3 days in Berlin

[Leyfy]

Last week I spent three days in Berlin as part of a History trip with my school (organised by the History department, I am HOF Creative Arts but went along as an extra member of staff). I thought I'd write up a little run-down of what we did, for anyone interested.

Flights

We flew with EasyJet from Gatwick to Berlin Tegel. It was a tiny little Airbus (compared to the Dreamliners and A330s I am used to going to when we go to Florida). I swapped seats and ended up right in the back row of the plane, which was fine except the smell from the loos! Blurgh! Flights on the way out took off on time and was very smooth.

On the way home we had a 20 minute delay. Keeping in mind the plane didn't even arrive at our gate until half an hour before we were due to take off, I was very impressed at how quickly they turned round the plane!

Both legs as we were a big group (34 in total) they took our luggage off of us and we got to put it in the hold for free. I wasn't bothered as I had my headphones and my iPad so I was quite glad to be rid of it!

Accomodation

We stayed at the Hotel Allepo near the Zoo. The hotel was very clean and functional - we seemed to be the only school party there. On the Friday night there was a large group of football fans as there was a big match on, but it was a nice atmosphere at all times. I'm considering going back with my husband in the summer and I'd stay here again. Luxury for a staff trip - we all got our own rooms!

Overview of our days


Friday 25th January

We landed about 9.30am and made our way through immigration. We picked up a pre-booked coach outside the airport and our first stop was for lunch at about 11.30am German time.

Lunch finished, we made our way to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. This was a camp for the political prisoners during the war. It was absolutely freezing (-6 real feel) and that plus the snow on the ground certainly added to the bleakness of the place.

About 4pm we caught our coach and headed back to our hotel and checked in. By the time we were all sorted it was time for dinner in the hotel. About 7pm we made our way onto the German metro system for the first time and to the old parliment building, which was bombed during WW2 and then rebuilt - The Reichstag.

Unfortunately we got a little delayed on the German underground and missed our guided tour slot, but we had a look around anyway. Some great views over the city. On the way home we visited the Jewish memorial (each block, no matter what size, denotes 20,000 Jews murdered in WW2).

We also got a quick view of the Brandenburg Gate on the way home, although my colleague (not a History specialist, I hasten to add!) kept referring to it as the BATTENBURG Gate!

Saturday 26th January

It had snowed overnight so it was still bitterly cold. We had breakfast in the hotel and left about 9am. Our first stop was the Allied Museum. This is in what was the American sector - the road leading up to it really reminded me of certain bits of the US with wide boulevards and intersections. Half of the museum (which is in an old cinema built for the American troops) we watched a short film on the blockade of West Berlin. Absolutely fascinating stuff, and there was another short film afterwards about the life of British troops in Berlin. Some very 70s hair going on!

This is the tunnel the British built into East Germany to spy on them. We were double-crossed by a British agent and the Soviets knew about the tunnel for a long time before they came clean they knew!

We also had a look inside one of the planes that was used for the blockade:

The British double agent apparently is still alive and living in Russia.

We then got back onto the subway system and made our way into the East Berlin side to near the TV tower.

We caught the tram here over to the Soviet/Stasi prison. You can only do a guided tour here, which we'd booked and we had to split into two groups because of our party size. The prison was first of all a canteen in the 40s and then converted into a prison under Soviet rule. They converted an area known as the 'u boat', which was underground to keep the prisoners. Our tour guide explained that the lights were kept on day and night, you could only sleep in a certain position or you would be woken up, several prisoners shared one cell and one bed (with no mattress/pillows etc). Many people died there due to the conditions.

Later on the Stasi took over the prison and their aim was to keep the prisoners alive as long as possible so that they could serve their sentences, so the conditions improved. They then built a new prison next door. We were taken to look round the newer block, and what really got me was the whole floor of interrogation rooms. There was apparently only three sentences handed down if you were found guilty whilst being a prisoner in there - 5 years, 10 years or life. A 14 year old girl was sentenced to 10 years there (and ended up in Sachsenhausen) for painting lipstick on a portrait of Stalin, for example. Our guide also told us that there were four guides working in the complex who were former prisoners - two had been informed on by their fathers, one by his wife and one by their child. It's very hard to wrap your head around the fear and paranoia that you must've felt living in East Berlin at that time - our guide told us that sometimes in the few shared cells they would have two informants to check on each other, for example.

