Berlin Is United Again . Review on Berlin

We took the train from Frankfurt to Berlin and it took us a little over two hours to get there. We had bought our tickets and made our reservations from home.

Berlin is the capital city of Germany. The population is about 4 million people. I'm glad we visited Berlin after it was unified. I'm sorry we missed the Unification Day celebrations on Monday, October 5th, 2005.

Even before we checked into our hotel we could see the TV Tower that looms over Berlin. We didn't go back and go to the top to see the view.

We stayed at the Hilton Hotel on Mohrenstrasse. My husband belongs to the Hilton Club and he had enough points to redeem so we didn't have to pay anything for our 5 night stay.

What We Did

We went was to see the new Canadian Embassy. It's Canada's most expensive Embassy building in the World, (costing $180 million CAD). It is 10 stories tall and about 14,000 square meters around. The Embassy is built from the stones for every Province. Inside there is a reception desk, den, (to read Canadian news papers and Magazines, offices, small dinning rooms and a large banquet hall. We saw a display from all the First Nations people. After we visited the Embassy and signed the guest book the next day we had an invitation from Ambassador Dubois to join the other Canadians and the 112 staff members for Thanksgiving Dinner on Monday, (October 10, 2005). I'm meek because I was planning on standing out side the Embassy and protesting. We sat with a couple from Winnipeg, Manitoba, a couple from Halifax, Nova Scotia and two secretaries. After eating the turkey, corn bread stuffing, mash potatoes with gravy and pumpkin pie I just couldn't protest! As a gift we were given a maple sugar lolly pop.

You shouldn't miss seeing the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gate that used to connect east and west Germany. There is only a little bit of the wall left and I wondered how many people took a piece of it home. I remember the late Peter Jennings, from ABC news, broadcasting from there and holding up a piece of the wall. We went inside the museum at Checkpoint Charlie to see the exhibition of how the eastern German suffered during the communist rule.

The Olympic Stadium that was built for the 1936 winter games. I could see Jessie Owen, (an Afro American), winning his race and how mad Adolf Hitler must have been.

The Tiergarden is the largest park in the city. It has an aquarium and zoo within the park.

Near the river we saw a lot of old historical buildings, art galleries and the old cathedral. There are places to walk and see the ancient bridges.

I was told that I would find Berlin dull and gloomy but with the building of the new buildings, (Sony, the Mitt district and the Potsdamer Plaza), it wasn't that way at all to us.

I would have loved to buy some cloths at Anette Perman's shop, (Bleibtreu Strasse). They are hand made and would last for years but with the Canada dollar so low and the Euro so high I couldn't buy any thing there.

One of the best place to shop is in the Charlottenburg district. We loved the Europa Mall when there are a lot of shops, bars and restaurants here. I bought some things at the flea markets. Mitte was great for some crazy jewelry, (bling), and some great T-shirts. At Srabe I bought some local crafts and a shawl. Just don't go to the Moritzplatz Market it's a bunch of things to through into the garbage.

It still was Oktoberfest but we felt the price of the beer,(5.6 Euros), was too much to spend. We often would just grab a snack of a currywurst or a doner from a street vender or have a slice of cake at Kemp’s Bakery. We enjoyed the bratwurst and thick soups at places near the Zoo Metro Station. The Pub on Karolinenstrasa has a fabulous beer garden and they make barb-cue ribs. Alt Tegel makes the best schnitzel that's served with dumplings, shredded red cabbage and dumplings. We always end our meal with a bit of schnapps.

We went to see the Jewish areas. Spandauer Vorstadt is in central Berlin. The golden dome of the New Synagogue has become one of the focal points of Jewish life in Berlin today. The reconstruction of the Synagogue was finished in 1995 with the new entrance area of the Centrum Judaicum. Oranienburger Strabe we saw several Jewish institutions and a number of restaurants and cafes all of them offer Jewish special food. There is also a Jewish gallery and the kosher restaurant Beth Café, (we stopped and had lunch here). In the Oranienburger Strabe area we found the Grobe Hamburger Strabe. This short street which once the center of Jewish life in Berlin. Today it is the location of the Jewish Old People's Homes. The Gestapo had once used this as a deportation center.

The city's oldest Jewish cemetery, (it was built in the 18th century), was once here but it's a pile of rubble now. We bought a candle and after lighting it said a prayer for the dead. The former Jewish Boys' School was once next door and now is a Jewish secondary school. The name of the original institution can still be seen inscribed above the entrance. Behind the Hackensche Hofe is the Hackesches Hoftheater is a popular place to hear Yiddish music and see Yiddish theater. On night we went to hear the music that we remembered from our childhood, (the tickets were the same price as one liter mug of beer).

It's easy to get around Berlin, we used the Metro a lot. They have maps at each station so it's not hard to find how to get from place to place. There are also buses and taxis and of course it's nice to walk and discover things for yourself.

Just before we left we heard that Germany has their first woman Chancellor, Angela Merkel. I wish her and Germany good luck.

My Thoughts

I loved Berlin and hope to come back again. It's a great city.

Thanks for reading my review.

©LL2005