It was another great night at the 'Heart of Gold' Hostel. The common area on the ground floor absolutely 'rocks' every night. It is the only area in the building where wi-fi is available; it is also the 'bar' so it is the gathering place for just about everyone staying at the Hostel, 99.9% of whom are young and backpacking their way through Europe. The music is loud and the air 'thick' with stale tobacco smell, but we find ourselves gathering there too just for the free coffee and the access to wi-fi. We do feel a bit 'overage' but we stick up for ourselves and just 'tough it out'. We are usually the first off to bed though. Actually, it is nice to be up early because we have the entire place to ourselves, all other guests are sleeping off their late nights.
After another late and easy breakfast, we hit the streets. We split up according to our plan - Julie went to a pre-arranged hair-cut appointment with an english speaking hairdresser; SJ and Margot were doing the rounds of the inner city sights such as the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag; and I was 'banished' on my own to do my own thing. I was entrusted with the expensive Fuji Camera (my trusty NIKON had finally died and could no longer be used....I was very sad) so all photos today are from my wanderings.
I was also on the bike today because I wanted to cover some distance, especially explore the Tiergarten and get down to the Tower of Victory and even further. I headed first for the Reichstad via the path along the edge of the River Spree. It was on the way to the Tiergarten, but given that the weather was better today, I couldn't resist some photos from different angles. It is a magnificent building which sadly I didn'y have the time to queu for a ticket to be able to get inside the great dome.
I hadn't gone far from the Reichstag through the Tiergarten where I stumbled on one of the many Soviet War Memorials in memory of soldiers who were killed in the final battle for Berlin. The overall numbers were staggering, but here on this site there were some 1800 soldiers buried here. The Memorial is of marble and very large and extensive. The interesting thing is that it was built on a site that was ultimately part of west Berlin, and in the allocated American sector (Berlin was divided by agreement into four sections, one for each of the four Allied powers - Soviet, French, British and American). It was a part of Berlin taken by the Soviets, and the Memorial constructed quickly prior to the formal divide of the sectors. It was constructed intentionally on the site that was intended by Hitler to be the site of the new Reich Chancellery. The Russians built the Memorial on the site out of the marble slabs taken from Hitler's former Chancellery building. The tank was apparently the first Russian tank involved in the battle for Berlin.
I continued down '17 June Strasse' which is the main road that runs in a straight line from Brandenburg Gate west to the Victory Column and continuing for a further 2-3km. It is much like the Champs Elysees in PAris leading up to the 'Arc de Triumph', such is the Victory Column some 2k from the Brandenburg Gate. Along the way the beautiful Tiergarten ran on both sides of the grand parade, with some very stunning sights. The park was entirely golden due to the thousands of elms and oaks with pathways and ponds filled with ducks and swans. It was a scene that evaded appropriate words to describe such beauty.
I bi-passed the Victory Column and headed further west along 17 Juni Strasse and turned off along the Kanal that ultimately led into the River Spree on the way to Charlottenburg and the beautiful Palace. It was quite a few kilometres but with my bike and no load I figured I had enough time to get there and back by the agread rendevous time with the girls that we had agreed upon for lunch. The Kanal was also beautiful, but time did not permit many photos. I also had to concentrate on the path which was winding around trees and exposed roots and also other cyclists all of whom were in a hurry.
I eventually came to Charlottenburg, an old suburb to the west of the main city of Berlin, the centrepiece of which was the historic Palace. The Palace was about as big as I have seen, far too much to fit into a camera lense. It was worth the trip along the Kanal and the River. It was surrounded by a large cobbled courtyard and which also looked out on to numerous other historic buildings in its immediate vacinity. It was also generously lanted with beautiful mature trees which were now laying their golden carpets of laves, making the scene a stunningly beautiful sight.
I was now late for lunch, but needed to make my way back along the very long and majestic boulevard that ran all the way back from Charlottenburg through the Tower of Victory and up to the Brandenburg Gate. It was a long straight road that in total was about 5-6k. Along the way for the last few kilometres was the Tiergarten, which was irresistable when I saw more ponds, ducks and swans. Lunch was waiting, but I would not see these scenes againor anything like them with such beauty.
I hit the busy road again with the Tower of Victory (or Victory Column) in full view, and 2k further on I could see the Brandeburg Gate standing tall between the long, straight lines of 'Linden' trees that lined the '17 Juni Strasse' and edged the long Tiergarten which was divided by '17 Juni Strasse'. It was built in 1864 and is one of the great commemmorative places in Prussian and then German military history. It is one of the beautiful sights in Berlin.
It was then a very fast trip on the bike down '17 Juni Strasse', passed the Reichstag and along the path on the River Spree and back to the Hostel to a reunion with the girls for lunch. Fortunately, SJ and Margot were running late, and sadly Juie shared her tale of woe. She turned up for her hair-cut appointment only to find her english speaking hairdresser was not at work. She was not confident to trust her hair to an error in translation and decided to let the appointment go. She enjoyed some shopping on her own, a rare pleasure of late.
We spent the remaining daylight hours in a walk along the River Spree to the great Berlin Dom, one of the largest and most beautiful Cathedrals of all. Berlin is a city of beautiful buildings. Sadly, many were damaged in the bombings over many years during WW2. Germany has done very well, especially since re-unification to restore its buildings and to transform the inner city of Berlin into something really attractive and beautiful.
A few light hearted moments amidst the serious business of being a tourist in Berlin!
The weather is cold most days but rarely unpleasant. Today was no different, although there seemed always to be the threat of rain. The days are getting very short, with the dawn not now until almost 7am, and the darkness coming over from about 4:30pm. We spent the early evening hours strolling through the darkened and cold streets of what was formerly east Berlin, a fact we kept reminding ourselves. Our Hostel was located in the former eastern Berlin, in fact half of our street is still as it was after the debris of the 1945 bombing was cleared. Some of the buildings are just shells with the former Jewish Synagogue that was next door to the Host and which was bombed severely was demolished and never rebuilt.
We suffered the noisy, smoky Hostel common room/bar for as long as we could before heading to bed after another great day in Berlin. Many things stand out from our wanderings today. The Reichstag is a sight of sheer beauty, as is the sight of the Brandenburg Gate through the lovely trees of the Tiergarten. I loved the trip down the river to the outstanding and stunningly beautiful Charlottenburg Palace. However, I don't think I will ever want to forget the sheer beauty of the ponds in the heart of the Tiergarten, filled with the shining colourful ducks and swans, surrounded by the great golden elms and oaks. The scenes within the heart of the Tiergarten were as close to perfection as anyone could ever imagine, a scene from a perfect photograph from a National Geographic.
It reminded me of the verse from St John's Gospel where the apostle sums up the reasons for such beauty in creation "All things came into being by Him (Jesus), and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being". (John 1:3)
As we rest tonight in the former east Berlin, in a street that was bombed so severely that still only part has been attempted for re-building, we rest knowing that there is still beautiy in the world behind which we can still see the evidence of the creative hand of the God of eternity.
From the great city of Berlin we send our love - Kelvin, Julie and Sarah-Jane
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