We were talking about health at breakfast and I mentioned that I take vitamins each morning.
Jason says, “What, Centrum Silver?”
I say, “Yeah.”
Awkward silence.
With that behind us, we headed over to the DDR Museum to see what life was like in the GDR for the typical citizen.
DDR Museum Entrance
The Museum isn’t very large, but it is dense with artifacts, models, audio and video from the 1950s through 1980s.
The TV Tower is nearby and we were hoping to ride up and catch the view from the top. There was a very long line, and the GDR era concrete architecture gave the whole place a very uncomfortable feeling, so we continued on, eventually wandering into Alexanderplatz. This giant plaza took us by surprise – it is a full city block in size and not much more that a concrete slab for pedestrians with the tram running through the middle. It is surrounded primarily with post-war residence and industrial buildings, with a newer shopping building near its center.
Alexanderplatz
Beyond Alexanderplatz
We had lunch nearby at a pizza shop. It was interesting watching tourists with luggage in tow come around the corner from the underground and see the area they had booked their hotel in for the first time. I got the impression that it wasn’t the part of Berlin that they had pictured in their minds.
Oh, and there was pizza, too.
Our last scheduled stop for the day was the Wall Documentation Center farther north. This area includes about a mile of park where the wall used to be. Set up throughout it are displays showing the evolution of the wall from a simple barrier “to keep West Germans out” to the full double wall DMZ zone designed to keep East Germans in. There were displays over sites like Tunnel 57, named for the number of people who escaped during a two day period before the authorities became aware and closed it down.
The park where the Wall used to stand. To the left was East Berlin, to the right was West Berlin.
The view from a tower at the Wall Documentation Center for a section of the zone that has been preserved. The sand would have been raked to expose footprints easily.
We had a great dinner at Sagrantino, an Italian restaurant near our hotel, and then walked over to the Gendarmenmarkt area where there was an open air concert going on. We didn’t buy tickets for the main seating area, but instead sat on steps nearby with hundreds of other people enjoying picnics and free opera.
Dinner.
My gelato and a view over the fence to the concert area.
A lonely tourist downing a beer and playing Angry Birds. Poor sot – this city has so much more to offer.