Before I go on ... I now know why my hostel is call 'the generator'. It's marketed to the young and all it's rooms are named after generator parts; for example the food place is called 'the engine room' there is also room called the 'turbine' (which I am situated in at the moment) ... it's all abit weird with it's metal floors and furniture.
Anyway today has been ace; I did go on the free tour and it's was brilliant. Our guide, Paulo, is originally from Bath and studied archeology and history in Durham ... his main subject area was architecture and the history of Berlin in the 20th Century ... and boy did it show. We went to the Brandenburg gate, Reich stag, the Holocaust memorial, Hitlers death site, part of the Berlin wall and many many more places. When I say it's free that is quite true ... the guide doesn't get paid, but he does accept tips for a good job (one way to get around tax I suppose) and he was so good I gave €10 which seemed to be the average amount each person was giving him ... 26 people quids in!
The holocaust memorial is a very strange design with 2,711 (or something like that) pillars in lines ... It gets deeper the further you walk in. Some say each stone represents graves or concentrations camps. Others say it's a bar chart of death i.e. the stones are the highest in the middle (the height of the 3rd Reich's power). In contrast Hitler's death place isn't remembered at all ... it's a car park. This was deliberate of the German government to show it's turned a new direction.
There are so many great buildings, re-built after WW2, that were first erected hundreds of years before. There are three main squares (which I have forgotten their names) which these brilliant and mighty buildings are situated. One square is where the famous 'burning of books' occurred. There is an excellent memorial to this; it's a glass square in the floor which, when you peer into it, you can see book shelves with no books on. The room is sealed with no way in ... this is to represent the loss of knowledge that is impossible to get back. There is also the famous quote written into the floor
"... When one starts burning books, they end up burning people..." or something like that. Very true!
Loads of pics of Flickr
Berlin is ace ... there is so much to do in a fairly compact area in the east part. I love this city, so much so I thought of staying an extra day. However I decided against it as time was short ... But I am looking forward to tomorrow and I would love to come back here (though I would prefer to stay nearer the city centre).
Tomorrow the plan is to get up really early and head into Berlin; I plan to get lost around the city until 12pm in which I will have lunch. At 1pm is a Third Reich tour run buy the same company as today's tour (sadly though I don't think it's the same bloke). It's €12 but should be worth it ... hang on, this trip seems to have a strong military theme so far, ah well.
Toodle Pip
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