With the ship docked in Warnemünde, we went ashore only long enough to board a train to Berlin, the once and future capital of a re-unified Germany. It was another long day with a three-hour train ride to and from the former East Berlin. We spent the day touring the city on both sides of their former dividing line.
arriving at the train station in East Berlin
The Brandenburg Gate (1791) - day and night
before the wall came down in 1989, it was in the Eastern sector
Unter den Linden - the main boulevard in
East Berlin
(the name means "under the linden trees")
view from Brandenburg Gate (see above) to Red Town Hall (see below)
Berliner Rathaus - the Red Town Hall
(seen through the Linden Trees and full view)
The Spree River runs through the heart of
Berlin
The Berlin Cathedral is in the background - Bode Museum on the right
a nighttime view of the Bode Museum and the
TV needle tower
Altar of Zeus and Athena (180-160 BC) and
Babylon Processional Way (604 BC)
Exhibits at Pergamon Museum - excavated in
Western Turkey
The Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom)
Friedrickswerder (Frederick's) Church
Humboldt University (Die Kommode)
St. Hedwig Cathedral (18th century)
(Catholic Cathedral near Humboldt University)
Altes (Old) Museum in Lustgarten Park
scenes along the Spree Canal
Castle-Hall banquet room of the Kimpinski
Hotel
(we had lunch at the 5-star "Kimpi")
Charlottenburg Palace (17th century)
(named for wife of Friedrich Wilhelm III)
The Victory Column - Tiergarten
(memorial to 19th century Prussian victories over Denmark, Austria and France)
Soviet War Memorial - WWII memorial
(ironically, this was in the British Sector after the wall went up)
Before leaving Berlin, we toured the area that was once the border that separated East and West Berlin. The wall came down in November 1989 and the German people are dedicating tremendous resources to restoring the city's former greatness. You get the distinct impression that they will succeed. We'd like to go back in about five years to see the results.
some remaining sections of the Berlin Wall
images of a grim past
rebuilding for the future
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