Dylan Schiemann

On May 3rd (day 35 of my trip around the world earlier this year), I received a whirlwind tour of Berlin from Wolfram’s cousin Martin:

Martin grew up in East Germany, so I received a humorous, biased perspective of how much better East Berlin is/was than the west.

The first thing of note was the dichotomy of old and new Berlin. The modernization of the city is impressive, yet the old lives on throughout. There are still obvious quirks in the layout and transit of the city based on the old borders. Because East Berlin had a buffer zone between the wall, everything within a few blocks of the wall has been rebuilt after being in decay for decades. As a result, the east side is more modern than the west, at least near the wall.

The lore behind this tower is that the easterners wanted to build something that could be seen from anywhere on the west side. It was built like a chimney, because that’s what they knew how to build. I don’t know if this is true, because the line for the ride to the top of the tower was too long.

I did not watch the Star Trek movie in Berlin, but did manage to sight a Dojo sticker:

The civic center of Berlin is near the river Spree, and a quick boat tour shows off a number of impressive buildings:

There’s a surprising mix between classic and modern architecture, art, and more, even at the subway stops.

We then continue our walk throughout Berlin, checking out remaining segments of the wall. With the way the wall was divided, you will see random segments throughout the city, some where the original wall was located, some not. Near the wall and Checkpoint Charlie, there’s a fun tourist trap where you can get your passport stamped with replicas of the stamps required before the wall came down.

No landmark would be complete without a Starbucks:

There’s the sobering Jewish memorial:

And more beautiful architecture:

This pink building is pretty shocking:

The west side has this beautiful cathedral that was partially destroyed in WWII and was never repaired. It’s now in a pretty blighted are of Berlin:

We walked by the Berlin Zoo on the way to an impromptu Dojo Beer event at a biergarten:

I met Dirk Schiemann, the first time I’ve met someone with my last name that’s not part of my family. He looks shockingly like like my father, and he has spent much of his life in West Berlin. I also met Bernd, a Dojo user, that would join us in München in a few days.

My day in Berlin came to an end with the angels of Berlin:

Berlin is far too big of a city to see in just one day, especially if you want to really experience any of the sites. Martin did a great job of showing me as much as exposing and wetting my appetite for future visits.