At any rate, we walked through the Brandenburg gate, looked at the Reichstag building (the main German government building that may sound familiar from WWII history), went to Checkpoint Charlie (historically significant but modernly unimpressive), and finally to Alexander Platz which is where the big needly tower is. On Friday we visited the government press and information office (which was actually quite interesting but I won't bore you with the details), and the Stasi museum. The Stasi was the government secret police in East Germany before the wall came down in 1989. They went to astoundingly great lengths to observe and control the lives of ordinary citizens in an attempt to preserve and promote the Communist political party. If ever there was a real life "Big Brother" scenario, this was it. So that was very interesting to learn about. Saturday we had to ourselves and I explored the city a bit more with my friend Andrew and then on Sunday we returned to Marburg.
Wow, I only have four more weeks here and then its off back home! Here are some pictures from Berlin:
The Brandenburg Gate
Craig, Carl and Ben
The holocaust memorial
I believe every stone represents one thousand people who perished.
The Reichstag
Me in front of the Berliner Dom (cathedral)
The Dom and the TV tower
The TV tower
These little guys are on the crosswalk signals on the East German side of Berlin. Its kind of a phenomenon.
Again, the Reichstag
Cool statue
Me and Andrew
no further comments
Andrew and I went to the Egyptian Museum on Saturday and this is a bust of Nephretete. I found it amazing how similar her features were to what seems to be the modern day conception of beauty (not exactly evident in the photo), and yet the sculpture is thousands of years old!
Mummy capsules
Me and Andrew on the lawn in front of the Berliner Dom. Lots of people, young and old, seem to really enjoy hanging out in parks over here. I like it.
The Heart of Gold hostel, where we stayed.
4 comments:
Thanks for putting up pictures!
Did you go inside of the Berliner Dom, or have you been inside any German cathedrals yet?
Hey Jared -
I was hoping you would post pics of your Berlin trip! Looks like you had a wonderful time :)
We celebrated Mya's b-day this past Sunday and we missed having you there! It just wasn't the same. Can't wait until you come home :)
See you soon -
Kim
I was going to ask the same thing as Sarah; did you get to go inside the cathedral? I continue to be impressed by the sculpted facades...The Egyptian museum looks really neat. Nefertiti is rather lovely despite the blurred photo. Don't you hate museum bans on flash photography?
Looking at your posts makes me all the more excited for my own trip! (I'm flying to Istanbul on Sunday.) I doubt we'll encounter snowed-in buses in Turkey, but hopefully the architecture will compare favorably. :)
Great pics, Jared. Thanks for the updates!
Post a Comment