The Big OE

This weekend I jumped at the chance to go on a mini road trip with Stefan to his hometown, Berlin. On the way, we stopped off at a medieval castle perched on a high hill above the town of Eisenach. Wartburg Castle is somewhat strangely, the only castle in all of Germany to be named a ‘world heritage sight’. I will not bore you with too many details, of which I only know little myself as I had to take the German tour as the English tour was booked out, and was the only way of seeing the interior. Its biggest claim to fame is that it is where Martin Luther translated the bible. The castle had quite a nice feel about it, it had a very impressive gold room covered in glass mosaics but unfortunately for me the courtyard was being restored much like the rest of the country and dare I say – the rest of Europe (the price of having so many old buildings I guess). Having to do the tour in German, provided me with an unusual insight into just how different we English speakers behave. On the several tours I have been on, the atmosphere is very relaxed, and very informal. Although people listen to what the guide is saying, people casually talk amongst themselves pointing out things and above all – they ask questions, lots of them, and usually very annoyingly so. But the Germans were absolutely quiet the entire time. Not one question was asked, and no pleasantries exchanged, it was all very sterile really. Still it was a nice break in the journey and was worth the visit.

Inside Wartburg Castle

We stopped off in Leipzig in East Germany to visit Stefan’s sister and her new husband. She is 21, works in the German Navy, and apparently is an excellent shooter (trust me; you would never have guessed it.) They had recently brought all the set up for Singstar so I got to see the boys battle it out, and got to see some very tragic German 80’s hits. They had most of the songs we have, but a few random localised hits as well. After being on the autobahn all day, and not being able to go too fast (only a crawling 160 km/h) because of the long weekend traffic, I was exhausted by the time we finally arrived in Berlin, which supposedly has roughly the same population as all of New Zealand, go figure.

We literally spent all of the next day on the go. As Stefan is a born and bred East Berliner (who still clearly remembers what it was like to live behind the Berlin Wall) I got see most of the main sights and sounds without any problems, apart from getting disorientated from getting on and off the S bahn, the U bahn and bus. Mitte, formerly East Berlin, is the city’s historic core and packs in most of the landmark sights, with a few exceptions of course. Here is a rough guide of what I got to see, mostly for my future reference:

Berliner Dom

Brandenburger Tor - Berlin’s famous gate, still standing after virtually everything else around it was destroyed in the war.
Reichstag – imposing Government building with long queues out the door, down the steps and around the side of the building
Unter den Linden – tree lined boulevard full of embassies and historic buildings, including the Humboldt University and the infamous Bebelplatz, which was the sight of the first official Nazi book-burning.
Gendarmemarkt – large square, flanked by two large domes and a concert hall
Berliner Dom – huge cathedral, with some very impressive, yet slightly eerie crypts of former royals, which a large number where actually children’s
Museum Insel – literally ‘Museum Island’, need I say more
Neue Synagoge – the original bombed by Nazis towards the end of the war and is still guarded by police
Kufürstendamm/Wittenburg platz - shopping district, with KaDeWe the seven story designer apartment store, for the rich. A fashion photo shoot was going on in the foyer while we popped in
Potsdamn Platz – the ‘new’ Berlin, epitomised in the Sony Centre, an architects dream (or nightmare I’m not quite sure) the surrounding buildings I was told, literally hang from a large tent like glass roof, with an artificial pond in the middle – very impressive. The base for the Soccer world cup media reports a few months back, and also the World premiere for LOTRIII.

Marge Simpson is dead - well her German voiceover is anyway. Apparently she was in her 60’s and died shortly after her husband had passed away after a long illness, sad story really. Just thought I might throw that in there, to wake you up after all my boring holiday details. Ok, now where was I?

Oranienburger Straße

Although I got to see a lot, we didn’t have time to see each thing in very much detail, and there is still so much I didn’t see at all, like ‘Checkpoint Charlie’ and the ‘Holocaust memorial’ - which means another visit, is more than a likelihood. As I was lucky enough to stay with someone who actually grew up in Berlin, I got to see just how different the two sides of Berlin still are. Although virtually none of the Berlin wall remains, most of it taken in small pieces for mementos, and larger chunks in museums throughout the world, the rest simply recycled and used for roads - there is an invisible line you cross where the change is instantly visible. Where the west is packed with ugly cell like apartment blocks, literally blocking out the sun, the east felt more like a country village with haphazard cobbled streets and a random mix of decent residential and desolate housing.

The next day, feeling a little worse for wear, we started to make our way back home, but not before stopping off to get me some Turkish Apple tea from one of the Turkish supermarkets (mmm heaven) and just out of Berlin we stopped off for a few hours at Potsdam at the Sanssouci Park. The sprawling beast of a park was basically the playground of the royals and all the main buildings (much to my joy) are very spread out. The Neues Palais, the most impressive of the palaces was a nice leisurely stroll 2 kilometres away from the infamous Schloss Sanssouci, although you could pay to go in, I was suffering a bit of information overload as it was.

Neues Palais

Out of all the places in the world I expected to see some good old NZ toetoe; in front of a very large Old Dutch Windmill, in a small garden in a large German park was not it. But better yet when we had sat down to lunch at the parks restaurant - for Schnitzel of course, who should I see out the window than Nancy, one of Marisa’s (my old flatmate) friend who had lived in NZ a while ago for a year, in Waihi and whom had actually come back to NZ just last year for a visit and had stayed at our flat for a few weeks in Hamilton. To add to the coincidence she was at the park to show her host parents from NZ around. I had completely forgotten she was from Berlin, but the chance of seeing her then and there in the huge park was just uncanny.

So now 9 of the 16 states of Germany down, and of course I only got to see a very small slice of Berlin, so I can not fairly give an informed opinion yet. I would like to go back to Berlin simply because I do not think I have heard a bad word about it, from anyone actually, so I definitely want to explore a bit more. In two weeks time, I am back off to Bavaria for a quick visit, and then I am off on a road trip to explore the north of Germany for a week and will probably follow the ‘Fairytale Road’. Oh and just something a little random to end on, petrol stations all over Germany sell alcohol, and usually on big stands by the counter. I’m told it’s more to do with the service stations opening hours (compared with supermarkets) than promoting drink driving, but still!