Three Countries, Five Cities~First Stop Berlin, Germany~

~Berlin, Germany~

Thursday, June 2 was the traditional German Ascension Day Holiday.

This day marks Christ's ascension to heaven.  

It is the 40th day of Easter or 39 days after Easter Sunday.

Ascension Day is celebrated through most of Europe.

Even though it is a religious holiday, with the idea of 

Christians attending special church services, most people 

celebrate the holiday traveling, relaxing at home or doing

fun activities with family and friends.  We took advantage

of Cody not having school on Thursday and Friday to do

some visits to new and favorite places in Europe.

First country/city on our trip was BERLIN, GERMANY~ 

After living in Europe, twice, we decided to make 

the time to visit this historical city and see the sights.

In order to avoid a lot of slow holiday traffic on the 

autobahn we started our day at 3:30am arriving in Berlin 

at 9am.  It worked great!  No traffice on the autobahn's or 

in Berlin once we arrived.  So we easily parked and found

the starting point for our "Fat Tire Bike Tour" of the city.

 Our tour guide was great and had a lot of interesting

facts and tidbits about the city of Berlin, Germany.

 These first two photos are of a church built back in 

the 1200's.  I thought it was funny when the guide 

pointed out that most American's are awed at such

old structure's still standing and the Europeans just

shrug their shoulder with a comment like "Oh that's 

nothing, I've got a building in my back yard that's

older than this church....

 Here is a monument to Karl Marx.

 The green area behind us used to be the location of

a very large palace from centuries ago.  It was torn 

down with the idea no one in the society at the time

needed such visible hierarchy.

 ~Bebelplatz~

This is the main building for Germany's most prestigious

university and the sight of the Nazi's infamous book-

burning on May 10, 1933.  Students at the time burned

books from the library to show support for Hitler's 

movement.  Now, in current times, students sell books to

make up for the negative book burning event decades ago.

 The Dome is part of the University Platz.

 At one time Albert Einstein was a
professor at Berlin, University.

 Jim is showing others that when you look below

this glass cover you see a room filled with empty

book shelves that gives a visual of how many books

were burned at the Nazi book-buring May 10, 1933.

 The church's on this square were a bit in

competition of one another.  Different Christian

groups, Catholics and Protestants, wanted

seperate church buildings and built them 

across from one another in similar design.

One of the groups was able to build theirs

1 meter taller than the other structure.

 This is one church building on the square.

 Music Hall

 Here is the second church structure on the square,

1 meter taller than it's competition.

 ~CHECKPOINT CHARLIE~

Here is the famous border crossing between East Berlin 

and West Berlin for the Allied forces and foreigners.

 It is not a very impressive sight.  At the time the borders 

were opened the thoughts by all affected by this wall 

were to tare things down as quickly as possible, which 

did not preserve much for future historical sights.

Along the roads leading up to the small guard stand,
Checkpoint Charlie, is an outdoor exhibit of walls to
read stories and see photos of the events that took
place at the border crossing during this time in history.

 Here is the guard tower with the area

being called "Checkpoint Charlie."

 They showed many photos and stories of 

real people who tried to escape and did escape.

 A section of the Berlin wall.

One morning the citizens in the area woke up to a barbed
wire fence which had been put up overnight that instantly
seperated family and friends from one another.  Soon after
the wire had gone up more secure walls were put in place.

The wall remained as a barrier for close to 30 years.

 All the standing sections of the Berlin Wall 

are now under historical protection.

We did learn one man from Argentina was thinking

ahead as he decided to haul away portions of the wall,

before it was preserved as a historical sight, and stored 

them in a warehouse.  He now sells pieces of

them and now makes a healthy income for himself.

 Here is one of the last remaining watchtowers in the

Berlin Wall "no-man's-land" also called "dead zone"
 isolating West Berlin from East Germany.  This was
one of the worst jobs a soldier could have.  They worked
long shifts, 12 hours.  It was either very cold or very hot.
You also had to use a bucket as your latrine.  Most of the
guards in these towers were young and the ones most likely
wanting to escape.  So they were given many incentive's to stay.  

