Our Weekend Getaway to Berlin

This past weekend Chris and I traveled to Berlin for a little getaway trip. As the capital of Germany, Berlin is a perfect mix of history and modern, urban life. Upon arriving, we checked into our hotel and ventured out into the city. We took the U-bahn to the Jewish Museum, which was an extensive exhibit about the history of the Jewish people.

Jewish kippahs come in all kinds of designs...even Superman!

BIOS [torah] exhibit-  An industrial robot writes the torah

The robot imitates handwriting and writes at human speed

Fallen Leaves exhibit - 10,000 screaming metal faces. The clanking noise is startling when you walk on them

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the city. We saw several sections of the Berlin Wall, visited the Sony Center in the Potsdamer Platz (Berlin's mini Manhattan) and the Brandenburg Gate, and drank the Berliner Weisse (beer with a splash of flavored syrup).

We woke up early on Saturday morning and headed out for our free tour of Berlin. New Berlin Tours offers a free 2 1/2 hour tour of the city, which is a lot of history packed into a short amount of time! Above Hitler's bunker where he ended up committing suicide is now a parking lot. Besides a small sign, there is no other indication of this history-changing location.

Our tour guide told us about Johann Elser, who was one of many attempting to assassinate Hitler. Because of many bizarre circumstances, Hitler was able to avoid all of the attempts on his life. Elser planted a bomb in the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, where Hitler gave an annual speech. Unfortunately because of bad weather, Hitler unknowingly moved up his speech earlier in the day, which meant the bomb's timer went off 13 minutes too late.

Above Hitler's bunker

Memorial to Johann Elser

Bricks all around the city indicating where the Berlin Wall once stood

Gendarmenmarkt

We couldn't resist exploring a chocolate shop with enormous chocolate sculptures of Berlin's famous attractions.

Reichstag

Brandenburg Gate

There is a controversial Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe that is quite ambiguous and left up to the viewer to determine the meaning. Underneath the memorial, is a museum that tells a lot of personal stories about Jews during the Holocaust. One room is dedicated to each individual victim of the Holocaust. One name is projected onto the wall for a minute while a narrator tells their story. Our tour guide told us earlier in the day that each person's name only reappears on the wall once every 6 years. Ironically, Joseph Stalin is quoted with saying "one death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic."

One name of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust

After dinner, we stumbled upon a mini fest. Germans find any excuse to drink, eat and party late into the night!

A few of the booths selling delicious treats!

On Sunday we explored the Deutsches Historisches Museum. The museum covers the beginning of German history through the 1990s, and everything in between. We spent a good portion of the day on World War I and World War II. We could have easily spent all day in the museum!

The "de-Germanizing"of American last names

The model of the Volkshalle (People's hall) Hitler planned to build