Leaving Berlin

July 25, 2023August 4, 2023

We headed out relatively early in the morning, though still after sunrise. There were a variety of options to get to Brandenburg Airport. We decided to take the U-Bahn to the Hauptbahnhof where there were more frequent options rather than going to some other station that could potentially be faster but required better timing. It ended up taking a bit more than an hour to get to the airport. Ultimately, we had a good amount of extra time but not too much before boarding.

July 24, 2023August 4, 2023

Around the Tiergarten

We spent most of the day in and around the Tiergarten, a large park on the west side of Berlin’s city center. We started out at the Brandenburger Tor, checked out the exterior of the Reichstag, and walked through part of the park. We saw various monuments and memorials and ultimately ended up at the southwest corner of the park by the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

July 23, 2023August 1, 2023

Remnants of the Berlin Wall

Today, we mostly visited portions that remain of the Berlin Wall. While doing so, we also saw Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous crossing between East and West Berlin. And we spent some time at the Topography of Terror, a Dokumentationszentrum (Documentation Center) that covers the Nazis’ rise to power and the evils that they committed. There is also some special focus on this particular site as it is where the Gestapo headquarters was located.

July 22, 2023September 15, 2023

Unter den Linden

After taking the ICE to Berlin, we dropped off our bags at The Westin Grand and started to walk to the east on Unter den Linden (Under the Linden). We walked to the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) before backtracking by U-Bahn. We unexpectedly encountered Christopher Street Day, a large pride event that was going on today. We spent a little bit of time at the event before walking through the nearby Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. We then kept on walking to Potsdamer Platz where we saw our first Berlin Wall segments. We then took another brief U-Bahn ride followed by a short walk back to our hotel to end the day.

July 22, 2023July 22, 2023

Stumbling upon Christopher Street Day in Berlin

After walking along Unter den Linden near the Museum Island in Berlin, we headed to the Brandenburger Tor (Gate) by U-Bahn. It was extremely crowded with significantly more people compared to when we arrived earlier in the day. Some of the people were dressed in a rainbow of colors. Was this just the usual summer weekend crowd in Berlin?