Swiss Miss Adventures: June 2013

Bailey and Brenna together in Berlin!

It is a large replica of a smaller sculpture made by a mother grieving for her fallen son, our guide told us the mother had signed his call up papers for WW1 before he was 18 years old after he put her under pressure and he was killed a few weeks later. I have read a little on it when I returned home the sculpture's name was Kathe Kollwitz and her dead son was called Peter. The monument had a hole in the roof so the rain and snow covers the sculpture.

Topography of Terror - Belin Wall.

Phoebe and Brenna at the Wall.

Topography of Terror - Since 1987 a permanent exhibition at the site where the headquarters of the Secret State Police, the SS and the Reich Security Main Office were located during the “Third Reich” has been providing information to the public about the most important institutions of National Socialist persecution and terror. The documentary exhibition conveys the European dimensions of the Nazi reign of terror.

Good friends...

Fassbender-Rausch Restaurant - claims to have the very best chocolate in Berlin
Here's a chocolate monument to their claim!

Shopping for the good stuff.

A piece of the Wall...

These are everywhere in Berlin - much like
McDonald's!

Fresh strawberries available at various locations
throughout the city.

Reichstag - home of the German Parliment on and off since the late 19th Century. The new glass dome symbolizes transparency where spectators can observe governance unfolding.

The Holocaust Memorial - Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Maybe the fact that I have little appreciation of abstract sculpture left me less than impressed with this memorial. A field of blocks of varying size which people are asked not to leap between - but of course they obviously do - all the time.

The site of the Nazi bookburning on May 10, 1933 now houses a memorial to that event: a below-ground room lined with empty bookcases, which you see through a window set in the pavement.

Brandenburg Gate: located in no-man's land between East and West Germany during the Cold War, this famous monument, built during the 18th-century reign of Friedrich Wilhelm II, has long been a defining symbol of Berlin and both the city's division and unification. Surronding the "gate" on the east side, you can find many embassy's including USA.

More of the Berlin wall.

Berlin TV tower. You can look out over the entire city and can see the Reichstag (Parliament building), the Brandenburg Gate and the Main Railway Station from here, as well as the Olympic Stadium, the Museum Island and the Potsdam Square. You can enjoy a meal in Sphere, the revolving restaurant, just like in Seattle!

This train station is lined with this red marble that came out of Hitler's office. There was so much of it they had to do something with it.

Found a little piece of home in Berlin.

Bailey and Brenna enjoying a traditional "coffee shop" breakfast.

Gorgeous roses covering this apt building just screamed photo opportunity...wish I could capture the aroma that went with it.

Berlin Cathedral-This ornate Protestant cathedral is one of Berlin's best known landmarks.

Found at the German History Museum: To the left an old doll
that opened up to a fabulous array of kitchen items...I would have
loved to play with this! Below a cast iron car and above, Hitler's
desk.

This is a depiction of the Checkpoint Charlie. The old one is at the Alliierten Museum. There are soldiers in costume "guarding" and it looks real. Look for the photo of the American soldier on one end and the Soviet soldier at the other below.

Train station at Checkpoint Charlie

Seems a tragedy that we have a facsimile of that famous place, put in place 10 years after wall came down with pseudo soldiers willing to have pictures taken.