April 1st
An early wake up for me today as Marc and I were getting ready to go for our 8:15am tour of the Reichstag building which is where politics in Berlin occur. Running for our train it turned out that Marc fibbed a little to me on the time but at least we got there. Boarding the train around 7:30am on a Sunday morning was like entering a ghost town. There were about three people in our train car and remained less than 20 by the time we arrived to the Brandenburg Gate Station.
At the Brandenburg Gate, people were setting up fences for the half marathon that was going to occur in Berlin later that day. I guess the half marathon runs past Marc’s condo complex too, but I didn’t get to see it. Despite it being in the 8 o’clock hour on a Sunday morning, the line to go into the Reichstag was present and kind of bigger than was expected. After passports were checked and got the ‘ok’ through the security checkpoint, we joined the group of UK college (high school) students and tourists alike. To get to the glass dome of the Reichstag, Marc and I entered one of the largest elevators that I have ever been in. I swear they fitted in at least 30 people! Coming in last I managed to be next to the glass doors, which was great as I got a great view of our ascent. Out of the elevator, Marc and I picked up our ‘tour guide’ headsets from the front desk and headed outside.
It couldn’t have been better weather as it was sunny blue skies without a cloud insight! The dome was beautiful and impressive, well worth waking up early for! From the glass Dome, I could see practically everything that I had visited before with Marc, and more! The guided tour by the headset was quite good as it was triggered to start at various locations but was also concise so you weren’t at the same location for a long time. Despite the brief description from our automated tour, I encouraged Marc for us to take our time in the Dome while I went snapping hundreds of photos with my camera.
I learned that the Holocaust memorial that I went to earlier was actually called ‘Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe’ designed by Peter Eisenman. I also learned that the ‘Charité’ hospital was built in the 1700s in response to a Bubonic Plague outbreak in Berlin; and many important cures for other diseases have been discovered there. The tour was fascinating and if I could get a chance to visit Berlin again, I would definitely go to the Reichstag in a heartbeat!
We too the subway back to Checkpoint Charlie to get our passports stamped by the jokester in a military uniform that I think claimed to be named, Tim. So now I have a stamp with the date that I was at Checkpoint Charlie… though I do wonder if it is such a good thing to have a stamp like that in a legal/official document… hmm…. Either way it will be nice to have it for later.
Around 3pm we headed over to the condo and prepared for the arrival of Marc’s friends. Waiting, I joined Marc in watching reruns of Baywatch in German until his friends arrived a little after four o’clock.
The girls hung out at the kitchen table as the guys were in the kitchen cooking. Thankfully the girls spoke with me 95% of the time in English and they were really nice. Around 5:30/6pm the food came out to the table. The girls complained that it was spicy, but when I tasted it I barely could detect its spiciness. So much to the other two girls astonishment I added a teaspoon or so of what the girls claimed to be really hot chili sauce and it made all the difference in the world; transforming the meal to a whole new level of deliciousness. Everyone left around 8pm after cleaning up and putting the table back together in its compact form. It was good that it was an early night because I have to get up around 4:40am for my flight back to London.
On a side note: I love German radio! They play some songs that I love that I never get to hear on a radio station, like Ben Howard and Lily Allen, and on the same station play classics like ‘Eye of the Tiger’. If I could pick one song for me to remember this past week it would be ‘My Heart Skips a Beat’ by Olly Murs; just because I never really heard of it before and it is played here all of the time.
Germany, it has been swell. Very good to see you again but once more I must say auf wiedersehen!
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