Gateway to Berlin

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany

Brandenburg Gate was built by the Prussian King Frederick William II between 1788-1791.  I am always amazed at how such huge structures were built so long ago and yet still stand majestically for us to admire.  There is quite a bit of history that goes with the Brandenburg Gate.  It was built as a protected point of entry to Berlin.  On the top is a statue called "Quadriga" which is the goddess of victory, driving a chariot being pulled by four horses.  When Napoleon Bonapart conquered the city he shipped  "Quadriga" to Paris.  Later, when the Prussians defeated Napoleon, they returned the statue to the top of Brandenburg Gate, and as a symbol of their military victory over France, an iron cross was added to the statue.

Quadriga Statue

The Brandenburg Gate was severely damaged during World War II.  Here is  picture of what it looked like shortly after the war.  This is why I am amazed at how it was able to stand after so many building and structures in Berlin were destroyed during the war.  I found this picture on line but could not find the source.

Not far from the Brandenburg Gate is the Reichstag Building.  It was built from 1892 to 1894 to house the Parliament.  "The building caught fire on 27 February 1933 in what was reported to be an arson attack by a Dutch communist, although many believe that it was orchestrated by the Nazis as a ‘false flag operation’, to enable Adolf Hitler to step up his state security operations and crack down on civil liberties." (Taken from the Interesting Facts about the Reichstag Building.)"

Reichstag Building (Parliament Building)

Close to the Reichstag is a memorial for 96 members of the Reichstag (Parliament) who died at the hands of the Nazis.  I found this to be so powerful that I took numerous pictures of it.  I will spare you with just three.  It is made of 96 cast iron plates.  Each plate has the name of one person, birth year and year of death.  It also has place of death, most of them being concentration camps. The memorial is designed so that more plates can be added if any other names are discovered. It scares me that this could happen to our government, but Ray insists that the makeup of our government is different and prevents a nationalist type take over.  He is the history expert, and it makes me feel a bit better, but there is still a darkness has seeped within me.  

This man died in the Sonnenburg concentration camp in 1944.

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When we were visiting Berlin it was the week that Senator John McCain had died.  We felt a great sense of pride as we passed the United States Embassy and noticed that the flag was flying at half mast.

U.S. Embassy is flying the flag at half mast in honor of Senator John McCain.

One more picture before I stop!  This is the Hotel Adlon.  It was not destroyed like so much was in the Berlin Battle. In 1945 it was destroyed by a fire that was started in the wine cellar by a bunch of Red Army soldiers.  Later it was reconstructed to look like the original building.  This hotel has been in a lot of movies and mentioned in a lot of books.  Many stars of the 1930s would stay there.  In modern times most people will recognize it as the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his infant son off the balcony.  Dr. Who fans might recognize it when the TARDIS landed in the hotel dining room in the episode, "Let's Kill Hitler."

Hotel Adlon

There is so much history in Berlin, and like so many places, we could have stayed there for days to  see all of the historical and cultural sights.  We visited a few other places there, but for now, I will end this post because I still have a lot of places to write about.

Berlin

Berlin Cathedral

After a relaxing day at sea, we docked in Rostock, Germany where we took a train to Berlin.   I had been looking forward to visiting Berlin to see Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall.  The trek to the train was a lot longer than anticipated, especially for Linda and me who still had pain issues in our legs.  Fortunately, the two and a half train ride was smooth and the seats were comfortable.



Checkpoint Charlie was quite the tourist stop.  It was so different from pictures I had seen in old movies or documentaries.  You can see a McDonald's and a KFC in the pictures I took.

This is from the Allied side (West) of Checkpoint Charlie.  This was one of three crossing points from East and West Berlin.

But even though it was touristy, the feeling of what went on here from 1961-1989.  Many people lost their lives trying to escape.  The huge picture of the American soldier Sargent Jeff Harper, was one of the last to guard the checkpoint.  Looking at his picture, I found that the tourist shops and fast food places faded into a mist as I imagined what it would have been like to have been on the other side of the wall.  When I stepped to the eastern side of the wall I could feel a whole different energy.  There was a sadness and despair. And then, I jolted back to reality by someone bumping into me as they were taking a picture.

This is the back of the Checkpoint Charlie building.   The original building is in a nearby museum.

