Berlin all day long (17 August)

It was a full, successful day of sightseeing mixed with chocolate and church.

To start the day off right, we went on a walk to a memorial that’s close to Inga’s apartment. It’s a memorial commemorating the last person to be killed while trying to escape to West Germany. This death occurred in 1989, right before the wall came down. Inga told me that her parents remember it well because it happened so near to their house. Then we stopped at a bakery and got some rolls. Oh my goodness: German bread is like heaven. Its wholegrain and full of chunky nuts, seeds, and grains. I wish I would have discovered this sooner!

Monument for Chris Gueffroy

After getting ready, we took the bus to Potsdamerplatz, where we saw the Reichstag (German Parliament building), mauer stucke (pieces of the wall), a Jewish memorial, and the Brandenburger Gate. This gate had been a symbol of freedom when it was built under Freidrich Wilhelm II around 1790. Ironically, during the Cold War it became an icon of the division because it was a part of the wall. Since the fall of the wall, however, it once again represents those freedoms for which it was intended. Around that area of the city we also saw embassies of a whole bunch of countries.

Pieces of the wall

Jewish memorial - it looks just like the Jewish cemeteries outside of Jerusalem

Reichstag

Sitting on Brandenburger (Gate) Tor

Brandenburger Tor

At this point we were in East Berlin. We walked down Unter den Linden, the main street. Just off that street, we went to the Ritter Sport chocolate museum. For those of you who might not know, Ritter Sport is one of the famous chocolate brands that comes out of Germany. I actually purchased my Berlin souvenir there: a chocolate bar! But this isn’t any ol’ chocolate bar: I got to pick three fillings I wanted and I watched them make it. Then they chilled it so it’d set up and 30 minutes later I picked up my personalized chocolate bar.

My chocolate being made

That's a lot of Ritter Sport

Exploring the cocoa bean forest, where I learned about how chocolate is made

We went to Alexanderplatz where we saw the TV tower and world clock. The TV tower was built in the late 1960s by the German Democratic Republic (the communist state) as a symbol of Germany’s strength. 

World clock and TV tower

Then we took a bus back to West Berlin. Along the way, we passed the Berliner dom (Cathedral) and schloss Bellevue (palace where the governing figurehead, the bundesprasident, lives). We arrived at Siegessaule, a tower topped with a gold angel. We climbed 285 steps to the top where we could have a nice view of the city. At that tower we were right in the middle of the Tiergarten—the Central Park of Berlin. It’s huge! I wish we’d had more time to walk through it.

Berliner dom

Schloss Bellevue

Siegessaule

The gold angel was especially gold because her leafing was recently redone

Kinda hot after walking up all those steps on a warm day

Next we took busses back toward Inga’s apartment. Along the way we stopped to get doner kebaps at the best place in town. They were really good!

Good doner

In East Berlin the walk signs are cute little German people! Here you can see all three: green, red, and flashing yellow

That evening we went to Inga’s church for a ward activity. The ward activity was her telling about her mission. She had prepared a slideshow from which she explained what she was doing at Temple Square and told stories. It was all in German, but I had the important role of being in charge of the computer. Afterward, a few of her friends who speak English (at least a little bit) talked to me and it was fun to get to know some new people. Plus, I enjoyed feasting on some German refreshments. This whole activity was a great reminder for me of my mission.

To fit with the theme of the evening, we went back to her apartment and watched “The Errand of Angels.” It was fun to see with someone from my mission! Overall, it was a really great day. The weather was great, for one. But I also got to do and see a lot. My Berlin experience was a success.