They were also NOT told who they would stand guard with

until about 10 minutes before their shifts, so there was 

no way to coordinate an escape plan with one another.

 We are here above Hitler's Bunker.  

His underground hideout covered about a one block

area.  It was built to withstand air raids if he were found.

When Hitler knew his days were numbered he committed

suicide then his body was burned, he hoped beyond 

recognition.  They were able to identify his body by using

his jaw/dental profile.  His remains were later cremated

and spread across the ocean so as not to have a specific

burial sight for supporters or those who opposed him and 

use as it a political sight for various reasons.

 We biked to the Jewish Memorial

built to honor the Murdered Jews of Europe.

 There are 2,711 concrete slabs.  They are coated with

a special ingredient that prevents grafitti.  There was 

a controversy about whether or not to use the coating 

since the company that makes it was known to also

make other products for the Nazi's in past history.  

As more research was done the creators of the monument

realized there were so many ties by so many companies

that had in the past supported the holocaust through various

ways such as "Levi" making uniforms for the soldiers. 

They realized that it was unavoidable to run into this type

of paths crossing and went ahead using the special coating,

plus it was too costly to start the process over again.

  

 German journalist Lea Rosh was the driving

force pushing for the memorial since 1989.

Peter Eisenma, architect, and Buro Happold,

engineer were the designers of the memorial.

 There was a lot of controversy as to if the memorial 

should be built.  At the time one German leader

of the Jewish community thought it was unnecesary.  

Other "vicitmized" groups feel they need recognition

as well and so there will be a memorial built at some

point for their "causes", once Berlin has money....

Each slab is 7 feet 10 inches long.

The Memorial took one and a half years

to build.  It was inaugurated in May 2005.

 Here we are at Brandenburg Gate.

It is one of Germany's most famous monuments with it

being the sight of many of Berlin's important events such as:

Napoleion's march into Berlin, the division of Berlin during

the Cold War, famous speeches such as Reagan's speech.

 Well, Jim was the one to have the flat tire on the tour.

Later, we didn't feel so bad about the flat when the guide

had to end up dealing with the woman who drank two large 

beers at lunch and caused a crash with three other bicylist's!!

 Cody and I on our Fat Tire Bike Tour~

 ~Victory Column~

This monument was originally built to commemorate the 

Prussion Victory in the Danish-Prussian War.  By the time

it had been built and inaugurated in 1873 Austria had also

been defeated by Prussia and then France was defeated as well.

So the column took on more of a purpose after these events

and was altered to honor the following events as well.

 This is where the leader of Berlin resides,

apparently his role is not that respected...

 ~Reichstag~

Germany's parliment building in Berlin.

 Tour group photo.

 Cody and his flip trick.

 One of Berlin's five museums.

 Close up in front of the Reichstag.

 Small world!!

This young lady on the tour noticed Cody's Broomfield 

High School t-shirt and told us she was from Broomfield 

and her brother graduated BHS a few years back.  

 After the tour we went to visit another memorial

sight for the Berlin Wall.

 Cody and Jim are looking through the crack into 

the "dead zone" or "death strip" the space between 

the two walls dividing East Berlin and West Germany.

 This is the view inside, nothing but dead space.....

 Behind this section of the Berlin Wall is a memorial

to those who died trying to escape through the wall.

 A recording reading the names of those

who died trying to escape to freedom.

Below are other fun sights and structures

we saw around the city of Berlin, Germany.

 Here is the TV tower where we 

started our bike tour.

 While on our tour we heard some loud singing and

turned to see these moving carts with people sitting

on the outside having their beers.  The second one

is being pedaled by the actual drinkers...

 This "bike" seats 7!

 Cool street light.

 After our 5 hour tour we decided we needed some Italian Ice.  

It is SO fluffy looking, but it really is Ice Cream.

 Close to a banana split!

 This is a cool time zone display on the platz.

 Denver is shown!!

Home, sweet home!