Today we have a whole day in Berlin. It is our last day of the trip. We decided against breakfast at the hotel. The night before we had made a loose plan for the day. We needed to see the Musical Instrument Museum (to make use of our Museum Pass) and I wanted to see the DDR Museum and get some photos. There was a listing for a Neue National Gallery that had German Expressionists included on our pass as well. Armed with maps, camera and a plan we left about 10:00 am.
In hindsight I would stronger recommend the Welcome Card. We have use of the S trains as part of our Rail Pass, but not the bus, tram or underground network. Having spent 24 Euro per person on the Museum Pass we didn’t want to purchase another 30 Euro pass for the Welcome Card.
Today was filled with walking, and more walking. We did take the S train to the Alexanderplatz stop though. We stopped to get a breakfast sandwich and coffee for fuel.
From there we walked to the DDR Museum. Admission was 7 Euro per person. That was an experience. It has a lot to offer, but the space allowed for it is so small. I got lots of photos, so I am pretty sure I will have some we can use. If all the material there were spread over an area twice the size it would be much easier to see it. The replica of the apartment and the actual Trabant car were fun. There was a video game type interaction with the car so you could try to “drive” it. Of course, the line was very long and it was very crowded so we didn’t wait for that.
A wide variety of topics are covered from propaganda, sports, jobs, education and fashion. Most student groups should find something of interest there. It was funny to think that the wall went up in 1961 so I never knew a world without it, and my son was born in 1989 and has never known a world with it. The wall fell on November 9, 1989. From the DDR museum we continued to the Berlin Wall Memorial. There are several sections of the wall still standing. We walked up to the memorial. That was moving. The sight it well documented. We chose to walk the wall routing. Different parts of the route has information you can read pertaining to the history of the wall. That the wall went up almost over night is amazing.
As we were walking, it took longer to get places. We walked the route of the wall all the way to the Bandenburg Gate. This time we came at the gate from the opposite side. It was after 3:00 pm when we go to this area. We had not had lunch yet and our feet were tired. We stopped in an apothecary to purchase some ibuprofen.I ask the pharmacist about the restaurant nearby. He said the food was not so good. He directed us to a Chinese restaurant. It was very good. Had we not been so tired, we would have walked back to thank him for the recommendation.
It was getting on past 4:30 pm when we were done with our meal. There was no way to make it to the Musical Instrument Museum, which closed at 17:00 (5:00) so we looked into the art museum. I double checked online and found that it was closed for “refurbishing” for two years. Bummer. It is now 5:00pm and we are dog tired. We walked to the Typography of Terror. This is free. It is located on the grounds were the SS and the Gestapo were housed. The original buildings are gone, but the legacy remains. This museum presents the rise of the secret police from 1933 until its end. Lots of photos with documentation in both German and English. We left there drained both physically and mentally. We started the trip out with a visit to Dachua Concentration Camp. Today we read and saw photos of several accounts referencing Dachua and the evil that was done there.
We have made it back to the hotel using the very efficient German train system. There was a very nice grocery store in the train station, so we purchased some snacks instead of having dinner since lunch was so late.
Tomorrow we depart the hotel at 6:30 am to be at the airport by 7:00 am. Our AirBerlin flight is scheduled for 10:00 am. Let’s hope the Lufthansa strike doesn’t affect us. We did purchase travel protection though, just in case.
Good bye Germany. Definitely want to come back and spend more time in Berlin, as well as see more of the country. Berlin deserves much more that one-and-a-half days!
