Jamie’s Travels

Glad to report that I’m feeling pretty well these days. Other than ability to process alcohol we seem to have reached peak physical human ability again.

We arrived in Berlin late and dropped our bags at the hostel. Happily we then took a look around the city. My €9 pass for German transport came in handy once again and we managed to stumble across the Brandenburg gate. Walking out of the metro it appears right there and, in the late evening, it was a great sight. We wondered around a bit more and glanced at the Reichstag before walking down the river to try and find food. Strolling around the city in the evening was quite a nice experience. We returned to thankfully find our messy hostel mates had gone out for the evening. (This morning I found a €50 note on the floor belonging to one of them).

Day two started early. Our goal of leaving at 9 only slipped by 15 minutes this time! We headed straight back to Brandenburg gate and scootered down to the Victory Column. It had a great exhibit about architecture in Germany and Europe and then about 600 steps to the top which gave a great view over the emptier West Germany. East Germany certainly had it rough, but they did seem to get all the cool landmarks.

We scootered back up the road, passing the oddly placed Soviet War Memorial in the British sector. We found a cafe and then split ways. Flora (mercilessly) went to try and get her foot sorted after hurting it in Split and Niamh went back to the hostel. I charged on to visit a memorial to murdered Jewish people. An impressive monument but unfortunately the information centre with the exhibits was shut on a Monday. I’d hoped to spend a good portion of time there but there wasn’t much to see. I had a stroll through the stone slabs and left.

I headed down to Potsdamer Platz. There was a brief sign up about the Berlin Wall that I read. Honestly I didn’t see the hype of it. I walked off and headed towards Checkpoint Charlie. I went through the mall of Berlin before pivoting from my desired destination. Instead a visited the Topography of Terror museum. A fairly heavy museum about the propaganda and strategies the Nazis, and the the Soviets, used to oppress the people of Germany and the countries invaded in the Third Reich. I did indeed get my wish to see some sad stuff that day. There was also a long section of the Berlin Wall stood there which was intimidating to see.

I rejoined the girls at Checkpoint Charlie – which is now nestled between a KFC and a McDonalds (a true modern divide). I then had a go at an electric bike and headed to the cathedral. ‘Museum Island’ is a nice place to walk around in Berlin. Between the cathedral and the pantheon inspired museum buildings there’s enough to see even if you have no intention of going in a museum.

After we walked down to the university to see statues of our heat transfer hero’s Planck and Helmholtz. The type of thing that’s funny to people doing an engineering degree but not so much to anyone else I think.

We walked across the road to Bebelplatz – the sight of the Nazi book burning. Here there’s an interesting art instalment of empty book cases in the floor that I’d wanted to see. Quite eerie but would’ve been easier to see if the glass was actually clean. My photos don’t capture it but it’s worth looking up.

We headed to find dinner, on the way discovering slightly strange places – a short exhibit about Volkswagen cars and a shop dedicated to the specific shape of the stop and go man in Berlin. In the end for dinner we wound up back at the mall of Berlin.

After dinner we went to Reichstag. For free you can go to the top so we went at sunset. The dome was unfortunately shut for visitors but it was impressive none the less. We stayed till it was dark and then coincidentally came across a film and light show happening next to the building. Apparently it’s a summer event. A 30 minute show about the history of the Reichstag ended up being an impulsive choice to stay and watch – but a welcome and interesting one. After, we came across an Irish bar and then went back to the hostel. A long but pretty great day.

For our final morning we had initially planned to all split ways. Flora to some art thing on the Berlin Wall, Niamh to the technology museum and me back to the Holocaust monument. In the end I decided I wasn’t much in the mood for death – a task for next time I’m here. I ended up going with Niamh instead.

The technology museum was massive (and for only €2). We probably managed about a third before we had to run for our train. Ironically because we spent so much time looking at trains. Next up, Amsterdam.