Revisiting Europe: Germany

Remembering from 2011:

We saw the saddest things in Germany, but I also found the tour we took in Berlin to be the most interesting of the trip.  First though, I believe we went to Munich and Dachau and saw the concentration camp there.  I don't think it was as bad as Auschwitz that I saw after my 8th grade year, but being older, it seemed more real to me.  I learned how the debt after WWI was a big reason people were desperate to have a way to get out of their problems and how the Germans tried to trick the world into thinking Dachau was just a political prisoner camp where people worked in order to become better people by bringing in journalists and hiding all the really terrible aspects of the camp.  I remember the cremation area and the pictures of the locals having to see all the dead bodies that were destroyed in their neighborhood.  Probably the most disturbing thing that has stuck with me was a place where Jews were walled in so tight that four people in them had to stand in the small area until they died.  Someone had written beside it a terrible thing about the Jews...and I could tell it had been written very recently.  To see that hate continue is crazy to me.

I liked this statue because of its symbolism.  It demonstrates that now the Jewish people don't have to stand straight, eyes forward.  They are now free.

In a happier part of Germany, I went to a classic beer garden with my pals.  We didn't drink any beer, but I was pleasantly surprised to find delicious vegetarian food.

We went out again at night for some supper and stumbled across a street symphony.  As you can tell, we had a lot of fun, and so did the musicians!

This was the craziest Rococo church I have ever been in.  There was stuff literally scoring every possible space.  It reminded me of some people's basements.

Durher, how I love you.  I remember taking this photo for my sister because she loves him too.

So as I mentioned, we went on the best tour of the trip in Berlin.  It was led by a very passionate British master's student.  I learned so much about Hitler and communism.  I wish my dad could have been there, because all things WWII fascinate him.

Bullets still in walls from the communists invading Berlin

This was a photo of Hitler's office made from red marble that is now...

...used in the subway.  Diss on you, Hitler!

Can we say potatoes?

On our tour we also wandered through modern Berlin.  Much of it was bombed, so they rebuilt with ultra-modern ideals.

One of the few pieces left of the Berlin wall

One of my favorite remnants of the divided Berlin are the little hat crossing men.  They were and are so popular, that after the wall fell, they kept the lights.  Now there are all sorts of souvenirs with them on it.

We went to this museum after 8th grade and Stella took a picture like this, so I recreated it.

Nebuchadnezzar's walls.  Amazing how much Germany has taken stuff from other places.  I remember being in Turkey or Greece and realizing the town we were at had been relocated to Berlin and that I had already seen it!

Ah, Millais and the Pre-Raphelites. Autumn and I saw this at some museum.  It's the Lady of Shallot.

More pre-Raphelite paintings.  I liked this one because it's such a lonely scene.

Some very odd group we saw outside the museum

Checkpoint Charlie!  I remember coming here too when I was out of 8th grade and seeing all the ways that people would try to sneak over the border.

I like how they have made the wall into art

You must "woft" the sauce

A memorial, I think, to the mother's of those that had died in war

Brandenburg Gate

We also took a jaunt to Wittenberg.  I think it was Sabbath, so it made it all the more appropriate.

A copy of the 95 Theses on the church outside wall

Inside Luther's church

Martin Luther, yo

Martin Luther's wife

I think this was back in Berlin at a tiny Egyptian museum I'd been to after 8th grade.  I went in to get a photo of Nefertiti for Becky who is an Egypto-phile.

We got all gussied up (well, as much as one can with one pair of chacos and only a day bag of clothing) for the Berlin Symphony.  My favorite part of the night was watching the celloists.  They kept glancing at each other with the purist look of delight.  I could really tell they loved their job.