Colossal Waste: EuroTour 2010, Day 44, Berlin

This is it. Our last full day in Berlin. I know that I had bragged about this being our second visit and that we did not have to do all that much, but as it turned out today we did a lot. The plan was simple enough, get into the dome above the Reichstag and visit the Neue Synagogue. Luckily for me, Barbie is smart enough to bother googling, "Get into the Reichstag without waiting in line." It turns our that you can go into a separate entrance if you make a reservation at the restaurant next to the dome. She called the concierge, had them make a reservation for us in the afternoon, and we were good to go.

First, we walk over to the Neue Synagogue.

Along the way, I remembered to take this picture of the Ampelmänchen, German for, "Little traffic light man." We love seeing this little guy. He has an interesting history, told to me by my brother and backed up by Wikipedia. The Ampelmänchen was created in East Germany when pedestrian traffic lights were being installed in the 1950's. The idea was to show a man walking with a wide stride for walk and holding his arms out for stop, so that children and people who could not read would still get the message.

After unification, street signs and traffic lights were being converted to the West German standards, and the Ampelmänchen was removed. In the mid-90's, a West German graphic designer who liked the design approached the company that made the crosswalk lights about using the design for lamps and merchandise. The idea took off, and Ampelmänchen became a popular mascot and piece of East German nostalgia. Sure enough, the public demanded to have their Ampelmänchen back in Berlin, and in 2005 the entire city, including the former West Berlin districts, installed Ampelmänchen crossing lights. Today this little man in the hat is as much a symbol of Berlin as the Brandenburg Gate.

The Neue Synagogue. Like many synagogues in Europe, the "New" Synagogue is quite old. It was built in 1866 with Moorish inspired architecture to suit the tastes of Berlin's growing Jewish comunity. In 1938 Nazis set it on fire, but local police drew pistols on the mob to make them disperse so that the fire could be put out. By 1940, the German Army had seized the building to use it as storage. Severely damaged by Allied bombs during the Battle of Berlin, the building was unsafe and all but a bit of the facade was demolished in 1958. After reunification, the remains of the facade were restored, but there is still no actual synagogue here. We actually felt a tad suckered to pay to go up in the dome and see almost nothing. Maybe the elaborate decorations that were once inside will restored someday, as pictures of the interior from before the War are amazing.

Bonus. The walk to the Neue Synagogue took us within two blocks of Museum Island, and we still have our museum passes. The day's agenda grows.

At the back corner of Museum Island you have the Bode Museum, where coins, medals, sculptures, and Byzantine art can be found. In theory, it holds the timeline between the Altes Museum and the Alte National Gallery.

Once again, the collection is good and the museum is great.

Sure, I could show you a few pictures of sculptures, or I can show you this room of them.

This was my favorite room that we saw. I should have done a panorama for you, so that you could see al the beautifully lighted arches that stretch across it.

We do not have long until our reservation atop the Reichstag, and next door is the Pergamon Museum.

Bullet holes in the Bode Museum.

One wing of the Pergamon Museum, where you can still see war damage.

The Pergamon Museum's entrance. This museum consists entirely of antiquities excavated in Turkey, and is a classic example of the European museum conundrum. German archeologists excavated the Acropolis of Pergamon, an ancient Greek city in modern day Turkey. As agreed with the Turkish government back then, they brought everything to Berlin. And now...

A visit to Berlin includes time travel to Hellenistic Greece. But should this all be returned to its home country? As a selfish Westerner, I am quite glad that I can see this in hospitable, modern Berlin and not hours outside of Istanbul. And the Turks agreed to let the Germans excavate in the 1870's and I am sure that this agreement with the Turkish government involved some cash money. If your great-great-grandfather sold the family jewels, you do not blame the buyer, you blame grampy.

Fun Fact Moment: Turkey gets the shaft in many, many ways. Not only does it clearly feature antiquities that rival Greece's, but Christianity itself actually formed there during Roman times. (This has to be true. I saw it on 60 Minutes.) Christianity was not really born in Jerusalem, nor Rome. The earliest Christians lived and worshipped and developed their religion in the part of the Roman Empire that is today Turkey.

Poor Greeks. They were really very excellent at everything... 2,500 years ago or so.

Columns from Pergamon's Temple of Artemis. You know, in school they taught me about Greece's Hellenistic period after Alexander conquered much of the known world, but I never actually realized until this visit to Berlin that this meant that all that territory looked like acnient Athens. You see columns that tall, more than 20 centuries after they were built, and they are still unimaginably huge and impressive.

As much as we would like to look around the Pergamon Museum, we do have an appointment with destiny. I mean, the dome above the Reichstag was pretty much the one thing on my list for Berlin this year.

A quick snack in the taxi.

No pictures outside the Reichstag. You saw that yesterday.

Our reservation at the rooftop cafe was between lunch and dinner, when only coffee and dessert is served. How we suffered.

The view from the Reichstag's roof. Not a beautiful skyline by an stretch of the imagination. The Reichstag's glass dome is behind me, but do you see those domes?

Berlin Cathedral on the left, French Cathedral on the right. You know, the cathedral that has a German twin across the square from it. That places the hotel just to the left of the arrow on the right.

The view South at Potsdamer Platz. The circus top building is the Sony Center.

The good old Brandenburg Gate.

In case you could not recognize the Gate. Yes. I do think that this enhances the picture.

The view West. The Reichstag actually sat West of the Berlin Wall, and this view would have been of West Berlin before reunification.

Left to Right: The Victory Column, which you saw yesterday. The Carillon, or bell tower, has 68 bells that can be played manually as a concert instrument. The House of World Cultures, a gift from the USA to West Berlin in1957, where JFK spoke in 1963.

