Bike Tour of Berlin

I have wanted to do a bike tour my entire trip! So glad Jeff was in favor of it. What better place to do it than my last city abroad and the big spread out and flat city of Berlin.

Let me say of all the tours I have done, up to this point my tour of The Forbidden City in Beijing and the Cu Chi Tunnels tour in Vietnam have been my favorites. This bike tour of Berlin is now my favorite. This tour had such great sites, well explained history, the fun and exercise of the bikes and great great humor from our tour guide Alex.

We are pumped for our bike tour.


The tour meets in Alexander Platz right under the Berlin TV Tower.



To the bike tour!


St Mary's Church.


Alexander Platz!


Notice the cross that came out on the ball. Top right. The Eastern Germany officials didn't mean to have the cross show up in the reflection. Not exactly in line with communism.


St Hegwigs Church. Berlin's first Catholic church. And that in front of it is a modern day crane...


We are in Babelplatz where the Nazis stripped these shelves in this library and burned over 20,000 books in this square. Crazy being here.


The library.


Across the way is Humboldt University. Over 29 Nobel peace prize winners went here. Karl Marx and Albert Einstein are two of the famous students that went here.

It seems everywhere in Europe I've been to is under construction. what can you do?


The most beautiful square in Berlin, all under heavy construction. This square was 80% destroyed in WW2.

On the left is the German Church. Across from the French Church. It is two meters taller haha. very creative names here...


French church. Interesting to learn there was a time when France and Germany got along.

The statues on this church were put in rivers and lakes when Berlin was getting bombed to preserve them. They stuck them on this church later. Kinda cool.


Alex out tour guide gave us a great run down of leading up to the Iron Curtain. This was in preparation to going to Checkpoint Charlie. Alex did an awesome job. I love learning!


Where Checkpoint Charlie was, heading over.


Some display to commemorate the checkpoint.











What is this???


The Berlin Wall!!! No way! One of only 3 parts where it is still up. Crazy crazy.

I'm standing on the former death strip area by the way. They had 2 walls and in between barb wire, dogs, watch towers and other crazy stuff.

Lastly, see that little cobblestone path in front of me? That is the exact line the old wall was on. These paths are all over the city.


Through the Berlin Wall here are the remains of the former SS and Gestapo Headquarters.


Behind us at the wall is the former Nazi Airforce building. Allies didn't bomb it because it was a good marker for the center of the city. It was converted into the tax building since no one wanted such a dark historical building haha. Who says the Germans don't have a sense of humor.


The Wall!





Back to Potsdomer Platz where Jefe and I came last night.


Watch tower that was in the death strip. They shot other people trying to escape from East Germany to West Germany.


See that dark cement? Outline of Hitler's former bunker.


The Memorial for the murdered Jews. Done by a Jew from New York. Wanted a sense of an Anti Memorial where there is nothing specific to memorialize (cause how can one sufficiently memorialize the murder of over 6 million Jews). He wanted this to be abstract where each person can come away with his own meaning from the memorial to the murdered Jews.

As you will see in the pictures it is extremely general with no meaning.

Having been to the Holocaust Museum in DC twice, the holocaust museum in Jerusalem and having seen many many memorials to those who died, I have to say this is my favorite memorial to those murdered in the Holocaust. I think the no meaning except what you make is awesome.


As you can see there is no consistency or anything to induce any kind of specific meaning.





The Brandenburg Gate!

In front is the fan center where they broadcast the Euro Cup. Wish so bad Germany was in the final so I could watch it here. I will still watch the final here though.


Riding through Tiergarten Park. This is where the final battle of WW2 was fought. Beautiful park now.





Victory Column. The monument celebrating when Germany very first became a country.


Lunch was German style meatloaf.








The Reichstag!! The German Parliament Building. So much history here. It was one time lit on fire and that is really how Hitler convinced the German President to grant him Martial Law and all power.





