Berlin - Sachsenhausen

Instead of spending my last day in Berlin, I went on a day tour of Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp near Berlin.

On the entrance gate, and at many other concentration camps, are the words "Arbeit macht frei" which roughly translates to "Work makes you free".

Sachsenhausen was built in a triangle so that the one guard tower could see every part of the camp. It was also supposed to be a model for all future concentration camps. However, the design was not used because it did not allow for easy expansion.

After the camp was finally closed (it was used for a time by the Soviets), most of the buildings were torn down because it was believed that no one would be interested in visiting the camp as a museum. This was not the case and so the building locations have been marked out and several of the buildings have been rebuilt using original material.

Inside the rebuilt buildings, there is a museum with pictures, documents, and artifacts from the camp. These buildings are in the section the camp which was added on, partway through World War II.

The camp was primarily used as a place to hold prisoners who were then put to work. Outside the triangle there is an execution trench and a mostly destroyed gas chamber and medical room.

These buildings were mostly destroyed and uncovered later when the museum was being built. The museum is very new and so they are constantly uncovering more parts of the camp and adding to the museum.

After arriving back in Berlin, I went to Holocaust Museum and Memorial (technically called the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.) The Memorial is made of 2711 concrete stelae in a grid. The architect meant for the Memorial to be open to interpretation and so no explanation for the memorial is given.

The museum is very well designed and looks at the stories of specific families. It sits under the memorial and so the roof of the museum mirrors the stelae above.

After Berlin, I spent one night in Frankfurt before flying home.

I had a fantastic time travelling Europe and would definitely do it again. If you ever have the chance to go to Europe, I recommend all of the cities that I visited. Some of them I could have spend less time in and others I wish I had stayed longer. My favourites places were Venice and Füssen.

I have a couple more posts that I want to write about Sweden and Norway. I also went to Japan for a couple of weeks so I'll blog about that as well. I have a busy semester ahead so I'd be surprised if you see them before Christmas break. Feel free to email me to remind me in a couple of months as I may forget.

Last stop: Berlin

My final city was Berlin. I'm not a huge fan of large cities but I was actually quite impressed with Berlin. It's quite a modern city, but it's also doing a good job about remembering its history.

The first day I wondered around in the morning before going on a free walking tour in the afternoon.

I went inside the Berlin Cathedral. It's quite an impressive cathedral. It's dome was completely destroyed during World War II.

You get an excellent view of the city from the dome walkway. It seems that everywhere in Berlin is under construction. There were cranes in every direction.

The walking tour started by the Brandenburg Gate by Pariser Platz, the main square. In the main square there is the U.S. Embassy and the French Embassy, as well as the famous Hotel Adlon.

We stopped by one of the remaining sections of the Berlin Wall.

We stopped by Checkpoint Charlie which is a huge tourist draw. The Checkpoint was rebuilt in 2000 after many tourists came to Berlin looking for Checkpoint Charlie because they remembered their parents and grandparents talking about travelling through the checkpoint.

We saw the French Cathedral which is across from the German Cathedral.

That evening, I went looking for the Soviet War Memorial and military cemetery, built in 1949. It's definitely worth finding. Despite how big it is, you do have to go looking for it. It's off the main path in Treptower Park in East Berlin.

In the memorial, there 16 stone sarcophagi, representing the 16 Soviet Republics. The sarcophagi have military carvings and quotes from Joseph Stalin. Facing the main part of the memorial is the Motherland, who weeps for her lost sons.

The main part of the memorial consists of two large pieces of red granite, representing stylized Soviet flags. Beside them are two kneeling soldiers.

At the end is a 12 metre tall statue of a Soviet soldier carrying a sword and a German child, while standing on a broken swastika.

One more post about Europe.

Dresden

After Prague, I headed for Berlin. However, I stopped for a few hours in Dresden.

The city centre of Dresden was completely destroyed during World War II and so most of the city is very modern. However, there are a few older buildings. Most of them did undergo major restoration. There is the Catholic Church of the Royal Court of Saxony (Katholische Hofkirche), also called the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Kathedrale Sanctissimae Trinitatis).

The Semperoper houses the Saxon State Opera and the Saxon State Orchestra. The opera house was first destroyed in a fire in the late 1800s before being rebuilt. It then suffered extensive damage during World War II. The reconstructed opera house was built with identical architecture to the original.

