Port 76 Warnemünde, Germany

by Ed · May 29, 2022

Hallo! Guten morgen!

We arrived at Warnemünde very early on May 21st, 2022. Even so, the sun still beat us in. The clouds promised rain throughout the day.

We had to be up super early to get ready, have breakfast, and check in for the bus by 6 AM. We’re going to visit Berlin today! The tour is called “The Berlin Experience” and is scheduled for 12 1/2 hrs! Over three hours of driving is required to get us there, and then again to get us back. Our tour guide for the bus ride is Chris, and our tour guide for walking around Berlin is Jens (pronounced “yen”).

One of our first sights as we enter Berlin is the Victory Column. This beautiful monument commemorates the Prussian-Danish War.

On our way to the Brandenburg Gate we make a stop at the Reichstag Building. This houses the Parliament and keeps them outside of the Berlin city walls. Hitler opposed having this form of government and burned this building down in 1933, claiming someone else did it so he could become the hero (sound familiar?). It was rebuilt in order to keep a parliament alive.

Next to the Reichstag is a memorial to the “Sinti” who are the gypsies who migrated into Germany. They were also among the people Hitler attempted to annihilate through concentration camp genocide.

A secret message floats under the water’s surface around the pool, half in English, and the other half saying the same thing in German. This is the poem “Auschwitz” and simply says, “Sunken in face – extinguished eyes – cold lips – silence – a torn heart – without breath – without words – no tears.”

To prepare us for our Berlin experience, Jens explains to us the division of Berlin.

And here I am about to step from West Berlin to East Berlin! The double line of bricks marks the location of the Berlin Wall!

The Brandenburg Gate stands before us! It was built at the end of the 1700s as a symbol of peace. You can see the double brick line across the bottom of the photo – hard to believe this was trapped for decades on the Soviet side of the Berlin Wall!

We made it through the gate! Here’s proof!

The statue on top of the Brandenburg Gate is “Quadriga” – a statue of Victory in a chariot pulled for four horses! Beautiful!

Looking into the Pariser Plaza, it’s hard to picture this as Soviet-only territory.

Tucked in the corner is the US Embassy! But this is the back door. The front door is on the other side of the building.

This is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This memorial is over 200,000 square feet in size, made up of over 2,700 stelae, installed in a grid across uneven ground. It’s possible to “disappear” between the stelae!

We wind our way through the stelae to the south side to meet our bus. Looking back we can see the US Embassy in the foreground and the Parliament (Reichstag) building in the distance.

Next we go to the museum called “Topography of Terror.” A couple of hundred feet of original Berlin Wall is here at the building that was once the SS and Gestapo Command Center.

There are multiple timeline descriptions and interactive videos outside along the wall, as well as inside the building. We watched a 15-minute video and had some time to walk around. I could easily spend a full day here! But, no, not today.

Next we moved on to Checkpoint Charlie! This is the one place that people could transit from East Berlin to West Berlin and vice versa as required. A big billboard on the right reminds folks “You are leaving the American Sector” in multiple languages.

I take the option of having my photo taken on this side. You see the crowd on the other side of the building? They want their pictures on the sandbag pile side, but there isn’t enough room to back up for the whole picture.

I catch a glimpse of the Berlin Cathedral as we cross the river!

We take a turn around St. Mary’s Church with the Berliner Fernsehturm tower.

The Altes Art Museum is proudly showing its Ukraine colors! This museum has Roman and Greek artifacts, so I know I’d like to visit it sometime!

Here is a beautiful statue of Victory crowning a victor, one of the many statues on the Schloss Bridge.

This is the Crown Prince’s Palace!

Across the street is this war remembrance memorial called Neue Wache. There is a single statue inside…

…by artist Käthe Kollwitz in honor of her son, Peter, who died in World War I.

Now we have Neue Kirche – New Church!

OK, whimsy time! I love these signs for the men’s and women’s rooms at the place we stopped for lunch!

It’s time to move on! Here we cross back into the American Sector, West Berlin!

We take a drive around Tempelhof Airport. This place is huge! And it’s still all intact!

Legislation was passed that not even the runways can be repurposed. Tempelhof remains as it was during the Berlin Airlift!

During the Airlift there were accidents due to the volume of flights. This Flight Memorial commemorates the 119 lives lost during the 277,500 flight.

The Outpost, once a hangout for the soldiers, is now the Airlift Museum!

Out front is the Candy Bear! Gail Seymour Halvorson was the master of the Candy Drop! He use aircraft to drop candy under handkerchief-sized parachutes to the children of Berlin. All in all, he dropped 23 tons of candy to the kids!

Lucius Clay was the architect of the Berlin Airlift. He created an incredibly successful plan – how else could anyone execute a plan with 277,650 sorties?

Outside is the original Checkpoint Charlie building. This one was brought here and a replica built at the real site. This building is twice as long as the one we saw earlier!

Chris points out the hotel where President Kennedy gave his speech to Berlin, standing on the balcony just above the blue and white banners in the photo below. He told us Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” statement was really interpreted as “I am a donut” by the Berliners. To them, a “berliner” is a fruit donut. The Berliners still laugh about this!