As you can see we got real close with our tour guide Alex haha. This guy was sooooo hilarious. From Toronto originally.



Jeff struggling to get on his bike haha. The washing machine building behind him. Government workers including the German President live here. She has been in the news a lot lately.








Last stop was Museum Island. These buildings are nuts!


This is called the Old Museum.






And that wraps up the tour. Best tour ever! The bikes are just a blast. Berlin is fascinating! I highly recommend this company. Fat tire bike tours.

Last couple poses on Hamburg. Hamburg had a mind of his own but he was steady and true and got me through.

All roads lead to Berlin!

As the phrase in world war two put it, "all roads lead to Berlin" has been true for me as well. Not sure why, but I always wanted to end my trip abroad here. I think because I knew I'd be in many many cities and sites related to World War Two, this is where so much history from that time happened.

The train ride across the border. I'm in Germany!


Cool castle up on the hill.





Passing through Dresden.


On the train ride I thought I'd document my current status. Flip flops are barely hanging on. They are getting shredded and I left my shoes in Kenya. These are all I've got. That is a bandaid on the heel of the left flip flop lol. And check out my tab line.


The ring Paew bought me in Thailand for 6 Baht is barely hanging on. Used to be wrapped in this brown stuff, only a little remains haha. It's probably time to sacrifice it. I caught it on a cash register a few days ago and caused quite the commotion haha.


Overall though I couldn't be better.





This train ride was a great time to get completely caught up on the blog. I'm now completely up to date, yeah!!

Jefe reading the train schedule in German.


We arrived!


We totally saw a girl take a fall haha. The consolation hug.





This is Currywurst. Berlin is famous for this. Bratwurst with sauce and curry powder on it.



The Berlin Subway is huge! Reminiscent of the days in Tokyo. Jefe and I had a good laugh because one time I ran and jumped on one as the door was closing. I tried to hold the door open with my body but that door was shutting haha. He tried to open it from the outside, no dice. Finally the door down worked so he ran through it. All these ladies on the subway were happy for us haha. We laughed our heads off for a while about it.


Musicians on the Snelbon. With Jefe haha. I was hoping they would ask him for money lol.





We checked into our hostel, planned our bike tour for tomorrow and headed off to try and catch a quick musuem. I really wanted to go to the Memorial to the German Resistance. It is a memorial and museum for Stauffenberg and all those who resisted National Socialism. It was very interesting.

This is where they took Stauffenburg and 4 others that tried to stage a coup and shot them. You may remember this from the movie Valkerie. Surprisingly the movie appears to be spot on with everything I read.


This was Stauffenberg's office and where he planned and operated the attempted coup.


This was Frohm's office. He is the one who ordered them executed, right here in this room.

10 years before that in 1934 Hitler stood in this room and pitched his plans to make a bigger home of eastern Europe to his head officers. Right here. Crazy.



The one thing that hit me hard that I didn't know was the White Rose movement. A movement where university students in Munich creates leaflets saying how horrible National Socialism is. Three students and one professor. While distributing one of the leaflets a janitor cornered the 3 students, they were then arrested and tried and ordered executed the very day. 3 young college kids killed for speaking out against the Nazi's. The professor and others in the White Rose were also later executed. These people had no freedom! Many many Germans resisted and they lost their lives, that is inspiring to me.

Here is an excerpt of one of the leaflets.


A great museum and memorial. Free of charge as well.

Jefe and I walked to the "new" downtown area known as Potsdamer Platz to check things out.


Found these cool Lego guys! All Legos!


Haha. Heads up!!








We then watched these guys who have created the most curious hobby. Flipping and spinning and jumping these rail things.


Very entertaining to watch.









Here was our dinner for 2. More like a dinner for 4 but we are not complaining. But I think the pig is who got slaughtered for this meal.

Before.


After.


What the!?


A nice first introduction to Berlin Germany.

First impressions is I like it here. Feels laid back and modern.

So dang excited for our bike tour of Berlin tomorrow!