While wondering around Dresden, I came upon Ontario, the Canadian Steakhouse. It's important to note that the first item on the menu is currywurst, a German dish.

That evening I took a train to Berlin.

Prague - Part 2

In the afternoon on my first full day in Prague I went on a second tour. This time of Prague Castle and the surrounding area. The following day I mostly wondered around Prague.

The Mattias Gate leading to Prague Castle.

The castle is up on a hill and gives a beautiful view of the city.

There are a number of wells in Prague that have these metal structures over them to stop people from contaminating the water.

Inside the Prague Castle complex is Saint Vitus Cathedral.

The construction of the cathedral was often put on hold and so despite construction starting in 1344, it was not finished until 1929.

Czech kings and queens, as well as patron saints, are buried inside. The cathedral also holds the Bohemian coronation jewels.

Because it took nearly 600 years to complete, the cathedral includes many styles. There are carvings of the architects on the outside which include several architects wearing suits.

One of the architects of St. Vitus Cathedral also built Charles Bridge which is decorated by 30 statues.

Since the 1980s, a wall in Prague has been graffiti-ed with John Lennon inspired art. The wall undergoes constant change and sometimes has really incredible art.

Near to my hostel, I saw this Canadian flag in someone's window.

In the evening I went to the ballet. They did a shortened version of "Swan Lake". The dancers were amazing and I had the perfect seat.

The Czech Republic has a very interesting history and has changed names many times. My tour guide on my walking tour knows someone who's 95 years old and has lived in the same house her entire life, but lived in six different countries.

Next up is a short trip to Dresden.

Prague - Part 1

I spent two full days in Prague. I really liked Prague. It's a very neat city with beautiful architecture. And Prague is cheap compared to the rest of Europe which was really nice. However, unlike everywhere else in Europe, I was completely unable to read anything because the language is so different. There's a whole pile of accents and I didn't even know where to begin with pronunciation.

On my first day I went on a free walking tour which was fantastic. This post covers my walking tour and a few pictures I've been unable to identify. Many important sites are located in the Old Town Square including the Church of the Mother of God in front of Týn. The famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe is buried inside.

There is the Jan Hus Memorial.

And the Prague astronomical clock.

The astronomical clock was built in 1410. Every hour, the four figures move, including death striking the hour. At noon, all twelve Apostles come through a doorway. (On the hour, only one comes out.) There is also the moon, the sun, and the zodiac which move to give their current position relative to each other. The moon also correctly gives the Lunar phase by changing colour. After all this time, the clock is still correct!

Another view of the clock tower.

Prague has Europe's oldest active synagogue, the Old New Synagogue. It was called the New Synagogue when in was first finished in 1270, but was changed to the Old New Synagogue when new synagogues were built.

A monument to the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler.

Now I have a couple of pictures which I was unable to identify.

Prague part 2 will be posted on Thursday.

Overnight Trains and Vienna

Sorry for the long delay. I wasn't done with travelling so I went to Japan for two weeks (posts to come) where there isn't much internet access. At long last, here are the rest of the posts about my trip through Europe. After that, there will be a few posts about Japan and then a couple that I missed from Sweden. I've written all of the Europe posts. They will come out on Mondays and Thursdays until the end of September. I'm back at school now so I don't have a lot of time for anything else.

I took an overnight train from Venice to Vienna. The train left around 9 at night and got in the following morning at 8. This was my bed. I could not sit up. Normally, I'm a top bunk person; however, I'm really glad I got the bottom bunk. The bunks were three high so it was a long way up to the top bunk.

I was mainly going to Vienna to see a concert so I only spent one day touring the city. You could definitely spend more time. This is St. Stephen's Cathedral which has beautiful mosaics on the roof.

Seeing as I didn't have much time I mostly just walked around to each of the main sites in the city but didn't go into any. This is Amalienburg, part of Hofburg Palace. It has an astronomical clock on the outside.

The Austrian Parliament with a statue of Athena.

In the evening I went to a concert which was a mix of classical music (mostly Strauss and Mozart), opera, and ballet. It was excellent. One thing to keep in mind about visiting Vienna, especially if you are interested in classical music. During the summer (July and August) all of the main orchestras go on vacation and the concerts are aimed at tourists (generally shorter and often a mix of styles). This does not mean that they are bad concerts; however, if you want to see something like the State Opera, you will need to go during the year.

Next up is Prague.