The Wall

Berlin is a very modern city.  It feels North American, almost.  The architecture is a diverse collection of urban art.

This building houses one of the embassies, I did not find out which one.

The Berlin Philharmonic building.

  

As you tour through Berlin, the difference between East and West is still evident.  The West flourishes with architecture and big-name enterprises.  The East has typical, box-like, Soviet style buildings. 

Typical "East" style building.

Berlin carries the weight of the Holocaust.  I visited the Jewish Museum and it was an intimate collection of memorabilia, stories, letters and artifacts.  The museum isn't just about the holocaust, it has full Jewish history from 900 BC to today.

"Jews not served here" sign from the 1930's.

Inside the Jewish Museum are spaces referred to as the Memory Void.  The architect designed the building with many open spaces, odd corners, dead-ends and rooms that force you to reflect on the symbolism of these voids.  One room contains Menashe Kadishman's art called "Fallen Leaves".  There are 10,000 faces covering the floor to represent the innocent victims of war and violence. 



"Fallen Leaves" by Menashe Kadishman



One word describes Berlin:  classy.  The way the city has risen from despair is remarkable.  Berlin emits the major crises that define the city with responsibility, honesty and humanity.  I question the word humanity as it is a derivative of the word humane.  How can the implication of what "humane" implies be associated with humans?  The human race has acted deplorably and appears to be more animalistic and savage than anything remotely caring and pacifistic.

Photo:  Onlookers and massive open-pit grave filled with murdered Jews.

Let's put this in perspective.   I know that everyone understands the horror and tragedy of the holocaust, but let us not forget.  Six million Jews were murdered:   this is the equivalent of wiping out the populations of Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Ottawa and the entire province of Saskatchewan.

Photo:  Jewish man being murdered above another mass of dead bodies.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is a series of above ground pillars.  Underneath is a collection of the horrors of the holocaust. 

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

I read letters from men, women and children describing what it felt like to know they were being evacuated soon.  One lady wrote a good-bye letter to her friend and co-worker that she could not say good-bye to in person.  The letters detailed the appalling conditions of the concentration camps and how easy it was to lose hope yet how they maintained their strength.  My eyes were not dry and my stomach felt like it was filled with cement.

Speaking of cement, I now have a small piece of the Berlin wall in my suitcase.  They call people like me 'woodpeckers' as we peck away at the wall, stealing a piece of history.  Very little of the wall exists.  What remains is a twin line of cobblestones to mark where the wall stood. 

The Berlin Wall Monument.

Twin cobblestones mark the location of The Wall.

There is an interpretive center called the Topographie des Terrors.  Not only does this interpretive centre border The Wall, but it was the Gestapo headquarters.

The Berlin Wall Monument site.

In the Eastern quarter, there is a significant stretch of the wall remaining.  It is a beautiful work of art and the world's longest mural. 

Section of the mural on the Berlin Wall.

Another mural.

The evolution of art from a site of deaths and murders does not reduce the historical importance.  It draws you in, and forces you to remember through whatever artistic interpretation touches you the most.  The hope is that by remembering, history won't repeat itself, right?

Berlin was divided into 4 quarters, and the security of one of the quarters was enforced by the Americans. 

The American quarter checkpoint site.

In this location, there was a checkpoint  that determined who could cross to the West, and who could not.   Checkpoint Charlie (Checkpoint C) now hosts a museum. 

Live actor re-enacting the rituals of the checkpoint.

The Checkpoint Charlie museum includes stories of the many deaths associated with people trying to cross from East to West.  Families were torn apart.  There are some amazing stories of people smuggled across the border, and extremely brave attempts at escaping. 

Two suitcases were joined together, and a hole was cut in-between.

This 5'7" woman was smuggled across the border in the two suitcases.

This musician smuggled his girlfriend across in a speaker.

There were several tunnels created under the wall that allowed Easterners to surface on the non-communist side.  Can you imagine the stress of digging a tunnel, day -after-day, hoping not to get caught?  Just the thought weighs heavily on my heart.

A man crawling through a tunnel under The Wall.

Berlin was emotional but welcoming.  The Berliners are empathetic and heartwarming.  My time in Berlin has changed who I am, and I am thankful for that.

A Bicycle Built For Two

Amsterdam is beautiful and there are bicycles everywhere! 

One of many canal in Amsterdam (Prinsengracht)

Beautiful canals, bridges and bicycles.

They have parkades for bicycles, traffic lanes for bicycles, special traffic lights for bicycles, and you an find a bike chained to anything that is chainable. 

Overflowing bicycle parkade near Centraal Station.

Bikes, bikes, and more bikes!

The story behind owning a bike in Amsterdam is that you have to work very hard to ensure your bike looks as crappy as possible so that nobody wants to steal it.  Everyone is very good at this as pretty much every bike looks like the ones in the far corner of the Dunstable dump. 

