Friday, October 30, 2020

DDR Museum and Reichstag Building


We had an appointment scheduled at the Reichstag Building for 20:15 so I figured we should do something before our appointment. We stopped here, which is in the square of the State Opera, Berlin, where on May 10, 1933 upwards of 25,000 volumes of "un-German" books by the Nazi dominated student groups.  This is a memorial of the empty bookshelves.  



Berliner Dom before the DDR Museum. This is also on my festival of lights post. Looks cool in the day time too.



We were headed to the DDR Museum.  Deutsche Demokratische Republik (former East Germany) The museum is the blue light behind us. 

































The Reichstag  is a historic, edifice in Berlin, constructed to house the Imperial Diet of the German Empire. It opened in 1894 and was damaged by fire in 1933. It had been restored in the 60's but full renovation was done in the 90's and now houses the Parliament. When you walk into the dome you can look down on all the seats. When we were there, the dome was closed, so we just walked around the terrace. We hope to go back when someone comes to visit!

This is a free place to visit. You have to register and get an appointment and bring your passport, go through security etc.  I failed to tell this to my family, so Lexa had a knife with her, that I am surd they would have held until we came back down, but she and her Dad decided she should find a spot to hide it outside and we would get it when we came back out. Instead of finding a place a little away from the entry security building, she threw it in the bushes right in front.  When we came out there were security people outside by the bushes, so we had to delay and took photos of ourselves in front of the building, until they went inside, then Lexa tried to act like she was tying her shoe to retrieve her knife in the bushes, it was comical.












Looking into the Tiergarten at night. 


Brandenburg Gate with not many people!




East Side Gallery - alone

I had a not so proud moment of being frustrated with my family for not wanting to go outside when it was sunny. I should have waited on my family, but didn't. I have heard Berlin in very cloudy in the fall/winter, so like to take advantage of the sun when I can.  I went to explore the East Side Gallery. It is an open air gallery on 1316 meters of the Berlin Wall. 














































This is the West side of the wall.





Thought this was interesting, as the artist below is from Denver 




















Here is the edge of the wall, right side is East and left is West













Some church along the way






It is fun to me how in the middle of the city there is a beautiful park. This is Volkspark Friedrichshain. They have a fountain that is surrounded by sculptures from German fairy tales, Marchenbrunnen. It is largest public fountain from the imperial era.











The Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum






Enjoying the sun, enjoyed the time, but missed experiencing it all with my family. I think they preferred staying home anyhow. I much prefer not being a snot to having to apologize, you would think I would have learned this by now......