Germany, day 15: Berlin, Day 2

Our second day in Berlin brought us to none other than Checkpoint Charlie, a very tourist-laden spot. There is a museum that largely focuses on the escape attempts through Checkpoint Charlie, including a few cars that were used in smuggling escapes. There are many paintings from the times that focus an "A world without walls", the restoration of relations between East and West, the separation of Berlin, etc. It's very neat, until the gift shop. The gift shop is almost criminally rich of this division, ranging from parts of the wall to mousepads of the "You are now leaving the American sector" sign that remains posted near the checkpoint.

There are stalls outside the museum that sell all sorts of East German memorabilia, including coins, hats, and passport stamps to East Germany. They are even more of a tourist trap than the museum!

We passed by an underground memorial to the book burnings as Hitler came to power. Of course, like all things Nazi-related, it is not advertized at all.

This is the war memorial, for all victims of all wars and all countries. Its simplicity is marvelous, and somehow more meaningful, I think, than any war memorial I have been to. The echo is rather amazing in the large, stone room in which this lonely statue resides.

I got a pretzel for lunch. As I have lamented, there is not a lot of vegetarian offerings from street vendors in Berlin. There were also very few bakeries in East Berlin, at least where we were. There are a lot of old, touristy things and huge commercial buildings, but not a lot in-between.

We went on to Berliner Dom, the very large and Envengelische cathedral. We got tickets to enter, and lo and behold, a wedding was in progress! The reccessional was a spectacular Variations and/or Improvisations on Westminster Chimes, also known as the song clocks play on the hour. It was like nothing I had ever heard or expected before; the organ player and hardware were both phenomenal. The inside of the church is similarly amazing: it features statues of great reformers, portraits of the gospel writers, and more details than you can shake a spectacle at.

One can also walk around the dome of the Dom, which offers a very nice view, for the additional price of a great many stairs. There was a bit of restoration work that isn't viewable from the ground that was visible from the dome walk.

The exit takes the visitor through the basement, which houses the remains of the German Kaisers. Interestingly, some were made of lead, which "creeps" over time, leaving some coffins with lids collapsing under the crucifix ornament. After everyone gathered outside, we discussed plans for the next day, and then we were sent on our own ways.

Ave Caesar! After the group split, three other guys and I headed to the Pergamon museum, which currently had an exhibit on Babylon. Little did I know that because of the exhibit, the Egyptian artifacts were in another museum. Darn. But it was really neat! There were a lot of Greek statues and artwork, as well as a section on Islamic and Middle-Eastern art and feminism. I almost couldn't take enough pictures, besides the fact that photos were forbidden in the Babylon exhibit. Anybody with an interest in ancient history or artifacts should go!

The Babylon exhibits were great; there were two: one for Myth and one for Fact. As it turns out, the Biblical visions of Babylon as a corrupt den of thiefs and of poorly-moraled women are actually false. While no city is perfect, Babylon was in fact a thriving metropolis of innovation and culture. Some noteworthy artifacts include a trilingual dictionary (Hittite, Sumerian, and Akkadian, I think), a 3000+ year-old plow (complete with a wingnut) that looked like it could have came out of the 19th century, and a great number of clay statues and figurines. Also, in the section about the language-scrambling tower, there was a diagram of a Babel fish! Douglas Adams in a history museum!

Interesting note: the architecture of the museum itself inspired much of the American architectural style for monuments and official builings.

After we left the museum, we discovered the time to be well past seven. We were hungry and tired, and wanted to find a fast way back. We could have taken a velo-taxi, which is a bicycle-powered rickshaw that is very common in Berlin. On the way back, we passed through the Brandenburg Gate. I didn't have a picture of myself with it, so I got one.

We were also very thirsty, and in search of the drinking water that we Americans know to be free and plentiful, but is not so in Germany. It occured to us that the US embassy, which is just inside the east side of the gate, might have one. We went there, and asked the guards if, in fact, there was one. They, however, were not the American guards we had seen the previous day. They were Berliner Polizei, who were not able or inclined to speak English to us. So we tried the door. It was closed. The guards yelled at us, so we left. So, if you heard anything about attempted break-in in the Berlin embassy, it may only have been us, looking for a drink of water.

We got back to the hotel, by which point the KdW (gigantic shopping mall, once the greatest in the world) was closed. We found a place that was open until 9 and served pizza, which sounded good to all of us. In addition, I got a Franziskaner weissbier, which went well with the pizza.