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On Being On Holiday In Germany
Aug. 22nd, 2023 11:59 amWhat I did on my holidays
I am recently returned from a family holiday to Germany.
We had one week in Berlin and one week on Usedom on the Baltic Coast.
I enjoyed the holiday very much.
For the week in Berlin we were staying at a friend's flat in the trendy district of Kruezberg. Lovely flat, lovely neighbourhood.
Lots of walking. The Captain was keeping track of his step count and we covered a fair distance on foot.
Berlin is a very vibrant city with all the things you'd expect from the capital city of a major European country and, of course, its own unique features.
It was very striking how much the cityscape is still affected by the Second World War and the subsequent division of the city in to East and West. It looked to me like there were still a few bombed out city blocks waiting to be built on. There were certainly many buildings in the city where repairs had been pretty minimal immediately after the war and then some combination of lack of funds and the broken logistics of a divided city meant they were never restored or rebuilt. The Memorial Church to Kaiser Willhelm the First for example which was made safe in the early 1950's and then, rather than being rebuilt had a new, different and very lovely church building built around it. It now has some relationship with Coventry Cathedral. Also noticeable that the tram system almost entirely runs in the old East Berlin, as the West, like lots of western cities, removed the trams. They are now slowly being replaced.
The other striking thing about Berlin was the attitude to the Second World War, the Nazis and the Holocaust. The Germans seemed pretty open about the mistakes they had made leading up to the Nazi government of 1932. That a combination of weakness, wishful thinking, desire for revenge, racism, a desire to solve problems with violence and nastiness from the whole country had allowed the Nazis all the opportunity they needed and Germans had nobody to blame but themselves for all the horrible hateful things they did and the consequences that flowed from it. It was pretty sobering, particularly as I can see my own state making some of the same mistakes that Germany made early in the Nazi's coming to power. (1)
The most striking example of this was the Reichstag which was only rebuilt in the 1990's and still has Russian and Ukrainian graffiti on the walls along with some bullet holes.
The rest of Berlin was pretty cool. Did the folllowing
Strolled the Unter der Linden to the Brandenburg GateWalked round the Tiergarten
The Holocaust Memorial and a section of the Berlin Wal;
Bumped in to the Pride Festival during the above.
Went to the Natural History museum and saw some T-Rex and Allosaurus fossils and a huge brachiosaurus. Very cool. Also an interesting exhibit on taxidermy for natural history museums.
Went to the Zoo, which was a lovely, but old fashioned zoo. Great for seeing the animals, perhaps not so great for the animals that needed more space. But saw some animals I'd not see before, orang utans, a Tibetan cow-moose thing, rhinos. Very lovely gardens.
The Museum of East Germany where the Germans make fun of the DDR. Sad to see the hopes of the socialist fraternity crushed and the Eastern Bloc exploited by *checks notes* their socialist brothers from Russia.
The Memorial Church of Kaiser Wilhelm, very beautiful but sad.
Saw the memorial to the War of German Independence aka the Napolianic War - which from the German point of view was an unprovoked invasion by France followed by 20 years of being oppressed, dragooned and politically re-organised. Interesting to see a different perspective on it from our own.
Food and beer lovely.
Public transport excellent.
Week on Usedom which is a seaside holiday resort for well to do Germans. As we'd saved some money on accommodation in Berlin we splashed out on a beach front hotel. Lovely seaside place. Lots of delicious fish. Made friends with the butcher in the local Aldi. I had a day's work to do so MLW and the Captain walked to Poland. We went up a treetop walk and observation tower. There was a little music festival going on so we went to listen to some music. Saw a full double rainbow over the Baltic. Weather was warm but with thundery downpours.
Did a lot of strolling up and down the promenade.
A very fine holiday.
(1) I would not personally wish to over egg this. There are elements of right-wing populism and racist nativism going on in the UK at the moment. As there is in the USA and a number of other European countries. that was also true in the 1920's and 1930's and also in other decades. The party currently getting its Poujade on in the UK is about 20 points behind in the opinion polls and looks likely to lose about 200 seats at the next election.
