23 January, Sunday
Our out-of-Europe-into-Africa car attracted a lot of attention and it was fun to take pictures of it in front of the opera house, art museums as well as drive down the streets of the once separated- by-a-wall-city.
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We passed by one of the major tourist attractions of Berlin: the Victory Column built in 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in theDanish-Prussian War. Click Play |
Willie took beautiful pictures of the Bismarck Memorial – a prominent statue dedicated to Prince Otto von Bismarck, the first Chancellor of
the German empire. The Chancellor stands above statues of: Atlas, showing Germany’s world power status at the end of the 19th century Siegried, forging a sword to show Germany’s strong industrial and military might Germania pinning underfoot a panther, symbolizing the suppression of discord and rebellion A sibyl reclining on a sphinx and reading the book of history. lic |
Berlin funny cars |
Checkpoint Charlie |
Our first stop was at the graffiti covered remains of the Berlin Wall on Potsdamer Platz - an important public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin. It began as a trading post in the late
1600’s.The Platz was laid waste during WW II and left desolate during the Cold War when the Berlin wall bisected the location. The Platz became the site for major redevelopment projects after the reunification of Germany. With the construction of the Berlin Wall on 13 August 1961 Potsdamer Platz was divided in two. The bustling intersection became totally desolate. Click Play for Slideshow | Potsdamer Platz |
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
We went back to the Memorial site, also known as the Holocaust Memorial, to take more pictures.
The memorial consists of 19,000 square meter (4.7 acre) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. According to the architect's project text, the slabs are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmospher, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered systerm that has lost touch with human reason. The memorial is controversial and described by leaders of the German community as unnecessary. | Click Play for Slideshow |
We walked to the Brandenburg Tor, one of the main and probably the most famous symbols of the city. This former city gate isthe monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees which formerly led directly to city palace of the Prussian monarchs. The gate suffered considerable damage during WW II, but it was fully restored to become Germany’s most famous landmark. We took Sammie with and although he really enjoyed being out with us, he became quite miserable because of the bitter cold. | Title Text. |
Brandenburg Tor | History of the Brandenburg Tor |
On our way to the Brandenburg Tor we passed the
Soviet War Memorial, erected by the Russians to commemorate the more than 80 000 soldiers who died during the Battle of Berlin in 1945. On top of the curved stoa (a protected walkway with columns from ancient Greek architecture) stands a huge statue of a Russian soldier. A large inscription in Cyrillic is written underneath the soldier’s statue. Translated it means: “Eternal glory to heroes who fell in battle with the German fascist invaders for the freedom and independence of the Soviet Union.” The Soviets built the statue with the soldier’s arm in a position to symbolize the Red Army’s putting down of the German National Socialist state. | Soviet War Memorial Click Play for slideshow |