EuroTrip - Day 45

The Wall - Part 1

So it was Berlin and not Praha that would give us more of World War and the Jewish history. Our journey to Leipzig was rather comfortable and that ensured that we were much better prepared for the long day ahead.

Josen and Rajdeesh were our hosts at Leipzig. God! What a grand mansion they have got as their hostel. Their room is as big as our entire house and it also has a very good view outside. One odd thing - the toilet does not have a door and a curtain does the honor of keeping one's honor saved. "We work on trust basis," said Rajdeesh about his experience in living in such a setup. Interesting it is!

Anyways, it was not difficult to extend the trust and take a nice refreshing bath (you will hardly find a mention of such a thing called 'bath' in our EuroTrip. It's a rare event that takes place depending on the availability of washroom facilities). Rajdeesh - the cook, treated us with a breakfast that we will not remember for years to come. Garma garam Aloo Gobhi with Bread. The taste - authentic punjabi. Rajdeesh is an expert cook, I must say. We heard that he has already impressed quite a number of people (you know what I mean) with his cooking.

When the day starts on such a high note, the rest of the day is bound to be pleasant. With this hope we boarded the ICE train for Berlin. We had plans to do the Free Walking Tour offered by New Berlin Tours (a branch of New Europe Tours) and then spend the remaining day just roaming around in the city.

Berlin HBF (main) is one of the most modern railway stations I have seen so far. With at least three above the ground levels to host platform, its design is very futuristic. Situated close to the Reichstaggebaude (Parliament Building), this is a good visit to get a glimpse of German prowess in engineering and architecture.

The Free Walking Tour starts from outside Starbucks on Pariser Platz and lasts around 4 hours. A young history and travel enthusiast takes you around the most significant monuments telling you stories related to their past.
Our man Jack had come to Berlin to be a musician but ended up doing this guide-giri. He started the tour with the history of Brandenburg Tor (Gate), showed us the American Embassy, DZ Bank and the world famous Hotel Adlon. A quick recap of German history and we were ready to see the most significant monument in Berlin - the Memorial to the Murdered European Jews (it used to be called Holocaust Memorial till recently). This memorial is dedicated to those 6 million jews that lost their lives in war era. It's meant a reminder to the mass (every common man that comes here)and the class (the businessmen who have offices across the road in those plush business districts, the politician who are on their way to the parliament and other dignitaries in the various embassies) of the things from the past that should never be repeated. There is an information center below the memorial that talks about the events and life for Jews in those tough years. It's a graphic presentation of the Jewish persecutions during the first half of this century. We would come back to this place to listen to its heart wrenching stories once our walking tour is over.

A quick walk around the place where once stood the bunker of none other than the man himself - Adolf Hitler (now there is a car parking at this place where once stood the most secure underground bunker, where he spent last few days of his life before committing suicide by shooting himself) and we were ready to see the Ministry of Ministries. This building hosted most of the important administrative functionaries pre and post the war time. Today it hosts the dreaded tax office.

Berlin wall is the high point of this walking tour. What you see as the remains of the historical wall does not tell you anything about the role it had played in life of millions of Germans. Today, it is just a thin wall, reminding everyone of the dreaded past. Most part of the wall were broken down in the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall. The remaining ones are protected, today, by iron meshes as the locals had started selling chipped out parts of the wall to tourists as a souvenir.

Walking along the wall (or actually the remains of it) we reached another milestone - Checkpoint Charlie. This was the third strategic link between East and West Berlin during the wall years. There is really informative photo exhibition placed along the pavements leading to this square. That should give a good glimpse of the years before and after the wall.

The walk continued through the more historic buildings - the Bebelplatz (book burning memorial), university, French as well as German cathedrals, Opera house, German history museum etc and ended up in front of Pergamon Museum on the Museum Island. As promised I won't bore you with this part of the history.

In the end, Jack told us an interesting story about the events of the day when the Wall actually fell. A really nice end to a superb tour. As usual, one was free to tip the guide as per his wish. We did the same and took leave from Jack. We might join some other gang of Free Walking Tour in some other city soon.

A long walk along the Unter den Linden showed us a fashionable avenue of the old Berlin. On the way we passed through the Car Mall which has showroom by Volkswagen and other biggies. I am not a big car freak but I must say that Buggati is a real beauty.

We had enough time for one more stop before taking our return train to Leipzig. The Memorial for the Murdered European Jews was the natural choice. Alas it was about to close and we just could see the first two rooms only. We plan to visit it once again tomorrow and get the best of it with the help of the audio-guide.

The journey back to Leipzig was a rather short one as all of us were just thinking about the Indian food that Josen and Rajdeesh had promised us for the night. We found the Punjabi Pizza place after a little effort (my sincere thanks to the guy who volunteered to guide us. He came from nowhere and asked 'Do you need some help?' while we were lost at one square). It took very little time in placing the order - paneer matar, malai kofta, punjabi chole and dal makhani. Not to forget the roties. It was going to be one hell of a dinner. Everybody jumped at the food as soon as it arrived and ate as if there was no tomorrow (Of course tomorrow we had to go back to same old bread-jam-subway diet). The food was yummi. And most importantly it was Indian food. We have been rather lucky with food on this trip. This was the third time we had Indian food. And to our good luck, it was really yummi every time.

A long trip-planning session followed the dinner. We aim to visit Italy tomorrow night so a little bit of research and booking efforts were required. A good planning meant that we could sleep well. A long day filled with world war history was waiting for us tomorrow in Berlin.