So, I realize it's been a month since I last blogged and since any of the things talked about in this blog post actually happened. Know that everything has been great but busy in the meantime so I've fallen behind on blogging but fully intend on catching up at some point.
On my last full weekend in Berlin, Goethe’s culture program led a bike tour along the former border between East and West Berlin. Altogether, the ride was of my favorite culture program events. The weather was gorgeous so the four hour long bike tour was wonderful. It was great to get some exercise, explore the city in a new way, and learn more about one of the most important aspects of Berlin’s history.
Throughout the tour, I was mostly struck by how tragic the wall was for Berlin. Here's one of the guard towers, preserved as a memorial to a young man, one of the first to be killed attempting to escape as he swam across the Spree River:
This art installation is at the former Chausseestrasse border crossing. There are a number of hares placed in the sidewalk and street around the street intersection as hares were one of the few animals who were able to live in the "death strip" between the two walls:
On my last full weekend in Berlin, Goethe’s culture program led a bike tour along the former border between East and West Berlin. Altogether, the ride was of my favorite culture program events. The weather was gorgeous so the four hour long bike tour was wonderful. It was great to get some exercise, explore the city in a new way, and learn more about one of the most important aspects of Berlin’s history.
Throughout the tour, I was mostly struck by how tragic the wall was for Berlin. Here's one of the guard towers, preserved as a memorial to a young man, one of the first to be killed attempting to escape as he swam across the Spree River:
By far the most interesting and moving part of the tour was along Bernauer Street. Before the building of the wall, there were a number of large apartment buildings on the East side along the border. During and after the building of the wall, significant numbers of people jumped (at times several stories) out of their windows into West Berlin until the East German government boarded up the buildings and eventually tore them down, an act truly showing a real desire to escape the East at all costs. Along this part of the street today, there's a memorial where the wall is set up as it was during the separation:
After living in the city for two months, I honestly can't imagine a Berlin where these two walls and the empty space in between ran through the entire city and I think in some ways, to my generation born after the end of the Cold War, this separation in Berlin and the larger separation of the world will never be fully imaginable.
On a lighter note, I traveled to Greifswald, a small town of 50,000 on the coast of the Baltic Sea, for a day trip. In addition to some wandering through the typically provincial German town center:
we ran across the cool ruins of an old monastery:
and of course visited the Baltic Sea's coast:
Overall, a wonderful weekend.
On a lighter note, I traveled to Greifswald, a small town of 50,000 on the coast of the Baltic Sea, for a day trip. In addition to some wandering through the typically provincial German town center:
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