It has been nagging me for months that I never returned to my promised blog post about Berlin, so I will return to it and try to retrace it to the best of my recollection.
We arrived at the Berlin hauptbahnhof from Halle in mid-morning on August 15, 2023. The Berlin train station is probably the largest one I have ever seen, and if it's not the largest, it's easily the brightest and shiniest, full of steel and glass. As is customary for us, we sought the nearest Starbuck's--conveniently located in the train station--and once sufficiently caffeinated, made our way into already sun-soaked Berlin.
We crossed the Spree to the Spreebogenpark on the other side of the river, and then walked by the mid-century modern government buildings such as the German Chancellory and the Buro des Bundeskanzlers. My first thought was, "wait...this is Berlin? Is this what it looks like? So far, it reminds me of the drab government buildings of Lansing--only a bit larger." I assure you that my initial impressions soon changed for the better. It just took me more time to realize I was seeing perhaps .01 percent of the city.
Our next dilemma was that some in our contingent were in desperate need of a restroom, because I suppose we didn't have to pee in the train station and, thus, didn't seek out any facilities. After wandering around a bit more and desperately trying to locate the nearest public restrooms on (some of our) phones--what in the world would be do if we couldn't find all of life's necessities on our little handheld devices?--we ended up on the campus of Charite University of Medicine, were we found public facilities. Thus, all of us save our older son made our first "deposits" to Berlin's local "national trust."
At some point, we decided to retrace our steps back to train station and purchase tickets for a sight-seeing bus tour. We also witnessed firsthand the highly competitive nature of the various tour bus companies. The salespeople, who hustle for their respective tour buses, are territorial and take great offense if they sense a competitor breeching etiquette or trying to "steal" potential customers. At one point, I was worried that our particular salesman was about to engage in a fist fight with an over-aggressive competitor. Thankfully, that did not happen.
It was on the bus tour that I fully appreciated the sheer size of Berlin and realized that what I saw across the river from the train station was in no way all there was to this metropolis. I snapped hundreds of pictures with my phone of practically everything I saw: vestiges of the former East Berlin, whatever remains of the Wall (not much at this point), Potsdamer Platz, Alexanderplatz, the iconic television tower (Fernsehturm), and on and on and on. The enormity of Berlin is staggering, and I still think we only saw a fraction of the city.
When the bus tour ended, we hopped off and quickly made our way to the Pergamon. At this point, it was nearing mid-afternoon and Berlin was hot. Temperatures were easily close to 30 degrees celsius. Once in the Pergamon, we learned that, for reasons I won't fully disclose in order to save embarrassment for the person responsible, our tickets were messed up. The upshot was that only a few of us (me, Avery, and Calder) entered the Pergamon's galleries of archaeological and historical artifacts. The museum was crowded and hot from lack of air conditioning and the sheer mass of humanity. We blasted through the museum in about an hour or so and then decided to seek out an early dinner. Crossing the Spree towards the "three girls and a boy" sculptures along the river, we found a place and I consumed my very first authentic German schnitzel. The highlight of the meal was Avery and Calder acting incredibly goofy and slap-happy. I can't even remember exactly what they said or did, but it was entertaining.
The Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor) was absolutely THE landmark I wanted to see while we were in Berlin. We had thought we'd able to hop back on our tour bus and ride it west along Unter den Linden to our destination. Unfortunately, our tour bus had stopped running, so that meant we had to walk. Avery, Calder, and I walked at a brisk pace towards the Brandenburg Gate, while the rest of our contingent, er, walked at a slightly less brisk pace. This walk was the highlight of the Berlin trip for me. As the day made its way towards early evening, the temperature cooled a bit and made for a pleasant hike along this busy Berlin thoroughfare. Finally reaching the Brandenburg Gate was definitely a profound and powerful moment in my tourist/traveling life.
We then walked by the Reichstag and back to the Berlin train station, where we caught our train back to Halle, finally arriving at our hotel in the late evening, well after the sun had set.
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