FRANCE

I know it hasn't been very long since you last heard from me but we have been in France for a week now and have covered a lot of ground.  We arrived in Strasbourg last Friday and immediately fell in love.  What a charming city.  Our apartment was in a very old building right in the middle of the old town and it too was charming.  Being in the middle of the old section meant it was perfect for exploring on foot which is exactly what we did.

In the main square sat Notre Dame Cathedral and it was spectacular.  This was one church where we actually went inside and we weren't disappointed.

As you can see, the old part of town is surrounded by a canal/river.  I did say charming didn't I?

Not only did the town captivate us, the food here was to die for.  After being tempted with macaroons at one store (we bought some) we also were tempted by the local cheese and sausages (yup, bought both).

Here are some of those macaroons with the great local fruit.  We've had delicious fruit all through Europe but no where else did we get the macaroons, the bread, the cheese, the salami. . . . . and the pastries!  OMG!  I didn't get a picture of them primarily because they were inhaled as soon as they came out of the bag!

We were in Strasbourg for two days and the first one we spent meandering around town because it wasn't suppose to rain.  Our second day (forecast rain) we decided to do our pilgrimage to Au Relais des Trois Epis in Niedermorschwihr.  Christina Ferber, the owner, is renown for her jams and has been written up in the New York Times.  We had to get some.  So, here is her place.  The town - again - charming.  We haven't tried the jam yet (those pastries were just too good) but tomorrow the jars are being opened when we check into our Paris apartment (I'll let you know).

Here's Dale trying to decide what flavor to buy.  Decisions, decisions.

After we made our purchase we continued to drive around the countryside of Alsace.  It really is beautiful - vineyards as far as you can see.

We ended up in the old walled town of Riquewihr.  Once again, charming!  

The rain decided to hold off so we took advantage and sat down to eat some good French food and watch all the tourists.

The big deal here is Flammenkuchen (Torte Flambe) - we weren't terribly impressed.  What I did like though was their local beer drink, Picon Bier.  It's a pale ale with the orange flavored Picon Bitters (made locally) added.  Very tasty!

But two days was all we had so off we set for the Lorraine Region where we went to see Hackenburg Fortress, the largest of the Fortresses in the Maginot Line.  These underground fortresses were built along a 700 kilometer stretch of the French/German border after WWI.  It was thought they would keep Germany from ever invading their country again.  It didn't work - the German army just came in through Belgium and the only time they were used was when the Americans attacked the Germans at the end of the war.

Anyway, it was very interesting.  Hackenburg is so big you have to take an underground train to get from one end to the other (there are 27 blocs).

This is a shot looking out over one of the blocs.

And this is one of the turrets in one of the blocs.  The middle raises up and there's a gun that can shoot an artillery shell about three miles.

This is a picture of the outside of one of the blocs.

But now we're off to the western part of France to see the Normandy Coast.  We stopped at Omaha Beach to go through the museum.  Hard to believe this peaceful beach was the site of such a bloody battle.

We then stopped at the Normandy American Cemetery.  It was very moving and I think the pictures speak for themselves.

Our last stop before heading off to Paris was Giverny and Claude Monet's house and gardens.  While we had grey skies it couldn't have been more beautiful and peaceful.  Again, the pictures speak for themselves.

After Monet's house and garden we went to the Giverny Impressionism Museum.  Monet collected Japanese prints and was very inspired by them.  The museum is currently holding an exhibition Hiramatsu, The Lily Pond, Homage to Monet.  It is a collection of various Japanese artists' paintings of lily ponds.  We enjoyed it very much but I am going to leave you with pictures of their gardens.  Like Monet's, they were lovely and I can't think of a better way to end this post.

The even had hay stacks - it's just so French!  Au Revoir!

BERLIN

Our first night in Berlin and we were greeted with fireworks that we watched from our terrace.  It seems that they were having the Pyronale Competition the weekend we arrived.  This is a competition whereby a number of pyrotechnic firms compete and the audience votes for who has the best display.  We didn't get to vote but then we didn't have to pay to see the show either!

