European Adventure Day 9–Rain, Cranes, and Overnight Trains

Wednesday started early as most of our travel days have, with a walk and a metro hop to the train station.  We caught the 8:30am train to Berlin (via Dresden).  Our train had us in Berlin by around lunch time where we tried to take in as much as possible before evening.  For this reason, we stocked up on food before departing and had lunch on the train.

Mmm..  Prepackaged subs..

Arriving in the station, Berlin was looking a bit gloomy under overcast skies, but there was no rain as we walked into the city.  Our first stop was the Reichstag since it sits just across the river from the station.  It is the German parliament and has a new(er) glass dome that tourists can ascend.  Unfortunately we were unaware that to do this requires 3 days advanced reservation.  After snapping some photos of the exterior we moved on to the Brandenburg Gate, famous throughout German history but most recently as part of the Berlin Wall.  It is where President Reagan uttered the famous “tear down this wall” line.  Ironically, we were unable to pass through the gate properly since they had barriers for a Eurocup watching festival.  I felt very oppressed being unable to pass freely through the gate.

In front of the Reichstag

Jeff says, “Tear down this wall, EuroCup 2012!”

Moving further south, we stopped at the Memorial to the Jews killed in the Holocaust, a nice memorial with an even more moving exhibit housed below ground.  Further along we checked out the Sony Center, a very modern new shopping/entertainment complex located near the old US territory of West Berlin.  There were some wall fragments near the street outside, but most of the area at the Potsdam Platz (where the Sony Center was) was new and shiny.

Memorial above ground

Words from a victim of the Holocaust

The roof of the Sony Center

Susan by the wall

As the day wore on, we moved West across the city to the Historic District and Museum Island.  As we arrived the rain started and we checked out the possibility of taking in a museum only to find out this also required time specific tickets and many of the museums were under construction.  With out short schedule we didn’t want to push it since Museum Island is across town from the train station.  Instead we retreated to a café at the German History Museum and grabbed a drink.  Susan had what our guidebook said was a Berlin specialty, beer with a raspberry syrup added (Wiesbier mitte some other German word for raspberries). 

Susan’s refreshing brew

Exiting the café and museum we started working our way back to the station passing the State Opera house (under construction), the Guggenheim museum, the Mercedes Gallery, and the National Library.  We didn’t stop to take in the sights for long since the rain was falling pretty steadily.  To get out of the chilly wet conditions we did some light shopping on the main shopping street, Frederickstrasse, before moving back to where we started…the train station.

The opera house, complete with faux walls and cranes

Jeff’s new car?

We shortened our Berlin stay in order to experience an overnight train.  This is calling an audible on our plans prior to this morning, but that was part of the point of not making a true itinerary.  We leave Berlin not feeling like we missed out on a lot by only devoting a few hours to it.  I’m sure it has plenty of additional charm outside the central city and that it is much more appealing in sunshine, but with its tumultuous past much of it has been rebuilt (out of necessity) and it just didn’t do a whole lot to differentiate itself from a modern American city in my mind.  Either way, our legs are sore from being such avid pedestrians so some time on trains and a shorter day of sight-seeing represents a sort of pit-stop in the middle of the trip.

Walking in the rain

Our digs for the night

Tonight, we sleep on couchettes which are small bunk beds in a room shared with a couple Australian gentlemen.  Tomorrow we start fresh in a new city…