Fatherland - Teil Eins (Part 1)

Having romped our way through Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, we decided to head north to the Fatherland (Picasa link). Berlin was our next destination and the first taste of a big European city. Granted, Prague and Vienna are big, but not on the scale of a Berlin or Paris or London. The first thing that hit us as we got to Berlin was the weather. The past 3 weeks were filled European sunshine, 10 pm dusks, and a feeling of warmth and well-being. Berlin was cold, and wet, and miserable.

Checkpoint Charlie

We promptly headed indoors to one of Berlin's museums - all of which are set in fantastic pre-war buildings that were extensively rebuilt post-war. Berlin is regarded as one of the 'museum capitals' of the world and rightly so. From 200BC Greek temples to 200mph racing cars, they have a museum for both, and everything in between. We headed to the Pergamon museum which housed pretty much an entire temple. How it came to be in the middle of Berlin makes for an interesting read. 19th century German archeologists were either very wealthy, or funded by some Kaiser or the other, and they traveled the world digging up anything that looked remotely interesting. Once in a while they stumbled on something larger than pottery shards, dug it up, promptly paid the local ruler and shipped the whole thing back. The Pergamon museum is a perfect example of this. The temple of Pergamon which is from the 2nd century BC was discovered by Carl Humann in 1878. He excavated the entire temple and sent it all back to be housed in the museum, which was built primarily to host this stunning find. Other than the temple, the museum also houses the Gates of Ishtaar, stunning 20m high mosaic inlaid gates that framed the entrance to the fabled city of Babylon in 575 BC. I bet Turkey is pissed off at having these stunning works sitting quite legitimately in Germany after being paid a pittance for them.

The miserable weather was interspersed by snatches of sunlight and we spent those walking through the Brandenburger Gates, Checkpoint Charlie - in a way the birthplace of the Cold War - and the city gardens. A consistent and stark reminder of the years spent behind the Wall is the difference in building structures and wealth between the Eastern and the Western parts of the city. The 45 years or so that East Berlin spent under Communist rule have had a harsh impact on both, the residents and the economy, and its effects are still obvious even 20 years after the fall of the Wall.

On a lighter note - Berlin's known as THE party city, so we headed out to one of the local hot spots. After getting there at 11 pm and realizing that we were there wayyy to early, we waited it out with cocktails for company at a nearby joint. As Cinderella made her way home, we finally entered the night club, called for some reason SO 36. 12 AM quickly turned to 2.30 AM, and what had been a relatively nice place to dance turned to a mad house. Realizing we're too old for this, we headed out and lamely decided to call it a night. But Berlin had other ideas. We got to the train station and in the atrium saw a crowd of around a hundred dancing away to a band that had decided to setup shop in the train station. After a brief stop there we headed down the escalators to the subway platforms, and promptly ran into another crowd - this time jamming away to a large juke box in a wheel barrow. At this point we half expected to walk into our apartment and see a party under-way there too. Berlin - you have earned your party creds!

Kind of random, but if anyone has any doubts on the impact of military spending or lack thereof on a country's economy, look no further than Berlin. The city was heavily bombed during the war - so much so, that the term 'carpet bombing' was probably coined here. Pictures taken just after the war show entire neighbourhoods leveled out and the only structures standing are shells of buildings such as the Parliament. Well, they certainly wasted no time rebuilding. With post-WWII agreements curtailing military spending, and aid pouring in from a number of Allied countries, the city went on a re-building, renovating, and constructing spree that has resulted in a city that's spanking new and yet has managed to retain a large part of its heritage through restored pre-war buildings. This rebuilding has been topped off with a stunning new dome on the Reichstag (Parliament house) designed by Sir Norman Forster. The glass dome is 40m in diameter and has some cool features like a sun-shade, a funnel to carry out hot air from the parliamentary chambers (no pun intended), and a walk-way that allows you to walk to the top and take in one of the best views in Berlin.

Gates of Ishtaar

Having thus spent 5 days gaping at The Wall, Rembrandts, and 2000 yr old temples, we headed onto Hamburg. While Berlin is the big daddy of German cities with its booming economy, party scene, and large immigrant population, Hamburg is decidedly the smoother of the two. After the obligatory church and civic hall visit we decided to spend a day walking around Blanknese. Blanknese is a mini-Malibu - replace the Pacific with the Rhine and multi-million dollar homes with million dollar cottages/houses and you have it. The entire neighbourhood is set on a heavily wooded hill and a large number of houses can only be accessed by cute stair-ways and quaint ivy covered passage-ways. Surprisingly we seemed to be the only out of towners around and we enjoyed a great morning walking up and down random paths, peering into cottages, and being pesks to the high-falutin crowd inhabiting the hill. All that walking built up an appetite and we paid a visit to the local farmer's market, which unlike the US had products that were actually grown within a couple of miles, and followed it up by a picnic lunch in the city park. Having thus sampled Hamburg, we bid it adieu. Next up is Dusseldorf.

- Ashish