I am recently returned from a family holiday to Germany.
We had one week in Berlin and one week on Usedom on the Baltic Coast.
I enjoyed the holiday very much.
For the week in Berlin we were staying at a friend's flat in the trendy district of Kruezberg. Lovely flat, lovely neighbourhood.
Lots of walking. The Captain was keeping track of his step count and we covered a fair distance on foot.
Berlin is a very vibrant city with all the things you'd expect from the capital city of a major European country and, of course, its own unique features.
It was very striking how much the cityscape is still affected by the Second World War and the subsequent division of the city in to East and West. It looked to me like there were still a few bombed out city blocks waiting to be built on. There were certainly many buildings in the city where repairs had been pretty minimal immediately after the war and then some combination of lack of funds and the broken logistics of a divided city meant they were never restored or rebuilt. The Memorial Church to Kaiser Willhelm the First for example which was made safe in the early 1950's and then, rather than being rebuilt had a new, different and very lovely church building built around it. It now has some relationship with Coventry Cathedral. Also noticeable that the tram system almost entirely runs in the old East Berlin, as the West, like lots of western cities, removed the trams. They are now slowly being replaced.
The other striking thing about Berlin was the attitude to the Second World War, the Nazis and the Holocaust. The Germans seemed pretty open about the mistakes they had made leading up to the Nazi government of 1932. That a combination of weakness, wishful thinking, desire for revenge, racism, a desire to solve problems with violence and nastiness from the whole country had allowed the Nazis all the opportunity they needed and Germans had nobody to blame but themselves for all the horrible hateful things they did and the consequences that flowed from it. It was pretty sobering, particularly as I can see my own state making some of the same mistakes that Germany made early in the Nazi's coming to power. (1)
The most striking example of this was the Reichstag which was only rebuilt in the 1990's and still has Russian and Ukrainian graffiti on the walls along with some bullet holes.
The rest of Berlin was pretty cool. Did the folllowing
Strolled the Unter der Linden to the Brandenburg GateWalked round the Tiergarten
The Holocaust Memorial and a section of the Berlin Wal;
Bumped in to the Pride Festival during the above.
Went to the Natural History museum and saw some T-Rex and Allosaurus fossils and a huge brachiosaurus. Very cool. Also an interesting exhibit on taxidermy for natural history museums.
Went to the Zoo, which was a lovely, but old fashioned zoo. Great for seeing the animals, perhaps not so great for the animals that needed more space. But saw some animals I'd not see before, orang utans, a Tibetan cow-moose thing, rhinos. Very lovely gardens.
The Museum of East Germany where the Germans make fun of the DDR. Sad to see the hopes of the socialist fraternity crushed and the Eastern Bloc exploited by *checks notes* their socialist brothers from Russia.
The Memorial Church of Kaiser Wilhelm, very beautiful but sad.
Saw the memorial to the War of German Independence aka the Napolianic War - which from the German point of view was an unprovoked invasion by France followed by 20 years of being oppressed, dragooned and politically re-organised. Interesting to see a different perspective on it from our own.
Food and beer lovely.
Public transport excellent.
Week on Usedom which is a seaside holiday resort for well to do Germans. As we'd saved some money on accommodation in Berlin we splashed out on a beach front hotel. Lovely seaside place. Lots of delicious fish. Made friends with the butcher in the local Aldi. I had a day's work to do so MLW and the Captain walked to Poland. We went up a treetop walk and observation tower. There was a little music festival going on so we went to listen to some music. Saw a full double rainbow over the Baltic. Weather was warm but with thundery downpours.
Did a lot of strolling up and down the promenade.
A very fine holiday.
(1) I would not personally wish to over egg this. There are elements of right-wing populism and racist nativism going on in the UK at the moment. As there is in the USA and a number of other European countries. that was also true in the 1920's and 1930's and also in other decades. The party currently getting its Poujade on in the UK is about 20 points behind in the opinion polls and looks likely to lose about 200 seats at the next election.
