Reporting from a very pleasant (so far!) couple of hours layover at Heathrow!
On Monday, we had 9am tickets for a visit to the Reichstag dome, so we met up with Mildred at our local tram stop and took Berlin’s excellent train system there. It was a lovely misty morning, with nice late fall colors hanging on in the trees and in leaves on the ground.
Berlin is so full of history, it’s hard to think I can do any of these topics justice. So in this case I’ll put in an iconic photo from the end of WW2, showing Soviet soldiers raising their flag over the Reichstag in 1945 – taken from a similar elevation to where we stood.
The iconic “Raising a flag over the Reichstag” photo by Yevgeny Khaldei.
After the dome tour, we walked over to the Brandenburg Gate. Impressive! Our better photo was taken at night though (when John visited the next evening between meetings and dinner) so showing that one here instead.
We walked down the impressive boulevard Unter den Linten toward the Berlin palace. So much to see along the way! This is a tiny sampling.
Above: ‘A mother embraces her dead son, helpless and turned to stone in silent pain: the statue Mother with her Dead Son by Käthe Kollwitz will touch you too. It stands in the Neue Wache, Germany’s central memorial for the victims of war and tyranny.’ (Quoted from Visit Berlin)
Next: Stolpersteine. We saw these Stolpersteine near the Neue Wache, but they are present all over Berlin. Will share a nice summary of what these are here:
‘Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) is a project of the artist Gunter Demnig. The project commemorates people who were persecuted by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945.
Stolpersteine are concrete blocks measuring 10x10cm which are laid into the pavement in front of the last voluntarily chosen places of residence of the victims of the Nazis. Their names and fate are engraved into a brass plate on the top of each Stolperstein.’
We were in Berlin in the anniversary of Kristallnacht, and many Stolpersteine had roses and candles placed nearby, a heartwarming note that people are actively remembering those who were murdered by the Nazis.
