Here you can see one of the many stone slabs with relief depicting battle scenes and such. Each had a quote from Stalin on them - in German on this side and in Russian on the slabs on the other side of the memorial. My mom's translation of this inscription is: YOU HAVE BEEN CHARGED WITH A GREAT MISSION OF LIBERATION. MAY YOU BE INSPIRED BY THE HEROIC MODEL OF YOUR GREAT ANCESTORS ALEXANDER NEVSKY... (and all the others named) MAY THE TRIUMPHANT BANNER OF THE GREAT LENIN BESTOW STRENGTH UPON YOU.
I got by bags and checked into Pension Knesebeck, which is just off Savignyplatz. Here, from Savignyplatz you can see a striking contrast characteristic of Berlin: a modern building with a sail-like top next to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche (a church built in 1852, partially destroyed in WWII):
I spent the day exploring Berlin a bit, while trying to wait to do things my mom would be interested in. I ended up going to the new Jewish museum, which was very interesting, particularly for its architecture, and the way it uses that to convey messages about Judaism.
Just east of where the Berlin wall used to be, there are a lot of cool new buildings, such as this one, which gets its color from the window blinds in the office windows. Below and behind it you can see the yellow cylinder of another part of the building.
I napped for a bit, then went out to a gay bar in the western part of the city, afraid to venture too far to go to the clubs that had been recommended, since I didn't know the city or the language, and since I hadn't yet figured out the night bus system in this huge city.
The walk up the sprial walkway inside the glass dome gave us an excellent overview of Berlin. The dome also funtions as a solar power generator, and contains an excellent photo-history of the building and German democracy. I was most struck by the statements that "the sham parliament of the 3rd Reich never met in this building" and that the lettering "Dem Deutschen Volke" (for the German people) was installed by a Jewish-owned firm, whose families were later killed in the Holocaust. The exhibit in front of the building was on the theme of "coexistance" with various artists addressing the challenges of different peoples getting along. Below you can see a sign marking the future site of the German Holocaust Museum:
After exploring without eating, we felt the need to have dinner, so we took a bicycle taxi to an old style German restaurant on Marx-Engels-Forum. Here's the driver with Mom:
Here is Berlin's city hall taken from Marx-Engels-Forum. On the bottom right you can see the following flags from right to left: Berlin, Germany, Europe, and the Rainbow (gay) flag. I assume the latter was special for gay pride week (which they call "Christopher Street Day"):
We headed back to our room and went to bed.
For dinner we got some simple Middle Eastern food to go and went to Savignyplatz to check out the live music we heard would be there as part of Fete de la Musique - a free music festival for the summer solstice. The band was playing in the outdoor section of a bar, not in the park as I'd expected, so it was a bit of a let- down, but not a bad evening.
That night I went out to a dance club on Marlene Dietrich Platz, in a modern building whose interior was built to look like an old church. On the way there I saw the Sony Center in Potsdammer Platz, which I thought was very cool, with its glass-covered courtyard supported in a circus-tent-like structure. The club was fun, and I met a Polish guy who I enjoyed hanging out with.
This afternoon Turkey won a big World Cup game, suprising everyone and making it to the final 4. My mom and I pay no attention to soccer, but we knew this because Berlin's huge Turkish population erupted in celebration, waving Turkish flags from their cars as they drove all around honking. Here you can see a car full of celebrants stopped at a light, at which point a couple guys jumped out and started dancing in the street. The red cloths you see draped over shoulders and such are Turkish flags. The celebrations were so big we thought Turkey must have won the whole World Cup.
Dinner was at Schwarze's Cafe, which is a cool, funky cafe my friend Brian Sobolak recommended. That night I went out to the gay clubs, which were still lively with tired people after the parade. I met an Italian guy who's living in Berlin and his German friend, who were very friendly and helpful with suggestions of things to do.
