A step into the history: a visit to the capital of Germany: Berlin

Berlin, the great city rich in history and forward to the new, changing and innovating.
We were staying at the Hotel All seasons 5 days in Alexanderplatz, reasonable prices to be in the center (just over 100 euros per night triple room with breakfast included and wifi)

 

24.08.2011 We arrived in Berlin in the morning and at noon we are already at our hotel, the All Seasons Hotel in Alexanderplatz. It is part of a chain of hotels at competitive prices, with breakfast and wi-fi included in the room. The decor is quite simple and basic but totally new and functional, the more we Alexanderplatz square, focal point, from which links buses, trains and metro through the city and close to several points of interest are reachable on foot. The square still retains the rigor and austerity of the East Berlin of the past, now there are some shops, department stores and restaurants were once the offices of state, but just start looking a little 'further and Vedeno still the old barracks-style DDR hours uninhabited or being renovated. The roads in the vicinity of the square, the legendary Unter den Linden, or address labels, and the Karl Marx Allee, where the military parades were held are immense, from 6 to 8 lanes. Through them is a challenge taking into account the short duration of green for pedestrians and cyclists in Berlin and there are many,
To our amazement, rather unruly, go anywhere, including sidewalks,
despite the beautiful bike paths and the ability to carry the bike on the subway (there are carriages reserved).
The Television Tower stands at the center of the square and we realize that the next few days will almost always be visible from several points of the city, 368 meters high was built at the time of the division of the city of East Berlin to provide their own television station. You can climb on top of course where you have a beautiful view of the city. The square is also the Universal Clock and Fountain of Friendship. Walk past the Rotes Rathaus or Red Town Hall, built in 1869 in red brick with terracotta friezes. We arrive at the quaint neighborhood of Nikolai, a maze of narrow streets with houses in the medieval style, even if completely rebuilt ... (even the rococo palace balconies Ephraim) that develops around the church of St. Nicholas, the oldest monument of the city with its nave Gothic architecture. All around, typical restaurants and parlors, lunch at one of these, Altberliner Weissbierstube.
Then passing through the park, pass by the monument dedicated to the two fathers of socialism, Marx and Engels, who look to the east and come to the Berlin Cathedral, Protestant neo-Baroque cathedral, rebuilt in 1905, which is home to the rich in the nave, 95 sarcophagi of the family Frederick I of Prussia. Impressive and a bit 'scary especially at night illuminated only by little and low.
Then we visit St. Mary of the late thirteenth century Gothic brick Brandenburg. To the left of the remains of the Dance Macabre.
We come then to the East Side Gallery, a long stretch of wall, 1.3 km, which was painted on the side of West Berlin graffiti spontaneous executed at the time when the city was divided. From the east side is a true open-air art gallery, as in 1990, the fall of the Berlin Wall, artists from around the world have painted the wall with symbols of brotherhood, freedom and reconciliation. Among the most famous: The Mortal Kiss, kiss in the mouth between Honecker and Brezhnev and The Best Test, which depicts a Trabant, a symbol of East Berlin that breaks through the wall. Dinner at a location nearby Alexanderplatz. Before very busy day, we are also tired of the heat we were not expecting, but very satisfied.

25.08.2011 We start the day with a visit to the area of ??Prenzlauer Berg, the oldest part of the GDR dorm, and now the creative center of the trend with its narrow streets and squares as Helmholtzplatz Kollwitzpaltz and with his rustic studio. Relaxing residential area where you turn safely on foot or by bicycle. Not far from the Jewish cemetery where many graves are now covered with grass or ivy brick the turn formed by the branches of trees. We come then to the Berlin Wall on Bernauer Strasse, haunted place where many tried to flee after the construction of the wall. On the ground there is a path that indicates where she spent the wall, there is still a watch tower, the Church of Reconciliation, which stands in the place where there was another church, blown up precisely to allow the construction of the wall and a Documentation Centre where you can see the shape of the border.
For lunch we go in Mitte, another area of ??the former East Berlin now completely renovated with beautiful residential buildings, restaurants, bars and trendy shops. Lunch with Hackesche Hofe, a series of courtyards between them, lined with palaces tiled, white and gold, a succession of clubs, bars, restaurants for all tastes and pockets. Hoxymoron lunch, good food with dishes and glassware design at reasonable prices. Then we visit the surrounding neighborhood:
Sophienstrasse, a small street with renovated houses with stucco and brick in a series of courtyards. At no 18 the home of artisans, a sacred place in the history of communism and the nearby Sophienkirche, Baroque church steeple. Continuing on we come to the Synagogue, the golden dome shining in the sun is all that remains of the original building was destroyed in the Kristallnacht in 1995 and then rebuilt. We come then to the alternative center Tacheles, which is housed in an abandoned building, a former shopping center, then the fall of the wall, squatted by artists who have placed their studios here; building entirely covered with graffiti and paintings, sculptures in the courtyard with materials recovery. An Italian boy who exhibits his work here tells us that at night they take turns guarding the building to prevent gangs of Nazis destroy everything because they want to demolish everything and maybe build a shopping mall or luxury apartments. The whole surrounding area, Friedrichstrasse is very elegant with lovely buildings, home to shops and offices. Then we arrive at the Gendarmenmarkt square, the perfect symmetry with two churches mirror, facing each other, and the concert hall at the center. We dine in Hackeschermarkt, old red brick underground station, fully restored and full of restaurants and bars, you can dine beneath the vaults of the red train station.

