Berlin - Day 3

We go with the same home-made breaky today since it did the job well yesterday. We have a tour booked at 10am called "The Rise and Fall of Hitler" which aims to cover off on a lot of the history about the lead up to World War 2 and the subsequent aftermath.

We arrive at Brandenburg Gate in the bright sunshine and see a lot of work going into setting up a massive public viewing area for the upcoming Euro 24 soccer tournament which is to be hosted in Germany, including a huge soccer goal. Looks like they are expecting all of Berlin to come and watch the games here on the edge of Tiergarten.

We get a call from the tour company saying the guide has had a bike accident on the way in and they are sending a replacement for 11am. He's OK apparently, and that's just life in Berlin. We've noticed a pretty low hit-rate in terms of helmets in Europe, so we hope he's OK. But it does give us time to have ChatGPT give us a crash course in the history of the World Wars to make sure we are across some of the "assumed knowledge". The most either of us has studied about this is via a Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast series.

At 11am the tour begins, run by an expat from California with German heritage. She moved here about 7 years ago and is a qualified history nerd. She starts with a 4 minute crash course in the history of Germany up to 1900 which was delivered perfectly. We actually applaud this, its done so well.

She takes us on a bit of a whirlwind journey through the wars via some key monuments and buildings in the general vicinity. We don't need to walk too far to keep getting more stories. She does a great job focusing on the stories and different perspectives, rather than just names and dates. She also offered the different theories whenever something was not 100% proven and lets us discuss.

The most impactful monument was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe; 2,711 concrete slabs of various heights over 1.9-hectares of undulating terrain, meaning that when you walk through it, you are very much overwhelmed by the monument. According to the artist, the meaning behind it is whatever you want it to mean. The number of slabs is not significant and we ponder over this.

We finish at the bunker where Hitler committed suicide once the Soviet's had come and won Berlin. There is no bunker, however, just a normal carpark in front of a big block of apartments. They at first tried to blow up the bunker to destroy it, but it was too solid and so they filled it in and put up a parking lot. They didn't want this place to become like a shrine or memorial.

We learn about the "stumble stones" (Stolperstein), a different form of monument where the name and life dates are inscribed on a 10x10cm brass plate in the ground at relevant location for an individual killed or persecuted by the Nazi regime. These can appear anywhere in any number of cities in Europe, and you literally stumble upon them.

After the tour we immediately aim for a doner kebap shop since we loved it so much yesterday. This one doesn't disappoint either.

Fuelled up, we take a long walk South of the city, past the underwhelming Checkpoint Charlie (none of it is original) and to the district of Kreuzberg. Its definitely different, but it takes a fair bit of walking to find something interesting, including the architecture, which is at times, tragic and imposing.

We find a cool section of town with lots of trendy cafes and pubs and some buskers and a very cool indoor market with lots of food options. We have a quick smoothie and carry on.

We head across the river and land at East Side Gallery; the longest remaining section of the wall which has now become an open-air gallery with murals across the large expanse of concrete, mostly political in nature.

We have walked our little legs off today in the sun (and last nights antics have caught up to us). We get an uber back to the hotel and relax for the evening.