From Prague, we went directly to Berlin for a 4-day Fulbright Seminar with over 300 current American grantees in Europe and next year's German grantees to the U. S. After checking in at the Park Inn Alexanderplatz, we were herded onto a bus for a guided tour of the city. Our tour guide talked non-stop about the political history in Berlin since WWII and the significance of the sights we passed on our way.
The different effects WWII had on East and West Berlin is still very apparent. In the West the city is dense and well-developed, while in the East there are still large open tracts of land. The photo above was taken in Potsdamer Platz and shows a remnant of the Berlin Wall in the middle of a large, new development - an interesting juxtaposition of the past and present of Berlin.
During the tour, we made short photo stops at the West End Gallery - a section of the Berlin Wall covered in murals by famous modern day artists - and the Brandenburg Gate, shown in the photo above. It was amazing to see places that played such prominent roles in very recent history - much more awe-inspiring than cathedrals and forts from centuries past...
One of our favorite places in Berlin was the Holocaust Memorial. The rectangle stones are deceivingly small on the outskirts of the memorial which covers the area of a city block. But once we walked in just a few yards, the stones were significantly taller plus the ground sloped downward. We almost lost each other when Meghan turned a corner without Rolf noticing! Some teenagers were sadly using the memorial for a loud game of Marco Polo - completely missing the point of the memorial as a
quiet place to contemplate a very
serious event in world history.
The rest of our stay was interspersed with conference events and a lot of sightseeing. Luckily, our hotel was located within walking distance of most of the major sights and museums in Berlin. The photo above shows a bridge leading into the Museum Island on the right. You could still see pockmarks from WWII gun fire in the stone columns and facades of the museums! Our hotel is the left of the 2 tall buildings visible in the distance beyond the bridge.
The photo above shows the view from our hotel window on the 27th floor. All of the Fulbright rooms faced
away from downtown, but we really enjoyed our view nonetheless. Much of the East Berlin that
has been rebuilt after WWII was with high modernist urban planning: long, narrow apartment buildings and large public spaces.
The different effects WWII had on East and West Berlin is still very apparent. In the West the city is dense and well-developed, while in the East there are still large open tracts of land. The photo above was taken in Potsdamer Platz and shows a remnant of the Berlin Wall in the middle of a large, new development - an interesting juxtaposition of the past and present of Berlin.
During the tour, we made short photo stops at the West End Gallery - a section of the Berlin Wall covered in murals by famous modern day artists - and the Brandenburg Gate, shown in the photo above. It was amazing to see places that played such prominent roles in very recent history - much more awe-inspiring than cathedrals and forts from centuries past...
One of our favorite places in Berlin was the Holocaust Memorial. The rectangle stones are deceivingly small on the outskirts of the memorial which covers the area of a city block. But once we walked in just a few yards, the stones were significantly taller plus the ground sloped downward. We almost lost each other when Meghan turned a corner without Rolf noticing! Some teenagers were sadly using the memorial for a loud game of Marco Polo - completely missing the point of the memorial as a quiet place to contemplate a very serious event in world history.
The rest of our stay was interspersed with conference events and a lot of sightseeing. Luckily, our hotel was located within walking distance of most of the major sights and museums in Berlin. The photo above shows a bridge leading into the Museum Island on the right. You could still see pockmarks from WWII gun fire in the stone columns and facades of the museums! Our hotel is the left of the 2 tall buildings visible in the distance beyond the bridge.
The photo above shows the view from our hotel window on the 27th floor. All of the Fulbright rooms faced away from downtown, but we really enjoyed our view nonetheless. Much of the East Berlin that has been rebuilt after WWII was with high modernist urban planning: long, narrow apartment buildings and large public spaces.
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