After the Stasi prison we made our way back to the hotel (we were delayed due to a demonstration in Berlin somewhere which temporarily halted the tram system). Our evening was spent at the TV tower. A couple of students didn't want to go up and as I hate lifts/elevators at the best of times I volunteered to stay at the bottom and supervise them. I would've gone up if everyone did, but I was quite happy to sit at ground level! It was really foggy up there anyway, so apparently all you could see was a giant glowing 'Decathlon' sign!

Sunday 27th January

We were up early and out to fit in a visit to the Berlin Wall museum. They have a section where it was exactly like it was in the time. Being in my mid-30s, one of my early recollections is watching the wall come down on the telly and at the time I had no idea of the significance of the occasion. I was really interested to find out that if you were on the west side you could literally walk up to the wall, but on the east side there were rows of barbed wire, extra walls etc.

Our next stop was a fascinating museum known as The Topography of Terror. This was the former site of the SS and Gestapo headquarters - the buildings have been destroyed but a museum and memorial is now on the site. If you are ever in Berlin and have any interest in WW2 history this is a must visit. I have been to Berlin before (Although 10 years ago) on a previous school History trip and I'd never been here. There is so much detail and so much information I'd never come across here.

We then walked down the road to the former crossing point from East to West Berlin - Checkpoint Charlie.

We didn't go in the museum (which I have been in before and well worth a visit as well) but we stopped for some lunch. The students all headed to KFC but us staff went into a local coffee house for a sandwich and variety of cakes!

We had a quick look round the museum shop, but then it was time to catch an organised coach over to the Wannsee area to the house where 15 of Hitler's most senior operatives planned 'the final solution to the Jewish problem' - the Holocaust. This is a big manor house about an hour outside of Berlin on a beautiful lake which the Nazi's went to at the weekend to 'escape' and relax.

We had a fascinating talk from a German history student who explained the background to WW2 and the anti-semitism that arose from it. We ended up in the room where Heydrich and others planned the mass murder of millions of people. This conference of 15 men took around 90 minutes to conclude and oversaw the details of the mass murder of so many. They have copies of the original documents and what is chilling to see is the numbers they casually jotted down. There was also a very moving room that was full of quotes from descendants of both those that planned the final solution and those who had suffered from it.

As I am sitting here writing this I am still shaking my head at how it came to that point.

After a very intense couple of hours we made our way back to the coach. Everyone was very shattered by now - the journey back to our hotel was about an hour so we had some time to chill out.

We packed up our stuff and put it in storage and headed out for a couple of hours to find dinner. We met back up at 7pm and headed to the airport for our flight home.

So, that is a very brief overview of my three days in Berlin! My husband would love to go one day (he has a History degree) so now I've tacked the subway system etc on my own I think I could give it a good go on my own. Great weekend - absolutely exhausting but so informative and the students were an absolute credit to themselves.

[Pino_Spetzberg]

Thank you for posting.
Very atmospheric in the cold with snow on the ground.
... and no reference to currywurst.

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by Pino_Spetzberg

Thank you for posting.
Very atmospheric in the cold with snow on the ground.
... and no reference to currywurst.

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I did manage an apple strudel and a Bratwurst though! When in Germany ...

[Jockey]

Fab pics thx for posting .I have ran the Berlin marathon twice and doing it again this year ..wonderful city!

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by Jockey

Fab pics thx for posting .I have ran the Berlin marathon twice and doing it again this year ..wonderful city!

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Wow congrats on the marathons!

Berlin seems very flat, is the course like that? I’m training for a half at the moment (furthest I’ve run is 10k) so I know the work and effort that goes into them.

Fantastic city - am looking forward to visiting it again.

[Col&Ali]

Thanks for the mini trippie Kim. Ry is going there in 2 weeks time with his Film course to the Berlin Film Festival - hopefully they will schedule in some time to see bit of what you did

[NewtoOrlando]

What a great mini trippie! I went to Berlin with a friend about 14 years ago, but would love to go again to see more in depth historical stuff, so planning to go with DH at some point.

I do remember it being a wonderful, vibrant city, and the people were so friendly. Glad you enjoyed it & the kids behaved!