Berlin: Day Two

This day (March 14) we got up early and caught the bus to start sight-seeing around Berlin. I have to say Berlin was one of the most interesting cities we've been to, visually speaking. Because the whole place was badly bombed out it's been completely rebuilt in a modern style. Almost nothing of the historical city remains intact, a legacy that the Berliners are probably right to forget. Still what pieces do remain are given real significance by the form of the new city. On the bus ride from the Zoo to the Reichstag I snapped a couple pictures.

One of many cool buildings in Berlin


Another interesting modern building


The victory tower, or something like that (I speak no German...)

After touring on the bus for a bit we got off and walked over to the Brandenburg Gate.

The symbol of Berlin is apropriately this gate that marked the split between east and west

After checking out the area around the Brandenburg Gate we headed to the Reichstag building, the seat of the German government.

The front of the Reichstag


This guy wasn't part of a group or anything, he just liked to dress like Napoleon

After standing in line for almost an hour we got to go up to the top of the Reichstag and explore the dome they have built up there. The view was really cool, as was the structure of the dome itself.

The interior of the dome, you may recognize this as the front cover of our ENDS150 book


The middle of the dome


Postdamer Platz as seen from inside the dome

After exploring the dome for a while we headed into the formerly communist side of town. It was really interesting to note the difference in the architecture on both sides of town. The east has been helped a lot by reunification, but the east side is still pretty flat and communist looking. Its very gray. Meanwhile the food is cheaper over there and we found a cool steakhouse to eat at not too far from the Brandenburg Gate.

The communist side of town


A fanstastic capitalist meal

After exploring the eastern side of town for a bit we made our way over to the Berlin Cathedral, which was really interesting. It was fascinating to see a large protestant cathedral, as everything we had seen previously was catholic. This place, instead of being dedicated to Mary and some saints was focused around the gospels and remembering the story of Jesus. Inside the cathedral was an octagonal space, with the entrance at the West, Altar at the East, Chior to the North and South. In between these features there were small side chapels dedicated to the writers of the four gospels, whose portraits were displayed in the vaulted ceilings of the side chapels.

The Berlin Cathedral


The front altar


Mathew


Mark


Luke


John


The main pulpit

From here we continued east for a while until we reached Alexander Platz which is a nice plaza with a huge TV antenna in it. I couldn't get a good picture of the antenae because it is too huge, so I'll show you the video when I get back to the US.

Alexander Platz

From here we took the bus back to the Hostel. Again we passed the bombed out cathedral, and this time we went inside to take a look at it.

The bombed out cathedral in sunset

After checking out the cathedral we went back to the Hostel and hung out for a while, then went out with Alex and Mellissa (who we met the day before) and tried to find some night life in Berlin. There really wasn't much to be found. We finally found a cool bar on the S-Bahn. The only downside to the bar was that Germany allows smoking in public (unlike Italy) and the place was pretty smoked out. Also there was no pool or darts or anything, so it wasn't the most exciting bar we've ever been to. Oh well, I think the Berliners are too serious to enjoy a good pub anyway. We caught the S-Bahn home just before it shut down for the night, but Jason had gone to a different bar at some point and he missed the S-Bahn. He ended up making it back about an hour after us by taking a Taxi. He got some pretty entertaining photos of the whole ordeal though.