I doubt anyone could misinterpret this sign.  Only diplomats and those approved of crossing into East Berlin were allowed past this sign.

That feeling happened a number of times.  To be standing in the exact location where such major history occurred overwhelmed me. I welcomed the loud tourists, and some of the tacky tourist shops.  I welcomed the laughing and watching others who seemed unaware of the history of this place.  All of this showed me how resilient we humans are.  We can still remember the history, we can still learn from it; but we can also live our dreams, and hope to make the world a better place.

Here are some other pictures I took near Checkpoint Charlie.

It is difficult to read the banner.  It says, "By defending the liberty and unity of Ukraine we defend the liberty and unity of the countries of Europe.  Vladimir Putin: Abandon your geopolitical ambitions and set the whole of Ukraine free."

Sargent Jeff Harper, one of the last guards at Checkpoint Charlie.

 The length of the Berlin Wall was 96.3 miles and the height is 11.8 inches.  It was made of barbed wire and concrete.  It was built to keep the East Berlin people from going into West Berlin.  West Berlin became an island city in the middle of East Germany.  The city depended on people in the Western World to send supplies.

There are a few places where the Berlin Wall still stands.  They have had to enclose the wall because so many people were chipping away to take a piece of it as a souvenir.

This is a marker showing path of the Berlin Wall.

Ray was kind enough to let me take his picture straddling the Berlin Wall.

These bricks show the path of the Berlin Wall throughout the city,

This is an enclosed part of the Berlin Wall.

Parts of the Berlin Wall that show graffiti.


On our trip back to the ship we passed this building.  The message seems to be right in step with the Berlin Wall.  A wall is used to keep people out, but also traps people within the barriers.  When the Berlin Wall was torn down, there was a lot of adjustment, but this symbol of repression was like a catalyst in working together to make a strong Germany.  I hope we an learn from this history.  The sign on the building speaks for me.  Walls can only suppress people for a certain length of time. Immigrants need to be welcomed into our country, but it needs to be done in a lawful manner.

There was so much to see in Berlin, I will write another post.  It will focus on the Brandenberg Gate, and yes, there is a lot of history I will try to squeeze in.

Akershus Fortress, Oslo, Norway

Akershus Fortree from the Deck of the Cruse Ship

 Our departure from Oslo was going to be late, which gave Ray and me some time to explore Akerhaus Fortress.  We could easily walk there because our ship docked right beside the fortress.  There is no entry fee to visit the fortress, but we did pay about five dollars to visit the Resistance Museum which was one of the buildings inside the fortress.  The museum closed at 4:00, which gave us time to see most of the exhibits, but we could have spent a lot more time there.  There were other buildings in the fortress that we will have to visit our next time we are in Oslo.

The Akerhaus Fortress has a 700 year old history.  It was built as protection from a Swedish earl who attacked it in 1363.  The attack was unsuccessful, and Akerhaus Fortress became a stronghold in Oslo.  I lost count on how many times the castle has been besieged, but in those many times, it was never conquered by a foreign country.  It did did surrender without combat to Nazi Germany and was under Nazi control from 1940-1945.  The Germans used it as a military headquarters, prison and and also a place of execution.  There were many who resisted and at the end of the war, a memorial was built to honor them and later this amazing Norwegian Resistance Museum was built.  I am glad we chose this museum to visit.  It was sad, in many parts, but that sadness made me realize the importance of resistance, and how difficult it can be.

This is the memorial for those in the resistance.

I am going to show you a picture of the part of Akerhaus that we saw.  The one with the toilet paper was the most difficult for me to grasp.  The human spirit in such dire times and such horrible conditions was a large part of the success the end of the war.

This is the toilet paper that was the diary of Petter Moen.  He would prick letters in the toilet and stuff the sheets of toilet paper in a ventilating shaft.  I found this heart wrenching as I pictured the difficulty he must have had punching holes to form letters, to form words.  He did not know if this diary would ever be found, and yet he documented what life was like as a prisoner of the Gestapo.  He never lived to know that his story is now part of our history.

Toilet Paper Diary

               Here is a closer view of the toilet paper.  The letters and words are easier to see.

These are rifles with bayonets that the Nazi's used while occupying Norway.   There is a letter stuck onto one bayonet that we think the resisters put there as protest for what the letter says.  There was a sign that said the rifles were put together in the shape of a swastika, but neither one of us could see the shape.

