The Reichstag. We will be climbing the ramps inside the glass dome on Sunday. We have a dinner reservation in the restaurant at the top of the dome.
A bell tower in the Tiergarten about 100 yards from the Tipi.
The U6 metro station close to our flat in Berlin.
Our guide (A member of the Berlin Unterweltin) at the flak tower.
A view of one of the towers, while standing on the other tower.
This is all that is visible from the street. The combination of mounds of rubble from the surrounding area, and vegetation growth have almost concealed the flak tower.Hello All!
Wir haben einen guten Tag heute! Heute ist meine geburtstag! We are having a good day today, and today is my birthday. Our first tour today was one of the "Flak Towers" that was built by the Third Reich. We had to climb many stairs to gain entrance to it, but not as bad as St Peters! Entrance is at the top of the tower now and they take you down. This tour is done by the Berlin Unterweltin Society and they control the tower and some Bunkers now, and have made it safe for people to take guided tours. We had to wear a hard-hat upon entering as it is classified as a "Ruin", and it is always possible that perhaps something like bits of concrete could fall upon you. The walls were 3.8 meters thick (around 12 ft), and the ceiling as well. The amount of rebar in the concrete is astounding! The building had originally 4 towers, the other 2 collapsed in a demolition attempt but they were unable to remove the last 2. This flak tower (Humboldthain) did not surrender to the Soviets until May 3, they were directly across a valley full of railroad tracks and the Germans shot the Soviets up from April 25th until the day after the surrender of Berlin and only when the commander killed himself! It was a great tour and perhaps we will go back and do some of the bunkers in Berlin.
Tonight we went and saw "Gayle Tufts Rocks". What a great show! Mark and I both enjoyed her, she is an ex-pat from America living in Berlin. It was at the "Tipi" in the Tiergarten. We had a nice dinner there before the show, and dessert during intermission. She asked how many Americans were in the audience, and there was only 2. She asked how long we had been there and where we were from, and I told her. Sprechen sie Deutsch? I answered "Ich sprechen bisschen Deutsch". She said my Deutsch was perfect and asked how much of her monologue I understood? I told her about 3 out of 5 words and she explained that all I needed to do was drink more and it would all come together! She couldn't believe that we had only been here a week! She sang mostly American and British rock in our native tongue, she has a great voice! If you are ever in Berlin go and see Gayle Tufts - she really does rock! I had been looking forward to this show for some time and she did not disappoint. We took a taxi home, many horns beeping and people yelling as Deutschland beat Portugal in fussball tonight.
Wir haben einen guten Tag heute! Heute ist meine geburtstag! We are having a good day today, and today is my birthday. Our first tour today was one of the "Flak Towers" that was built by the Third Reich. We had to climb many stairs to gain entrance to it, but not as bad as St Peters! Entrance is at the top of the tower now and they take you down. This tour is done by the Berlin Unterweltin Society and they control the tower and some Bunkers now, and have made it safe for people to take guided tours. We had to wear a hard-hat upon entering as it is classified as a "Ruin", and it is always possible that perhaps something like bits of concrete could fall upon you. The walls were 3.8 meters thick (around 12 ft), and the ceiling as well. The amount of rebar in the concrete is astounding! The building had originally 4 towers, the other 2 collapsed in a demolition attempt but they were unable to remove the last 2. This flak tower (Humboldthain) did not surrender to the Soviets until May 3, they were directly across a valley full of railroad tracks and the Germans shot the Soviets up from April 25th until the day after the surrender of Berlin and only when the commander killed himself! It was a great tour and perhaps we will go back and do some of the bunkers in Berlin.
Tonight we went and saw "Gayle Tufts Rocks". What a great show! Mark and I both enjoyed her, she is an ex-pat from America living in Berlin. It was at the "Tipi" in the Tiergarten. We had a nice dinner there before the show, and dessert during intermission. She asked how many Americans were in the audience, and there was only 2. She asked how long we had been there and where we were from, and I told her. Sprechen sie Deutsch? I answered "Ich sprechen bisschen Deutsch". She said my Deutsch was perfect and asked how much of her monologue I understood? I told her about 3 out of 5 words and she explained that all I needed to do was drink more and it would all come together! She couldn't believe that we had only been here a week! She sang mostly American and British rock in our native tongue, she has a great voice! If you are ever in Berlin go and see Gayle Tufts - she really does rock! I had been looking forward to this show for some time and she did not disappoint. We took a taxi home, many horns beeping and people yelling as Deutschland beat Portugal in fussball tonight.
It was interesting how much of the show had in some way to do with America. Although she is an ex-pat, the audience was all German nationals with the exception of a few people. She had some interesting monologue on America: Barack asking her for money in emails, the airport police going through all her stuff as if she was "Gayle Bin Laden" and the American obsession with botox, plastic surgery, and TV. In addition, all this grain bread is highly overrated and the Deutsch don't eat it!
I also found it interesting how Germans are so aware of their country's history. Gayle sang a song about the country's history of persecution of individuals and groups, and it was a touching song. Additionally, there are many "documentation centers" here in Germany that fully document, (with text, photographs and video) the history of the Third Reich and WWII. We have visited documentation centers in Nurnberg, Berchtesgaden (Obersalzberg), and also the Topography of Terror here in Berlin. German students even study it in school. We even saw what was obviously teachers with students on a field trip when we were at the documentation center in Nurnberg. History is everywhere here, and everyone is fully aware of it.
Well, es ist spat, gutta nacht!
Pat and Mark
1 comment:
Hi,
Glad you liked the show..I know you were looking forward to it.
It is interesting to know that they are keeping the history alive for each generation to learn from.
Pat, it sounds like you really did great with your German..
Gina
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