26.08.2011 In the morning we go to Posdamer Platz, wide area destroyed by the bombing and then divided in two by the wall, after the reunification has become the commercial and business center of New Berlin. Glass and steel skyscrapers that alternate with old buildings, such as the restored facade of the Hotel Esplanade, and small squares, like Marlene Dietrich Platz, where does the film festival in Berlin. Impressive the Sony Center, home cinema, with its glass roof and steel rods attached to the walls of surrounding buildings. Walk to the Monument to the victims of the Holocaust, located in the Mitte district, was the first in the area that no man's land between the two sides of the wall. The monument was completed in 2005 by the American architect Peter Eisenmann of the project and consists of 2711
gray concrete blocks of varying size and height, arranged in a grid to look like graves, with aisles to go inside. Play of light and shadow to invite reflection. Always arrive on foot at the Brandenburg Gate, built in late 1700 with the top of the Quadriga of Victory, the symbol of peace after the fall of the wall. Not far from the parliament building, Reichstag, burned by the Nazis in 1933 and in 1999, the architect Norman Foster has built a glass dome on which you can climb down and see parliamentarians at work. But must book well in advance, but unfortunately, although we had sent the request almost a month before, we were unable to enter because it is too crowded.
We decide to move underground towards what was West Berlin and more precisely in the main shopping street, the Kurfürstendamm. The symbol of West Berlin, the Memorial Church, with its bell tower mutilated during the ferocious bombardments of World War II, almost eludes us because under renovation and covered by a structure which looks like a skyscraper among others. A series of shops and stores grades, such as the famous KA DE WE, and even a traveling exhibition, along the sidewalks, no less than 142 Buddy Bears, bears many colorful people holding hands, each rappresentatne a state of the world, symbol of peace and fraternity.
From here we take a bus and go back to the east, in the district of Kreuzberg, once a Turkish immigrant ghetto, now multi-ethnic place where they live, and also many young families because of lower rents. Many local characteristic, the turkish market and the area of ??36 S0 VIERTEL, the heart of the popular neighborhood where confrontations with the police are quite frequent.
Return to hotel and dinner at Nikolai, in a parlor of 1271, Zur Gerichtslaube.

27.08.2011 In the morning we visit the Museum Island, an exceptional complex of museums, five, considered World Heritage. We decide to visit the Pergamon, which are reconstructed, both with original pieces that do not, the altar of the temple of the pulpit, the door of the market of Miletus and the temple of Ishtar of Babylon.
The view is amazing, the reconstruction of the buildings makes the idea of ??their grandeur and original pieces, capitals, statues and bas-reliefs, assume a greater value as they are placed in their reality, even if rebuilt, and not simply exposed side by side. From ancient to modern, after the Pergamon Museum will leave the island on our way in an old train station converted into a Museum of Modern Art, Hamburger Bahnhof. At the entrance to the ground floor, the original type of transparent Plexiglas installations, works on the first floor of K. Harings, Andy Warhol (the famous portrait of Mao) and Beuys. Not far from here is the new railway station, with trains, underground and not traveling on levels 4-5 in a glass and steel that looks more like a work of modern art to a simple station.
Then we reach the Olympic Stadium, a little 'on the outskirts, in the Grunewald, built for the 1936 Olympic Games, you can take a guided tour or visit freely as we did. Exit no surprise we get a torrential rain and soaked to the subway station.
We return to Alexanderplatz and have dinner at Markt Hackesher.

28.08.2011 Last day in Berlin, Sunday, we go to the Mauer Park flea market, where there are other remains of the wall. The market is very interesting, you can really find everything, of every kind and taste and even the characters who frequent it are interesting, it's nice to browse through the stalls and stop for a snack or a drink in one of the many food stands. We return then to the Alexanderplatz TV Tower and climb to enjoy the view from above. In the afternoon we return in the district of Kreuzberg for a walk along the canal Landwherkanal and to see some of the many graffiti Wrangelstrasse. An old hospital in the nineteenth century, the Kunstlehaus, has become a cultural center for local artists.
For dinner, we go in Mitte, not far from our hotel and Alexanderplatz square, the area is completely restored, with beautiful and trendy residential buildings, as well as restaurants and bars frequented by young people of the city.
We have dinner in a local restaurant with a menu of hot dogs with sauerkraut and shin, and beer will, Marcus Berliner Brau.
Tomorrow we leave Berlin, very happy, quite happy to have visited the city, trying to discover different aspects but also make sure that maybe a whole month is not enough to be able to really know. Surely we will return, perhaps to visit other museums or explore other areas that in the meantime will be developed and modified. The city is moving in a few years will certainly be different again.