The museum Gods strike again. On two previous trips to Florence Italy, we arrived on a day when the world famous Uffizi Gallery was closed. It is Monday in Berlin, and it turns out that all the major museums are closed on Mondays. Had we known this, we would have visited some of them yesterday and taken the Hop-On Hop-Off bus today. Live and learn!
So, we decided to try Microsoft’s Co-Pilot AI and have it design a tour for us. It seemed to work well and was simple to use. It told us to go to the DDR museum, walk across the bridge to the Berlin Cathedral, then take public transit to Check Point Charlie.
We’re getting used to using the S Bahn and U Bahn transit system. Sometimes, the signage is not all that clear, but we always manage to get to where we want to go. Today we had assistance from a student studying in Berlin, who is from Elora Ontario. She is studying International Affairs and wants to have a summer job in the Canadian government in the future. It is a small world.
The DDR museum is along the Spree river and it was a scenic walk from the S Bahn station to the entrance of the museum.
The DDR Museum offers an interactive experience that shows visitors what daily life in former East Germany was like. The exhibits allow you to step inside a recreated apartment, see what consumer goods were available in East Berlin, and sit behind the wheel of a classic Trabant car. It showed the wages of different occupations and what goods it could buy. For example, an IT technician earned 1,600 East German marks but a TV cost 4,000. Rents were cheap, but the living quarters were small and often housed multiple generations. One of the scariest exhibits was a map that showed the invasion plans of West Berlin. It was good to see the museum filled with school children.
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| East German Trabant car |
A short walk over the Liebknechtbrücke bridge and we were at the Berlin Cathedral. The Berlin Cathedral, known locally as the Berliner Dom, stands as one of the city's most iconic landmarks. Its grand façade and magnificent dome dominate the Museum Island skyline. I had a good chuckle to myself when I entered. I had read in the morning about Trump and his White House ballroom and then saw the Main Nave of the cathedral. Yes, Trump’s architectural legacy in Washington will look like a fast-food restaurant in comparison.
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| Berlin Cathedral |
The Main Nave of the Berlin Cathedral is breathtaking. It is well known for its grandeur and architectural details. I had a sense of awe when I entered. There was an enormous dome with beautiful paintings on the ceiling, soaring columns, mosaics, and intricate stained-glass windows. The central aisle has elaborately carved wooden pews and altars. The pipe organ looks like it could rock the foundations of the entire city of Berlin. As with other world famous cathedrals the acoustics of the are renowned, drawing both music lovers and performers for special concerts and organ recitals. Several Prussian kings are buried here. The atmosphere is truly majestic.
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| Alter in Berlin Cathedral |
I could have climbed to the top of the dome, with 200+ steps, but I’d be writing this blog from a hospital bed had I attempted it.
Then the fun began. Co-Pilot had told us to walk to U Museumsinse and take the U5 to Alexanderplatz station. There we transferred to S9 toward Warschauer Straße and exited at Warschauer Straße. From there it was supposed to be a 5 minute walk to the museum. We opened Google Maps to see which direction we needed walk to and found out that Checkpoint Charlie wasn’t anywhere near there. In fact, it was over 40 minutes away by public transit. After double and triple checking, we got back on S9 going back to where we started. Using Google Maps, we eventually arrived Check Point Charlie.
Checkpoint Charlie is one of Berlin's most famous cold war sites, serving as the main crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. Located on Friedrichstraße, it became a symbol of the divided city, witnessing dramatic escapes, tense standoffs, and significant moments in post-war history. Today, the site features a replica of the original guardhouse and a museum with informative displays that recount its pivotal role in international relations and everyday life during the time of the Berlin Wall. The exhibits detailed stories of escape attempts, the ingenuity behind these attempts and the political tensions that made Checkpoint Charlie a focal point of the global cold war tensions. There is also a hall that details the fall of the Iron Curtain and the Ukraine war.
Back in 1976, I visited Berlin and went into East Berlin. I had a boring time and was harassed by the East German border guard when I was leaving. I went through Check Point Charlie to the return to the west. It was a strange experience as the entire two block area was a military zone with lots of soldiers with automatic guns and barriers to stop any vehicle.
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| Checkpoint Charlie |
Today was Marg’s birthday. I had promised her an excellent German meal in Berlin to celebrate. What I didn’t count on was how hard it was to find a place. There doesn’t seem to a specific area where the best restaurants would be located, or at least one that we could get to easily. We eventually found a restaurant called Maximilians. It was packed and the waiting queue was about a 30-minute wait. We were not disappointed.
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