9.6.2009 by Rosemary and Shane

Berlin June 2009

Shane and I got up at 3.00am, to be ready to leave by 3.30am, to get to the airport for 4.30am, to be there in time for our flight at 6.30am…whew what an early start to the day! But even so, it meant we had another whole day in Bearlin, so never mind! As we landed on the ground I felt quite tearful, because I was there at last!

We found ourselves outside the airport, and then took the short walk to the station, where we caught the train into the city. It was the first time we’d been to what used to be East Germany, and the first trip to Germany in 10 years. You see such a different view from a train – right into people’s windows/back gardens/the car parks behind factories etc. We weren’t sure where we’d get off, but decided to leave the train at the Hauptbahnhof – the Central Station, near the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag.

Berlin has so many historical resonances: the Second World War still reverberates down the ages in England, and I’ve seen so many old photos of how things used to be. And of course there was the Wall – when I was younger I could never have dreamed that I could find myself in Berlin – not ever. It was truly astonishing to walk across the park which is front of the Reichstag: there was a place with fountains playing, and beautiful trees….and a metal line on the ground, which marks the line where the Berlin Wall used to be. We walked across the grass, and saw the crowds queuing to get into the Reichstag, with its new domed roof. It was superb. We decided not to bother joining those people, and to walk to the Brandenburg Gate – we walked through it, and took photos. Everywhere around there building is going on – beautiful new buildings and wondrous architecture.

Gedächtniskirche

We took a bus trip then – a Berlin City Tour, which was a very good idea, as we saw a lot of places we’d certainly not have managed to see in our short visit. After that we walked from the Brandenburg gate to our hotel. We walked miles this weekend, as we like to see things on foot – you see so much more. It was quite a way and we were very tired, but it was very interesting to see things as we passed by.

After we’d had a rest, we walked to Joe’s! And had a wonderful meal and evening there – it is a great restaurant: the food is scrummy, the portions enormous and just so tasty! It was so nice to meet lots of very friendly Knutians who made us both so welcome.

The next day was Zoo Day! We were there just after 9.00am: in fact the first bear we saw was one of the female bears in the small enclosure where Knuti was to start with – I gather she’s not very well at the moment. We walked around a little more and there we saw Knuti for the first time! It’s funny, I’ve seen so many photos and videos, that it seemed just unbelievable that here I was, looking at him with my own eyes – but yes it was true! Knut was playing about with his Aussie dog toy, and then he tired of doing that and seemed to want to go back into his den. We decided then to look around the rest of the zoo. We saw the big polar bears being fed at 10.30, and just marvelled at how they balance the nuts on their paws!

Beware too, anyone who ventures into the childrens’ petting zoo! We wandered in, and I didn’t realise the geese expect to be fed – you can buy bags of food somewhere…and so they set on me, and pecked the back of my legs! I still have the bruises to prove it! The goats butt people from behind as well – ouch!

Later on we had some lunch in the zoo restaurant, and then went back for the Knuti feeding later on. The brown bears were being fed first, and Knuti was running up and down, literally licking his lips waiting for his dinner! He had fish and meat and grapes and a little pumpkin, a big fish, some croissants and a special bag with his name on it, which he took off to a corner and opened very easily: it turned out it contained dog biscuits, which he ate with great relish!

After all that we decided we’d go somewhere else so we went to the shops on the Ku’damm. It was rather colder than I’d thought, so I had to go shopping and I bought a mauve jumper in Peek & Cloppenburg, which is a very nice shop. I wish they had branches in England: I could have spent a lot of money there! We also went to KaDeWe which is just so enormous! After a while we went back to Joe’s for our second evening meal and meeting with the Knutians there, and once again it was all very nice.

Friday was actually the only day we spent at the Zoo. On Saturday we took the U-bahn to the station nearest the Berliner Dom (or Cathedral) intending to go there first. It turned out there were boat trips leaving from the pier there, so we took one of those, for about an hour and a half, and it was such a good way to see the city from another viewpoint. We finished the boat trip, and got off, and there was the DDR Museum, all about life in the former East Germany. It was fascinating, extraordinary and terrifying all at the same time, and in some senses now, with the benefit of the distance of time, even amusing. There is a Trabant car you can sit in – I know they are cult things now, and we saw a stretched one driving around….

After all this we really did go into the Berliner Dom, and it is awesome inside: rebuilt of course, but all in Italian renaissance style, and very ornate and beautiful. We climbed the steps inside up to the rim of the dome inside and then you can go up further and walk around the outside and so have a panoramic view of the city. Then there was something very special: often if you go to churches on a Saturday afternoon you can sit in on the rehearsal for the concert which takes place in the evening, and here was no exception. There was a wonderful choir and orchestra and we were very privileged to listen to them rehearsing Mendelssohn’s ‘Lobgesang’. I don’t know the music, but it was so beautiful it made me cry.

After that we ambled along toward Alexanderplatz, via the Ampelmann shop. The little figures which tell you whether you should cross the road or not have become a logo of their own and now have a shop and restaurant! We saw some people bungie-jumping off a tower by the Alexanderplatz, and then we decided it was time to get back to our hotel, as we were feeling rather tired by this time.

Sunday nearly all the shops are shut. It’s nice to have a proper Sunday – in England nothing ever stops…

I know about an artist called Käthe Köllwitz, and there is a gallery about her work in Berlin, so we visited that on Sunday morning. She was a sculptor and printmaker, and her work is both a searing social commentary on the times and so tragic. But the draughtsmanship is just perfect and I was so glad we went. Then we made our way on another long walk across Berlin –

We were heading towards Unter den Linden, so we walked though the Tierpark – the old hunting grounds of the aristocracy. The woods and trees were just beautiful. Eventually…for it is a very big park…and we weren’t quite sure where we were…we found ourselves back at the Brandenburg Gate, where there were lots of stalls set up for the finish of a massive bike ride into Berlin that day. It was all about recycling, preserving nature, being careful with water – all that sort of thing. Then we walked on through the Gate, towards Unter den Linden. There were books for sale outside one of the buildings there, and I bought a children’s book called “Der kleine Osterhase und der Große Schatz”, because I remember Knuti had a toy Osterhase (Easter Bunny) when he was little.

The last thing we did was to visit the memorial to the Victims of War and Tyranny which is in die Neue Wache, in Unter den Linden. It contains a figure of a mother and her son, by Käthe Köllwitz, and is just so moving.

Then it was time to make our way back to the airport. We took the train from Friedrichstraße, and the last photo I took was of some people on ropes hanging enormous posters from the TV tower – oh so high…yikes!!!

We had a wonderful time – good company, good hotel, good food, a super place to visit – and all that, because of a little bear called Knut…

Greetings from Rosemary and Shane