More Berlin

We had a wonderful time in Berlin and it is a beautiful city.  We saw a mix of new and old as so much of the city was bombed.  That is another thing that really hits home, both in Germany and England, that we don't appreciate over here, I don't think.  We have Pearl Harbor but that is the only destruction we had on home turf.  We hear about rationing and such, but the destruction that Europe suffered is just unbelievable.  I guess that is another testimony to my naivety.  Seen pictures but being there is another thing.  Almost every church (and we went to a ton of old churches wherever we were) has pictures of what the building looked like.  Some have restored the building and follow the restoration in pictures, and some have left the ruins "as is" as a testimony, sometimes with new additions so the church can still function.  It was very interesting, really. 

One such church that chose to keep the ruins and build new additions was Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.  The old church had some gorgeous mosaics in the ceiling that they are preserving while the new addition is very modern with lots of blue stained glass.  Quite a contrast.

We stayed on Museum Island which has 5 (I believe) big museums.  It is an island by virtue of the rivers that traverse Berlin so any major construction work requires the water to be pumped out first.  There are also so many Roman ruins under the city that almost every construction project unearths more of them, as well.


We toured Berliner Dom which is a big, old church.  It is very beautiful inside and we were very lucky that they played an organ recital while we were there.  I could have sat and listened to that for hours.

We used the metro while we were there to get around and got pretty good at it.  Doug didn't find it quite as easy to follow as Barcelona's metro system but we got around.  We ended up in Potsdamer Platz one night around dinner time and got off to eat.  That is a pretty major metro hub and is downtown Berlin.  It was completely destroyed during the war so is all new.  One modern roof area (for lack of a better description) lights up at night and changes colors.  It is a pretty cool area with lots of big business buildings and shopping.