A Week in Berlin

Berlin, Germany

Since the beginning of our trip, we always told people that we had no set agenda and no plans for travelling through Europe…except for one. We were going to Berlin in early July to meet up with our long-lost flatmate from Auckland, Cristina!! Though we only lived together for six months in New Zealand, we formed a great friendship with Cristina. So, when she told us she was taking a trip through Europe, we knew we had to find some place for our paths to intersect.

We had two full days together, but Mac & I arrived a few days earlier (and what an arrival it was!) and set out to explore a bit of the city on our own. In the end, we spent about a week in Berlin which was a perfect amount of time for us to get to know the city.

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]

En Route from Hamburg to Berlin!

Parties & Festivals

Canada Day

Our second day in Berlin coincided with Canada Day! Being the proud Canadians that we are, we managed to scope out and attend an all-day Canada Day Party in the city! There was road hockey, poutine, maple syrup, Canadian Whiskey, and much more! It pains me to say that there were no All Dressed chips though. Unfortunately the music choices weren’t great either and people weren’t really mingling, so Mac & I ultimately decided to head out in favour of another festival in the city!

Bergmanstraßefest

Across town was Bergmannstraßenfest – a three day festival with live music, vendors, and general merriment! We enjoyed watching a jazz band (complete with a steel drum!) rock the stage, and we wove our way through the crowds & vendors where we managed to watch the final kicks of a World Cup Match. I could pretend like I knew who was playing, but that would be lying…I was more enamoured with the steel drums!

Tempelhof Field

One of the coolest outdoor spaces in Berlin is Tempelhof Field. Instead of being built upon for commercial use, this abandoned airfield was left to be and has been accepted as a huge green space in the city. With such a huge space, there really is something for everyone. Fitness buffs can run, walk, cycle, or even kite-board along the airstrip. A huge area is devoted to picnicking and grilling, and there’s even a mini putt course!

Relics of the airfield still remain, but this huge space has really been accepted by the locals and is quite the popular spot!

The Wall

You can’t mention Berlin without thinking of the Berin Wall. From 1961 to 1989, a huge concrete wall separated East Berlin (German Democratic Republic) from West Berlin (Federal Republic of Germany). In the nearly 30 years since the fall of the wall, the city has managed to rebuild into a unified, yet unique city.

Despite the growth and unification since the wall, there are some harsh reminders of that period. One is the Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer Memorial. Here, a replica of the Wall and surrounding areas stands as a reminder of darker times.

In some parts of the city – such as the East Side Gallery, which we didn’t make it to – you can still see remnants of the wall.

Memorials & Iconic Buildings

Brandenburger Tor

The Brandenburg Gate stands tall near Pariser Platz and was finished in 1791. It has been the location for many historical events throughout Germany’s history and today stands as an icon for European peace & unity.

Holocaust Memorial

Just past the Brandenburg Gate, is the Memorial of Murdered Jews of Europe (aka the Holocaust Memorial). This huge 1.9-hectare site contains 2711 concrete slabs in varying heights on a slanted and sloping ground. The memorial pays homage to the 3 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

Marx-Engels-Forum

En route to the Brandenburg Gate, you’ll pass a plaza with two larger-than-life statues of Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels – the authors of the Communist Manifesto and the main influencers in the socialist movement. The statues were erected in 1986 by the GDR. Considering Germany’s past, it would seem weird that these statues are still standing. After much debate it was decided that the statues would stay because of their artistic and historical significance.

German History Museum

Berlin is home to 170 museums & galleries. Most notable are the five on ‘Museum Island’. With limited time, we opted to check out the German History Museum  (Deutsches Historisches Museum – DHM). As impressive as the building itself was, we were not prepared for the depth of information that awaited us inside.

The DHM covers the history of Germany from the year 500 to present day. That’s a lot of history!! While we started out gung ho reading nearly every placard, we soon realised the museum would close and we would still be in the 13th century! Instead, we decided to skip ahead to more modern times – 1918 to present day. The amount of information presented in each exhibit is truly astounding. The DHM did a really great job of highlighting Germany’s past in an interesting yet informative manner.

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

A 40 minute train ride north of the city will take you to Sachsenhausen – one of the original concentration camps in Germany. Built in 1933, this camp was supposed to serve as a guideline for other concentration camps . Sachsenhausen was a working camp – unlike Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, there were no mass exterminations here. This fact didn’t make the camp any less haunting though. There were 68 barracks which housed around 150 men each. In the end, the camp saw around 200,000 people passed through its gates.

With the aid of the audio guide, we spent around 3-4 hours walking the grounds of this troubling camp. Some of the barracks have been rebuilt to provide a sense of scale and perspective to what life would have been like here.

One of the most prominent buildings on the grounds is Tower A. Each morning in front of this building, the men would gather for roll call where they would be assigned their duties for the day. The gates of Tower A bare the inscription Arbeit Macht Frei which roughly translates to “work makes (you) free”.

Visiting Sachsenhausen was a sobering experience and it was awful to imagine the horrors that took place there 60+ years ago.

More Gorgeous Buildings

It’s almost to the point where I’m not even surprised with how gorgeous the buildings are. Just kidding – I don’t think I’ll ever not stop and stare at whatever new architectural beauties I stumble upon!

Golden Hour Goodness

On her last night in Berlin, Mac & I accompanied Cristina out for one last night together. We had a delicious dinner in Monbijou Park then joined the groups of people that had gathered along the river’s edge to watch the sky go through a dramatic transformation.

Final Thoughts

Berlin is a city with a dark past, but a hopefully bright future. Spending a week in Berlin really opened my eyes and educated me on issues that are so prominent in recent history. There’s still so much to learn though. (Fellow book worms may be pleased/interested to hear that I’m currently reading Winter of the World by Ken Follett (Book 2 in the Fall of Giants trilogy. I’m only about a quarter of the way through but I’ve already taken in so much historical information!)

Also worth noting – I was so thrilled to see so many vegan and vegetarian restaurants in the city. If we weren’t so frugal, I would (and could!) have eaten at a different vegan restaurant every night! All in all, our week in Berlin was an amazing experience. The city is so unique and there are so many places to explore. Berlin is full of history (good & not so good), but I’m happy to say that the city seems to be thriving nowadays. If you don’t have the time to spend a week in Berlin you can definitely get by with a few days, but at minimum I’d say you’d need at least four to explore this huge city!

If you’re interested in checking out some of the sites I’ve mentioned above, take a look at the Google Map I created for Berlin! (The blue flags are for the places I’ve mentioned in this post, and the green flags are places we didn’t get to but wanted to go!)

Have you been to Berlin? What did you do for Canada Day?

[/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]

Never Miss a Post!

Enter your email address to subscribe to A Taste of Trace and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address:

Sign Me Up!

[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]