                                            Here is the note.  I translated it the best I could.

Translation:  (I did translate a lot of this on my own, but I do thank, Google Translate to make my words make sense.)

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Recording

The Reich's government asks the Royal Norwegian government to immediately take the following measures.

     1.)  Call on the government to the people and the Wehrmacht to refrain from any resistance against the German troops in the occupation of the country.

     2.)  Order to the Norwegian Wehrmacht to (?? This is where the bayonet goes through the letter.)  with the incoming troops and to make the necessary arrangements for loyal cooperation to German commanders.  The Norwegian troops are left in possession of their weapons as far as their behavior allows.

           As a sign of the willingness to cooperate, the white flags of the parliament are to be shown next to the national flag on the military installations to approaching German troops.

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We did not have time to visit the former living quarters of one of the Royal family (Princess Margaret of Denmark lived there in 1363 when she married Haakon the Sixth.).  There was also a church that we did not get to visit.  This is why I hope we make it back to Oslo.  There was so much in this one fortress that we would like to see.

This is one of the gates in the fortress.

This walk through a small tunnel took us to another part of the fortress.

This is a small tower and a cannon.

I don't know if these are the original cannons, but they looked cool and had pock marks on them from what I think are battle scars.

Damage from bullets or shrapnel.

This is damage from bullets or shrapnel.

His Majesty the King's Guard is responsible for guarding the fortress.

It was night time when our ship sailed to our next destination.  Akershus Fortress was a beautiful sight.  It seemed to glow in the night.

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Hoppin' Oslo

The first port on our Baltic cruise was Oslo, Norway.  I had visited Oslo one other time when I was a teenager and the Chapel Choir from Monroe Street United Methodist Church toured Scandinavia. What I remember most about that Oslo trip is that I got lost.  I had left my guitar in the hotel, went back to get it for rehearsal at the church where we were performing that evening.  I won't go into the whole story about how I got lost and what happened, but I finally found my way to the church.  Actually, I think (at a later time) that might make a good blog entry.

This trip was a busy one.  We (Linda, Ray and I) hopped on a "Hop On Hop Off" bus to take us to some of the key places.  We should have taken the advice of some of the reviews about doing this.  The loop was a long one and we got a later start than we intended.  We were given ear buds to use with a recording of all of the places we passed, or where we stopped.  The recording was off a couple of stops, so when we wanted to get off stop 7 to see "The Scream" we realized that it was really stop 5.  We would have no time to go through the loop and then get back in time.  So, we just stayed on the bus and listened to the recording telling us about places we had already passed.

Edward Munch created four versions in paint and pastels of The Scream.  One is in the National Gallery and another is in the Munch Museum.  We we did not get to go to either.

The Scream by Edward Munch.

Another reason we did not get off the bus, was because the traffic patterns were changed a bit because it was also the 50th Wedding Anniversary of the King and Queen.  They were celebrating and some of the roads were closed.  We did not get to see them either, but here is a picture.

King Harald and Queen Sonja

We got to see a lot of the city from the bus and this is a great mode of transportation while visiting cities that have such buses.  It was our fault that we did not start earlier and that we did not have a good plan for the day.  I do not fault the Hop On, Hop Off bus for that.  I do wish that their recording numbers matched the stops.  Here are a few places we did see.

University Aula

Norwegian Capital, Parliament 

Since this was our first port, we did not have our timing down yet.  We probably could have taken the bus for another loop, but we worried about being left in Oslo,when the ship left.  It wasn't until we got back, that we realized that the ship was leaving late, like 11:00 at night.  Oh well, Linda was having major pain from the sciatica (and the bus was bouncy which aggravated the sciatica) and my leg was still bothering me, so walking around and standing in lines at museums, would have slowed any healing we had hoped to have and been quite painful.

                                                     Here are a couple more pictures.

Grand Hotel

And, of course,  A McDonald's 

When we boarded the ship, Ray and I explored the decks.  We had been on this same ship on a different cruise.  While standing on the ship's deck, I was fascinated by this fortress that was right next to our ship.  We could see inside, from our view and noticed that it was opened for people to tour.  Ray and I disembarked the ship again, crossed the street and took the steps into the fortress.  The next blog post will be about this amazing fortress.