Day Fortyfour - Jul 4, 2012
Berlin, Germany
Daily Didactic
We got up reasonably late, had another "all you can eat breakfast" in the cafe (accomodatingly served until 1:00pm), and headed out to follow up on our walking tour around noon. The first stop was the "East Side Gallery", not on yesterday's walk and a big deal. It is an outdoor gallery painted on the longest remaining section of the Berlin wall. We had to catch a couple of trains to get there, but were still at the gallery in a half hour or so. It was originally painted in 1990, but graffiti and erosion required it to be "remediated" (repainted) in the last few years. It is some pretty amazing symbolism (this section was the inner East Berlin wall) and some nice art. From there we caught the S-Bahn back to Hauptbahnhof. We had such a good experience making train reservations when we got here we decided to take care of them through Paris. Brian is partially of German descent, so he thinks its okay to say this. Germans are wildly efficient. In short order we had four more legs booked, first class, night trains, and all. It was a thing of beauty. From here we caught the S-Bahn to the wrong "museum near a standing section of the wall" (all the description we had given our front desk help). After a little map reading, we caught the S-Bahn back to the Topography of Terror. We had seen this yesterday, a museum of the Nazi rise to power, but had not stopped. Pretty unnerving and a little to easy to imagine. The next follow up stop was Fassbender & Rausch Chocolatiers (formerly the royal chocolatiers when there was a German King and Queen), where Theresa filled a small bag of goodness. On the hunt for dinner following we stumbled across the Arthouse Techeles we had seen yesterday. A four story complex of art galleries and installations by squatters in an abandoned building (recently purchased and contentious now). It was pretty crazy and pretty cool. On the way home we found a bite to eat and settled in for our last night at the Circus.
Today's Photos
