very popular as well.
Army-green Porsche with a Ramones sticker? Yup. Making a ton of cash is so punk rock.
Seriously, who named this store? Does he/she have a boss?
And finally, I present to you....the girl with the "wurst" job in the whole city. HA!
So, that's about it for now, but now that we're in Bologna and have some killer fast internet access (by Italian standards, it's like really fast dialup for everyone back home) we'll be better about posting. Enjoy a few more pics, and ciao for now!
Beautiful waterway in the city:
A GIANT fish tank in, of all places, the lobby of a Ramada hotel?!? Yup, that's a scuba diver inside....
Palaces of the Prussian kings, in Potsdam:
White asparagus, stuffed cabbage, and pig's knuckle with potatoes and sauerkraut. Friends, it doesn't get any more German than that.
And lastly, the obligatory motorcycle shot. I know, I know, too bad it's a Kawasaki. But it's got some tasty parts...I guess sometimes you CAN put lipstick on a pig?
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