Bullet hole THERE. The Reichstag was hit with more than one million Soviet bullets during the Battle of Berlin.

Finally I turn around and show you this, the glass dome atop the Reichstag. For the record, the Reichstag was built in 1894 and housed the parliament of the German Empire, as in during the time of the Kaisers. When the Nazis seized control... hold on... history burp...

Sorry, but I need to do this.

The Nazi Party seized control by forming a coalition with other political parties. The Nazi party never held a majority. It was through cooperation with the Catholic Center Party that Hitler was appointed Chancellor, and through the passage two laws became a dictator.

On February 27, 1933, a Dutch communist allegedly set the Reichstag on fire. (He was allegedly found inside the building while it was on fire.) He was executed, and left-wing activists demonstrated immediately. The Nazis described free-speech as insurrection, and passed the Reichstag Fire Decree, eliminating most German civil liberties. The public actually supported this, fearing a communist revolution such as had occurred in Russia just 14 years earlier. (It is cool that we visited St, Petersburg, the site of that revolution earlier this trip, and it is sad to know now how preventable Lenin's takeover was. And to think that Lenin's takeover influenced the Germans to react by trusting its right-wing a bit too much is tragic to infinity, considering what happened.)

On March 23, 1933, came the Enabling Act. Somehow this act was passed that allowed Hitler's cabinet the authority to pass laws without the parliament, as well as pass laws that broke the Constitution. Apparently there was no Supreme Court to repeal the Enabling Act. A constitutional democracy was turned into a dictatorship.

Okay.

I bothered with this history burp for two reasons. First, I think it is important to know that a majority of Germans never voted or selected Hitler to be their leader. He was certainly popular, and became more popular when he was able to control all media, but he was never popular enough when Germany was a democracy to carry a majority. Second, Hitler essentially disbanded the Reichstag when he became a dictator. The Reichstag is where Hitler manipulated his way to power, but the building itself was abandoned during his reign.

In other words, I want to say that the Reichstag is not a Nazi building or symbol by an stretch. It is a symbol of German democracy, and perhaps also serves as a warning to any democracy to never allow its Constitution to be ignored, even temporarily.

Okay, no more History. Just a note about how the Reichstag survived to see today.

The Reichstag was originally built with a beautiful dome-like cupola of steel and glass at its top. It was, in fact, a technological marvel and one of the most fabulous buildings on Earth at the time. Basically a ruin after the war, and not needed by West Berlin as the capital of West Germany was Bonn, they nearly tore this building down. However, in 1956 it was decided to restore the Reichstag and it was reconstructed from 1961-1964. Note that the Berlin Wall went up in 1961. When totalitarian East Germany was dividing Berlin, democratic West Germany rebuilt the country's main symbol of democracy.

The modern glass dome placed above the Reichstag looks wildly out of place on top of this late 19th century concrete building, yet it works.

Inside the dome is this fantastic cone of mirrors. Note the wife to the right.

Can you see me?

A crop is as good as a zoom.

At the dome's top is an open oculus, like my beloved Pantheon's, and a place to rest after having walked up the ramp.

Looking down from the top.

Time to walk down. Barbie got ahead of a group of kids that I got stuck behind.

Play the Spot Barbie Game! See her? See her?

There!

See her? See her?

There!

See her? See her?

There! Note, she is acting as a good-will ambassador, taking a picture for four Asian tourists.

See us? See us?

A crop is as good as a zoom.

In the elevator, leaving the Reichstag's roof, I figured, "Why not be the guy to take a pic in the mirror?"

Barbie presents the line of people who did not know that you can make a reservation at the rooftop cafe and skip this line.

Walking home, I got a shot of this American break-dancer in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

Jeff and Obama. August 18, 2010.

Jeff and Obama. July 27, 2009.

Our room in the Westin Grand is right THERE.

After resting up a bit -- after all that we needed a rest -- we met my parents in the hotel hallway for dinner. Barbie had said to me, (paraphrased), "I hope that your parents will want to go back to Gendarmerie, because that's where I want to go." Before we could say a word, my mother said, (paraphrased), "Would you guys mind going back to Gendarmerie?"

Our favorite restaurant in Berlin.

I finally get to take a proper picture of Bacchanal. You should really right-click-open-in-new-window that one. Then again, you should do that with every picture.

I started with this excellent, "Fried scallop, peas, mint summer truffle." When I finished it, I wanted another.

Barbie started with the, "Carpaccio of veal, Fava beans salad, marinated anchovy."

For the entree, Barbie and I both ordered the, "Stuffed king's pastry, veal, chanterelles, young vegetable." When I finished, I wanted another. Luckily, Barbie let me have the last of her chanterelles.

My mother ordered this wild, "Char 'En Papilotte', cucumbers, potatoes, Yuzo." The entire dish was poached inside paper, and then opened for her delicately by the waiter.

My water and Bacchanal.

On the stair to the restroom is this massive photograph of a woman.

I thought that I would share this with you. The square image reflected in her eye is in the photograph. It is not me.

Dessert...

Father's, "Raspberry Mille-Feuille, Pistache ice-cream."

Mother's sorbets.

Barbie's, "Rum Baba, Ricotta, peach, basil sorbet."

My, "Black Forrest Cherry Zylinder." This dessert was freaking amazing. Take a peek inside below.

The flavors became so overwhelming that I had to share a cross-section with you. In a chocolate cookie cylinder you have a whipped cherry concoction on top, then some chocolate mousse, then some more cherry stuff below that, until finally there is a cream sort of thing at the bottom. If this restaurant opens in Los Angeles, everyone I know would be taken just for this dessert.