After waking up just a little behind schedule, we hopped the Schnell-Bahn to Alexanderplatz, which is East Berlin's TV tower area. We poked around Karl-Marx-Allee, the old main street of the East. It was pretty grand in that communist gothic and communist-modern-blockhouse sort of way. Rick Steves calls it legoland hell, but I guess he just doesn't like modern architecture.
We had lunch by the fountain at Alexanderplatz, then crossed the river to the German History Museum. We spent a couple hours browsing the exhibits, which were very interesting and educational.
After strolling Unter den Linden for a couple blocks, we hoofed it down to Checkpoint Charlie and saw the museum of the wall. There were stories and artifacts about the wall itself, but more amazingly all the escape attempts and successes. After weathering a thunderstorm in the museum, we braved the rain and headed to Brandenburg Gate and the Holocaust Memorial. The Holocaust Memorial was very abstract and offered a chance to ponder the lives of those who were murdered. It was made of narrow gray passages between faceless cubes...fitting representation of oppression.
We walked along the edge of the Tiergarten back to the Zoo area and dined on bratwurst, beer, and a Nutella-lined crepe from the street vendors.
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