Peter Meets Berlin

A smooth train ride from Hamburg to Berlin. On this trip, that is no small thing.  Our hotel had a very young vibe but older folks were there too.  It's a hotel/hostel chain where we were able to do laundry, rent bikes and have easy access to the U-Bahn (metro).

We arranged for access to the Reischstag Dome which looks down on the German Parliment centered by a cone of refelctive mirrors. It not only reflects the sun but is mean to remind the politicians to be refelctive and transparent with the people for whom they work. Maybe an idea to pass along?

Before the dome, we paid our repsects at the Topography of Terrors, a musem dedicated to the SS and the Nazi regime.  Housed over the bulldozed buildings that once contained SS headquarters and prison, it holds records, photos and the narrative of what lead to the Holocaust titled "What Germans Knew".  Alongside the musuem, below street grade, an area was excavated revealing prison cells that contain more stories.  Ideological politics at its most corrupt and evil.

East Berlin is different from West Berlin even after all these years of reunification.  As we walked 

an open air museum along remnants of the wall, Peter noted we had made our way from depressed Berlin to upper class Berlin as the neighborhood indeed changed.  The museum has murals and graffitti from 1989 to the present.  International artists were invited to paint stories of hope and peace.  Some did this, others drew the hardships and heartbreak.