Berlin wasn't anything like we expected.  First there are no skyscrapers and it is very spread out.  We found out that there aren't any tall buildings in the city because Berlin is built on a swamp.  Go down just a few feet and you have water.  So, in order to build you have to continually pump out the water that rushes in as the foundation is being built.  Hence, the entire downtown area has these pipes running all over the place.  The water that is pumped out of the  building site runs through them and then is dump into the river.  Very bizarre.  A factoid:  Hitler had great plans for Berlin.  It was going to be the capital city of Europe.  He hated the name Berlin however because in an old Slavic language it meant swampland.  So, his new, great city when completed was going to be called Germania.  Another factoid:  Many of the buildings built by East Germany are having to be torn down as they weren't built correctly for the swampy land.  And last factoid:  There is still, twenty four years after reunification, a lot of vacant land that can't be developed because its ownership is in question.  So, no skyscrapers, a lot of vacant land and brightly colored pipes snaking overhead all over town makes for a very interesting cityscape.

But now on to some sightseeing.  First, the Pergamon Museum.  We picked this museum from all the ones on Museum Island because we were told we couldn't miss the Pergamon Arch.  Well, it was indeed impressive and so large that I couldn't really get a picture of it that would do it justice.  However, I did get a shot of the Market Gate of Miletus shown below and

the first set of gates to the City of Babylon.  I think of all that we saw in this museum these were the most impressive.  And to think that these were just the first set of gates.  The second ones were twice this size.  

We have been to Egypt and seen Ramses tomb and the pyramids etc, etc and they are mind boggling in size.  These relics maybe aren't quite as large but they are just as mind boggling.  I mean they had to be disassembled,transported, have a room built that would be large enough to hold them and then be put back together!

A very impressive museum indeed and one you should go to if ever in Berlin.

 On the other side of town is the Olympic Stadium where the 1936 Olympics were held.  It's an excellent example of the architectural style of the Third Reich.  Both Dale and I had just finished reading "The Boys in the Boat", a true story of the eight man crew from the University of Washington who won the Gold medal at these games.  It was a wonderful read and we both highly recommend it.  Anyway, it was really neat to see the place where these guys got their gold medal (not to mention where Jesse Owens' collected his four).




Here's a picture of Dale and the Olympic Stadium Bear.  The symbol of Berlin is the bear (it's on their flag) and there are bears everywhere.  Once you've seen the first one you start seeing them around every corner.  

But back to sightseeing.  Our apartment was in Charlottenburg about one kilometer from Charlottenburg Palace.  

It is a lovely palace and the grounds in back, as can be seen in the picture below, are expansive and really very beautiful.  It sits on the River Spree and Queen Sophia Charlotte used the river for travel to and from her other castle.  It seems she didn't like to travel coach.

We were able to walk to the Palace using the footpath along the river.  Isn't it pretty?

But now on to what makes Berlin Berlin.  The Wall.  The major Wall Memorial is on Bernauer Stasse.  The people who lived on one side of this street were in East Berlin and those that lived on the other were in West Berlin.  When they put up the wall the East Berliners could actually walk into their apartments from the back in East Berlin and if they stepped out their front door they were in West Berlin.  Needless to say there were a lot of escapes attempted from this part of the wall.  Below you can see the foundations of the buildings on the East German side and the metal rod fence depicts where the actual wall was.  

This is a picture of one of the guard towers on Bernauer Strasse.










And below is the same guard tower showing how it sat in the "Death Zone", that area between the actual wall and the East wall.  Here the death zone was quite narrow.  In some cases, like around the Brandenburg Gate, is was quite wide.  This death zone made it more difficult for individuals to escape and easier for the East Germans to shoot those that tried.




There were many memorials here, for the tunnels that were dug to help people escape, for those that made it out by jumping out windows or off the tops of the buildings, etc, etc.  

This cross depicts the Church of Reconciliation (great name) that happened to be right in the Death Zone and was ultimately blown up by the East Germans.  They also had to move a number of graves as the wall went right through the church's graveyard.  The wall you see in the background is part of the actual wall.  The piping you see on top is actually sewage piping that the East figured out worked better than barbed wire (more politically correct).  It was very hard to get over.

