Upon our arrival, my friend Rachel and I met up with my violin friend from Calgary – someone who I’ve been playing violin with since I was 10 years old. I guess it’s now tradition to try doners in every single country – so we grabbed one on our way to the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag Building. It was beautiful at night, an amazing historic place and architectural building, especially the dome that we climbed up in which the stairs spiral up so that throughout the stroll upwards you can really get a great 360 degree view of Berlin. I am so impressed by the historic significance of Berlin as it was in the epicenter of WWII and the Cold War. Throughout the city – bricks lay in the road symbolizing the presence and location of where the Berlin Wall had been separating East and West Berlin – respectively Communism and Capitalism. The city is vibrant, young, and creative. During our evening stroll, we found ourselves in a contemporary art exhibit with metal sculpture as the medium. There was a flamboyant flaming art show where the metal pieces moved and breathed flames initiated with lighter fluid.
The next day we wandered to Museum Island and visited the Pergamon, which displays the Babylon gate and an Arabic contemporary exhibit. Then we joined a free Berlin walking tour which was very informative and took us to all the ‘site seeing’ places including Checkpoint Charlie, the Jewish Memorial Site, Brandenburg Gate, the University, the Book Burning location, a chocolate store. I tried curry wurst and a jelly doughnut… or should I say ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ similar to JFK. Then we took a train to an open air Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Concert, which was outdoors in huge amphitheatre near the Olympic Stadium where grandpa competed in the 1936 Olympics as a Canadian javelin athlete. The concert was unbelievable and as it was outdoors and near dinnertime, most spectators brought blankets and extravagant picnics. But if picnicking wasn’t your thing, there were food stands including Chinese food, wurst, bretzel and beer stands surrounding the exterior of the amphitheatre to cater to people who didn’t bring their picnic, but who still wanted food to-go while listening to first class music. Even though it was a bit rainy – everyone stayed to watch and was extremely prepared with their umbrellas and raingear.
Breakfast the following morning included bakery items and the classic apple strudel. We meandered to the East Side Gallery. It was magnificent and since it is now the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, many artists had returned to restore their original paintings as several had simply been wore down and vandalized. My favorite is the ‘union’ of China and USSR. Then we ended up in Alexanderplaz where we had to do some shopping and visited the Ampleman store. Amplemen are the neat looking pedestrian traffic lights. There was a friendly competition between East and West Berlin once they had unified to create the walking men… The West has thin men walking (similar to what we’re used to in Canada), and the East has fat man with hats. You’ll have to go to see them yourself. After our fancy dinner, we went to the Philharmonie to see Kissin’s solo piano concert. It was outstanding and Berlin knows how to clap! After a 2-hour concert, Kissin, a Russian prodigy pianist, played so many encores and I didn’t want the evening to end. Kissin piano concert – Philharmonie – Berlin knows how to clap – encores!
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