Berlin: Sightseeing

 
So this morning,  we had an optional walking tour of Berlin, which most of the group if not all of us went on. We had a really great tour guide, who was funny, and very knowledgeable, so I enjoyed listening to him. He took us to the major sights of Berlin within the main city center. President Obama was actually in Berlin the day before giving a speech, right where we were walking past , but unfortunately he was just there over night so we didn't get to catch a glimpse of him.

My president heard I was going to be in Berlin, and decided to greet me on arrival

Anyways, we started off at the Brandenburg Gate, and then took a glance at the Hotel Adlon and saw the balcony where Michael Jackson stood when he dangled his baby off the balcony back in 2010.

Brandenburg Gate

We also continued on our tour and saw the Holocaust Memorial, which is a composition of various concrete slabs at different heights which cover a specified area. It was interesting to hear our tour guide talk about it, as he explained to us, that it is based upon interpretation:  Some people see the various slopes and grades of the slabs as showing the increasing number or Jews killed during this time, while others look at it like a public "cemetary" for those killed. The slabs start at ground level and increase and look almost like a maze initially from the outside, but as you go through it, you get a realization of how many people truly lost their life during the Holocaust.

After going past the Holocaust Memorial, we also walked onto this "parking lot", which turns out to be built on top of where Hitler died by committing suicide, and where his barracks used to be, and remains still under this parking lot. We also headed over to Checkpoint Charlie, which was the crossing point between East and West Berlin.  Although we saw pieces of the Berlin Wall, as it is all throughout the city in various areas. We were also shown the line where the Berlin Wall stood (Berliner Mauer) that symbolizes the actual division between both East and West Berlin, and I was able to get a picture of myself standing on both sides.

Checkpoint Charlie

Standing over the Berliner Mauer

After this point, we were free to take our own time and explore the city, and so I decided to head over to the Tranenpalast or Palace of Tears, which was the former border crossing station, so there is now a museum in front of this station which is still present to this day, which gave history about the people who had crossed through there, and showed some of their stories and personal items and suitcases and such. After this, I headed on to the Berlin Wall Memorial and walked through there, although their is nothing but ruins, and mostly just descriptions of  what used to be there, it was interesting to see.

So now we're off to our last stop on this amazing lifetime trip, and they saved the craziest city for LAST.......AMSTERDAM here we come!