Here's a close-up of the synagogue:
After that we walked to a squatter's area that has become an art park, also recommended by Brian. I found the contrast of "Capitalism is Boring" in front of "Sharp" sign interesting:
I also liked the way this mural incorporated the variation in texture with raw vs. covered brick (notice the outline of the big face):
Here's Mom with the edge of above mural and behind her the park and half-destroyed-rebuilt buildings which had some paintings on them too:
After our döner kebab meal in that park, we went to the Volksbuehne (People's Theater) for a performance the guys I'd met the night before recommended, saying the director does a lot of stuff with blood and nudity. Brian also had recommended this group for their kinetic performances. It was a dance performance called "Goya", and was a very dark piece relating to Catholocism, Spanish culture, oppression, etc. I was most struck by the part where a woman wore a wide-brimmed hat with burning candles in the brim, and she tilted her head so the wax dripped onto the naked chest of the man lying at her feet, as he writhed in pain and oppression. We were both pretty disturbed by the performance, but it was certainly interesting.
Both the curved glass at eye level and the silvery structure in back enclose meeting rooms.
Behind that was a circle of bears (Berlin's symbol) painted by artists from all of the world's countries, each bear representing its country in some way. In the background you can see all the construction that's still going on in the area around Potsdammer Platz where the wall used to be. The circus-tent-like structure is the Sony Center's glass courtyard roof, which I thought was among the coolest architecture in Berlin (but unfortunately I didn't have my camera when I got closer)
We walked under the Brandenberg Gate, but unfortunately it was covered for renovations. Its cover was a huge ad for a mobile phone company or such - I guess commericialization is becoming bigger in Europe too. From there we took one last look at the Reichstag and got on the city bus #100, sitting upstairs for the great view as we went through the beautiful Tiergarten and right by the Victory Column and other sites on the way to Zoo Station, which wasn't far from our Pension.
Here's the large Catholic church:
The opera house was beautiful, but unfortunately closed that day:
Here's Mom in front of another part of the Zwinger palace, as seen from the courtyard:
And here on the balcony:
That evening I explored a bit on my own, but was struck with how quiet this town is, especially at night. It seems that a lot of the young people have moved to western Germany for jobs and such.
We took a train that afternoon to Mainz. This was the day of the World Cup final game, Germany vs. Brazil, so all our plans had to be contingent upon there not being crowds and disorder on the street. I was particularly anxous about getting through the train station with all our luggage right after the game was scheduled to end, because projection TVs were set up in the train station with crowds of young rowdy fans watching the game. But since Germany lost, the crowds were mellow and easy to deal with, albeit unhappy.
We had no problem on our train to Frankfurt. It was actually the best train of my trip - a beautiful modern train with glass doors that open automatically as you approach, and a digital readout at the end of each car with travel info including exact speed, which got as high as 200 km/h! It was also the quietest, smoothest ride you could imagine. Getting from Frankfurt to Mainz ended up being a challenge because we were slightly late, so missed our scheduled train, and we had to wait a long time for the next train because it was Sunday. In the process of sorting this out we met some very friendly locals who were having the same problem, so at least we had some interesting conversation while waiting.
We got to Mainz at last and Richard came to pick us up quickly, and Alice made us an excellent, simple, do- it-yourself meal of potatoes, cheese, ham, onions, etc. that we each cooked to our taste at the table. Here's a photo of Richard, Alice and Hansjoerg Hattemer:
(Richard is one of my aunt Lexi's brothers, and Alice and Hansjoerg are their parents)
And here's the town of Assmannshausen, with an amusing name and beautiful scenery:
Bacharach was particularly striking for its church ruins through which you can see the vineyards behind:
Here's a castle and old toll tower:
We stopped for lunch in Oberwiesel, which has a beautiful church:
We ate at a very plain-looking restaurant, but the food was excellent - my peeled, boiled potatoes were amazingly flavorful, and the cold herring salad was really tasty! (Much better than it looked). My mom's meal (pork?) was excellent too.
Back on the boat returning to Mainz, here's a big church and a little church on the hill behind it on the left:
Mom in front of a castle:
We thoroughly enjoyed the day, and had the pleasure of another good meal at the Hattemer home afterwards.
The three of us had lunch with Richard in a restaurant near his office, and explored town a bit more, buying some souvenirs and such. Then dinner was once again at home.