Saturday, October 5, 2013

Saturday, October 5, 2013

We stayed close to home on our first full day in Berlin, walking both sides of the Ku-damm and venturing a bit into the side streets. There's more to this than might meet the untutored eye, as there is LOTS of action on the Ku-damm. All manner of upscale brands we don't buy like Hugo Boss, plus lots of food, lots of people, and lots of other stuff.

After breakfast at our hotel we started by exploring the Ka De We, a massive, upscale department store. Actually it's not on the Ku-damm but on its extension, Tauntzienstraße, but who's keeping score? We bought a few souvenir items, but mostly we gawked in the homewares department. You can spend a lot for a cookie cutter. We had intended to return to the food department later in the day, but that visit never materialized.

Then past the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, left with its damaged steeple unrestored as a memorial. It was undergoing renovation, with the iconic, semi-destroyed steeple peeking out from what appeared to be a temporary building erected around the entire base of the church.

More window shopping, more people-watching, and then we arrived at The Story of Berlin, a marvelous exhibit tracing the development of Berlin from the beginning up to present. It's built into the inside of a city block, occupying space on many floors. It takes at least two hours to walk through the whole thing. The most gripping part to us is the descent into World War II, both figuratively in the content of the many exhibits and literally in the long, downward staircase on whose walls the exhibits are posted. The staircase ends as you come to the first book burning episode, and the horrors of the war continue from there.

The exhibit concludes with the hope that arises from the Fall of the Wall in 1989. But in contrast to the layout we encountered on our visit in 2000, the concluding exhibits are on the ground floor. On our previous visit, the Fall of the Wall was symbolized by taking an elevator to the 14^th floor, Himmel (heaven), with a 360 degree view of the city. We felt that they lost something by making this alteration to the setup.

Lunch time. Actually a pretty late lunch by then. Ate in a nice café near Savignyplatz, just off of the Ku-damm. Ordinary things well done, like tuna sandwiches and a chef salad. Then an attempt to visit a nearby tin figure shop that Bruce had been to on previous visits. We found it, but alas it had closed at 3PM. Operating hours on Saturdays are very chancy. At least it's not like the law had required back in the 60s, when everybody had to close at around noon on Saturday, except on the first Saturday of the month. So, back toward the Ku-damm, stopping to wander through a book store built under the arches of the railway.

Then we started back down the other side of the street, checking out more of the marvelous array of shopping opportunities. A sock and stocking store (so pricey that there was a guard at the door!), a reasonably priced sort of toiletries and snacks store, the Tourist Office, and probably a few others.

Back to the hotel to rest up. Aimée and Steve went out to a nearby Turkish restaurant that had been recommended by the hotel keeper and reported an excellent meal; Sue Anne and Bruce were content with snacks in our room.

Somehow we don't have any pictures to show for the day. Our computer setup pretty much limits us to using pix from Bruce's camera. After we all get settled back home we'll see what Aimée and Steve might have available and integrate them back in here.  But stay tuned for lots of pix tomorrow.