Berlin
11 June to 15 June 2025
At Wolfsburg, a bunch of dudes got onto Julie and Anthony’s Train from Hannover to Berlin. They all had beers (at 11 AM) and were obviously pre-gaming for an event in Berlin. Anthony eavesdropped, they were talking about “the Boss”. Yes, Springsteen was playing at Olympic stadium later that evening.
VW manufacturing plant at Wolfburg.
At the hotel, Anthony confirmed tickets were available for the show. He had always wanted to see Bruce Springsteen in concert, but he would have to go to DC or Atlanta and tickets were hard to come by. In Berlin, tickets were reasonable (if not cheap) and the show was a short train ride away.
Julie and Anthony stopped by a Bier Garden for a steak and a beer before the concert.
Anthony broke his fork eating the steak.
Walking up to Olympic Stadium. An impressive structure built for the 1936 Olympic Games.
The stadium was filling up, and hour before the show. Eventually, there would be over 75,000 attendees. Unfortunately, we did not bring our hats and the sun was right in our faces.
Stadium shows are not our favorite, you are 300 meters away from the stage, but I was able to get a few close up shots. And we could see everything on the big screen.
Springsteen spoke very passionately about what he saw happening in the U.S. The German audience was sympathetic. Anthony and Julie were very moved.
The East Street Band puts on a terrific show. Springsteen went for three hours without a break, pretty amazing for anyone, much less a 75 year old.
The hotel was a couple of blocks from the Alexandraplatz train station, in the former East German section of the city. The nearby Berlin TV Tower is a landmark that rises above Berlin.
Thursday morning, Julie and Anthony took the train down to Wansee for the Seven Lakes boat tour. This was a 12 mile ride along the lakes and canals. These waterways helped form some of the Berlin Wall.
Julie enjoys checking out the fancy lake houses (and boats), no matter what country she is in.
Two boat rides are better than 1. We got the local train back into town and took another boat ride on the Spree River through Berlin
Buildings on the Museum Island have an older feel, many of them were (re)built in the style of previous buildings.
Buildings in the government districts of Berlin have a distinctive Modern feel.
Anthony playing with selfie mode, under the bridges.
On 13 June, Julie and Anthony got the hop-on hop-off bus to get a quick look around town.
The Reichstag
Victory Column
Stopped by the Berlin Spy Museum, with lots of stories, gadgets and history of spy craft.
Story of British double agent Kim Philby
The East Side Gallery is a remaining section of the Berlin Wall. Art from various artists adorn the wall. Below is maybe the most famous painting. To see more, look at the East Side Gallery blog page.
Julie and Anthony climbed to the top of the Humboldt Museum for some spectacular views of Berlin
Julie and Anthony skipped the No More Kings protest for a Berlin walking tour they had already scheduled. Our guide was a Brit who has lived in Berlin for 40 years and had a wealth of knowledge, with first hand stories of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin wall.
The Alton Hotel survived the war, to be burnt down by Russian soldiers carelessly smoking cigarettes.
Das Gastmahl des Wildiebs, by Harald Metzkes, circa 1958. A statement on excess. - We saw this in a cut through we took to get out of the heat.
The Holocaust Memorial
Next our guide took us to the site of Hitler’s bunker. It’s remarkable because its marked by a car park… in downtown Berlin. There was so much concrete used to create the thing, that it was impossible to remove. So they just filled it in. You can’t build on top of it and you can excavate it, so it’s a car park.
We were told about Hitler’s last hours. His plan was to take cyanide, then have an aide shoot him, then burn his body. He had gotten the cyanide from his buddy Heinrich. However, he learned that Heinrich had tried to cut a deal with the Allies, so could he trust that the cyanide was any good? What do you do? Test it on your dog, of course. The dog died so Hitler was good to go. The tree above marks the spot where Hitler’s body was burned and buried. Soldiers found a jaw bone that was confirmed to be Adolph’s. It resides in the Kremlin.
Symphonic Mob Concert in a mall, on our way to the Wall. They had 16 freaking bassoons.
A memorial to where the Germans rose up against the Soviet oppressors, in 1953. The mural below is stylized to represent the Communist propaganda, compared to the actual situation in Berlin.
Checkpoint Charlie
A little about the Berlin Wall. You hear in school that it divided Berlin into two halves, the East and the West. What you may not realize, Julie hadn’t, was that it encircled West Berlin! Which makes so much more sense. Why Julie ever thought a straight wall through a city would do the trick we will never know. Our guide did mention that Julie is not the only one to have this misconception.
He was there the day the Wall came down. The Kremlin was moving towards opening up the borders. Some bureaucrat was given some papers and told to go on the radio to talk about it. When asked ‘When will the borders be open?’, he glanced through the papers and said 'Now’. It took some hours for the news to trickle to the gate guards, but eventually the gates came up and millions of East Berliners rushed to West Berlin. And he was there.
Shoulder bone of a giant
Always looking for a good ghost tour, Julie and Anthony went on the Ghost Tour with the Nightwatchman. Sounded promising. It was a very nice tour through the original neighborhood that was Berlin. Sadly, only one ghost story, The White Lady. His english wasn’t the best so we were not clear on the details. Seems some ghost haunts the Hohenzollern royal family, if she shows up someone’s gonna die.