Berlin December 2015

On March 2, 2016 by rrutan55 With 0 Comments - travel

I left Newark Christmas day at 6:10 PM and arrived in Berlin at 7:45 AM the following morning. It was an overcast and drizzly day with the temperature in the low 50s and southwesterly winds gusting to 35 mph.If you’ve read any of my previous posts then you know what happened next. When I arrived at the layover hotel I changed clothes, put my camera gear in a backpack and headed downstairs to talk with the concierge. I told him this was my first time in Berlin and asked for recommendations on places and things to see. He recommended that I go to the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, checkpoint Charlie, and if I had time the Topography of Terror.

Here is my map; my walk is outlined in green: I left the hotel walking to the NE towards the Tiergarten; then through the Tiergarten to the Reichstag. From there I walked past the Brandenburger Gate heading towards Checkpoint Charlie and on to the “Topography of Terror”. The “Topography of Terror” sits on the former site of the Gestapo and SS headquarters. I spent about two and a half hours viewing the Topography of Terrors display and then walked back to the Potsdamer Platz and the Sony Center. From there I caught the #200 bus back to the hotel. Arrived back at the hotel around 3:30pm.

Walking through the Tiergarten to the Reichstag.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiergarten_(park)

Walking through the Tiergarten.

The Reichstag

There is a tremendous amount of history surrounding this building and I have attached a link to a Wikipedia article:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Reichstag
After leaving the Reichstag, I headed towards the Brandenburg Gate yet because it was the day after Christmas the entire area was blocked off; not sure why but I think it was a celebration. So I headed down to checkpoint Charlie.

Checkpoint Charlie

From there I went to the Topography of Terror.

According to the Topography of Terror brochure,

“…between 1933 and 1945, the central institutions of Nazi persecution and terror – the secret state police office with its own “house prison,” the leadership of the SS and, during the Second World War, the Reich security main office – were located on the present day grounds of the Topography of Terror that are next to the Martin Gropius building and close to Potsdamer Platz.”

Here is a Wikipedia article describing this museum:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topography_of_Terror

The remnants of the Berlin wall are adjacent to the museum.