Now for some of the iconic landmarks of the city.  First the Brandenburg Gate.  Like all of the buildings that existed during the war, this was almost completely destroyed.  And, while it has been restored you can see where the marble has been patched to cover up all the bullet holes.

And, here is Check Point Charlie.  Everyone has heard of Check Point Charlie.  This isn't the original.  It has been recreated and is quite the tourist attraction.

This is the radio tower that East Berlin built in their sector.  Remember I said earlier that you couldn't build tall buildings in Berlin but East Germany wanted to have the tallest radio tower in Europe (second only to the one in Russia).  They asked their mother country for help with the engineering and were told that Russia had actually hired a Swede to design and build theirs.  So, very quietly, the East Germans did the same but took credit for it.  As with many things in this city, the citizens either love it or hate it - it is still very controversial.

And, finally the Reichstag.  This is the seat of government today and played an important part in WWII history.  First, right after Hitler came to power the building was set on fire and Hitler used this as a means to take action against his enemies as he said the fire was set by enemies of the state.  Many of his opponents were thus imprisoned and some even executed.  At the end of the war during the Battle of Berlin the Germans were entrenched here and Stalin wanted the building taken by May Day (he wanted a photo op of the Red Flag flying from the top of the building).  It was a bloody battle with an estimated 10,000 deaths over a two day period but he was successful and the Germans capitulated on May 2.  After the war it was pretty much rubble but has been beautifully restored (it too however has patches all over it to cover the bullet holes).

I think the thing we come away with after visiting Berlin is that it is a city still in search of its future.  And, it is still grappling with its past.  Before the war this was a city of 4.5 million people.  It was expected that after reunification the population would grow to 10 million fairly quickly.  Now, twenty some odd years after reunification the population is only 3.5 million.  One million less than before the war.  West Germans have grievances about how much reunification has cost them.  And, actually still costs them as most of the West German municipalities have to pay a reunification tax even though they are poorer than a lot of their East German counterparts.  And, East Germans, particularly the older generation, aren't so sure about democracy.  They were guaranteed jobs under East Germany rule.  Granted they weren't very high paying but at least they had jobs.  Many of the older folk can't afford their apartments and don't really know where to turn.  The unemployment rate in Berlin has been around 17% for years and just this year went down a few percentage points.  It's still incredibly high.  So, while Germany is seen as a leader in Europe, Berlin is struggling.

Lastly, I think what we will remember about Berlin is that it is a city of memorials.  I've talked about a few already but new ones are being created every day and how they are built, where they are built, what they say and how they compare to the other memorial sites is all very, very controversial.

So I am going to leave you with some of the other ones we visited.  The first is the Jewish Memorial.

Not our favorite one.  It's a whole city block of tombstone-like pillars - all different sizes.  As you can see with the picture of Dale below, you can walk through them but the aisles are only wide enough for one person.  It's suppose to be an individual experience.

This one is for all the Gypsies murdered by the Nazis.  We really liked this one.  It was very peaceful.  You can't see it but there is a flower in the middle of the pond.  A fresh one is laid every morning and then removed every evening.  The stones are etched with the names of murdered individuals and are meant to represent the shattered lives.

This one is interesting.  It is the memorial to the dead Soviet soldiers.  It is in West Berlin and Stalin wouldn't let the Allies into Berlin after it was divided up.  He kept stalling because we wanted to get this memorial built.  Kind of an in your face gesture.

Remember I said earlier that Hitler had all of his political enemies rounded up after the Reichstag fire?  Well, here is the memorial to all those who were killed.  There is a stone for each one and there are 96 stones.

There is also a memorial for the homosexuals who were killed and there is one in the construction stage for the handicapped that were killed.  As I said, there are a lot of memorials and more to come.

But I'm going to end with our favorite - the Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism.  It is in the Neue Wache.  It is a sculpture of a mother and her dead son.  It sits under an oculus (an opening in the roof) so that it's exposed to rain, snow and the elements symbolizing the suffering of civilians during WWII.  It is very, very moving.