Crappy bike chained to a lizard statue.

Even so, every year there are over 20,000 reported cases of stolen bicycles.  Does Calgary even have 20,000 bicycles in total?  They say the canals in Amsterdam are 3 meters deep.  One meter of mud, one meter of water, and in between one meter of stolen bicycles!

The evidence is well hidden.

Along the canals are skinny row houses that are connected for the entire length of the canal.  On average, the width of a 'house' is only 6 meters wide.  The Dutch government calculated taxes according to width of the front façade of your home, so all the houses were built very deep, narrow and tall. 

Photo of skinny row houses taken from a canal boat.

All houses are identified by a gable up top.  Each gable has a post or steel I-beam protruding from it.  This attaches to a pully system that allows you to hoist your furniture to all levels of the house.  

Example of different gables.

 I was under the impression the buildings were leaning forward with age, and are eventually going to fall into the canal.  I was informed that they built the row houses with the top of the house protruding further than the bottom.  The buildings stick out at the top to minimize damage when hoisting large items.  Neat!  The angles on some buildings are very impressive - on a canal corner the buildings lean outward for both faces of the 90-degree corner angle.  The ancient architect earned his paycheck in Amsterdam.  Some apartments date back to the 1600's.

Leaning houses.

 There are of course many "coffee shops" for which Amsterdam is very well known.  The "coffee shops" differ from cafes in that they allow you to smoke weed.   Prior to arriving I wondered:  " How will I know which coffee shops are the ones that are laid back and have the munchies?"  Well,  the smell gives it away so there was no confusion.   Yup, pretty stinky places.  Also, the dubious shops are very clearly labeled as "coffee shops" and not as cafes.

A "Coffee Shop", a creepy dude, and more bicycles.

Equally well known is the Red Light District.  I assumed the Red Light District would be tucked away in a far dingy corner of the city, difficult to get to and difficult to find.  In fact, the Red Light District is in the main center of town. It's right there for everyone to visit, about 3 blocks from the main train station.  It took me a while get up the nerve to walk through (by myself).  I had to circle it a few times to build up my courage.  It's not a place where nice girls go, right?  Sorry Mom.

It is tacky to take photos in the Red Light District so I have taken a photo of the sex museum instead...because that's not tacky.

What would a Zannerpalooza blog update be with out a food reference?  I had mini Dutch pancakes called " Proffertjes" with icing sugar on them - my taste buds were extremely happy.  I wanted Dutch-Indo food (Nasi Goreng and Sate) but the restaurants I could find had dishes for 2 or more people. 

Proffertjes.



I really wish I had a travel buddy in this city.  There are so many fun things to do, but having a friend to give you courage, and to laugh (giggle) with makes the fun times even better. 

It is spring and the flowers are in full bloom.  The floating flower market was really colorful and a unique setting.  The amount of flowers they are selling off of floating barges is countless.  The market extends for 2 city blocks.  I picked a café with bar stools at the window so I could watch everyone circulate through the market.  It was a relaxing environment and a great way to people watch.

You name it, they have it!

Literally.

More flowers.

Back view of floating barges that make up the flower market.

The city went crazy the day I was there because Amsterdam won the football game.  I have never seen so many crazy drunk people - thousands and thousands of them all singing and chanting a song about Amsterdaaaaaammmmmm.   It started at 11am and at 10pm it was still going strong.  

Partying in the boats.

Partying in the streets. 
These crowds are why I didn't rent a bicycle.

As a Canadian - this was my first introduction to European soccer madness.  I loved it.  The male to female ratio appears to be about 20:1. Single Ladies, if you want to pick up a drunk stoner on a bicycle - this is the place for you!

Home Fries

I travelled by train from Paris to Brussels.  Wow - Brussels has such a different feel.  I  really like it here.  It's cleaner, smells better and the people are friendlier.

View of Brussels from La Place Royale.

The center of the town is called Le Grand Place.  It is a square with a museum and older buildings - very nice architecture and gold leaf accents.  There are patio cafes and people milling about.  

Le Grand Place.

Side street off Le Grand Place.

The city hall in the Grand Place is a big beautiful building with a tall spire.  The rumor is that the spire is slightly off center and the architect was so upset he threw himself off the summit of the tower.  Looks straight to me - or is it?!?

Brussels City Hall.

I found a lush, green park and stayed there for over 3 hours.  It was sunny, warm and beautiful.  A man was playing a flute, and then two sets of church bells started ringing in the distance.  There were many people enjoying some rest and fresh air in the park.  It was such an foreign, surreal experience for me to enjoy relaxing and not feel pressure from within to be working. 

Entrance to the Parc de Bruxelles.

Lovely view from park bench.  This was (so far) one of my favorite days in Europe.

The next day I ate some yummy Belgian waffles with strawberries, bananas and whipped cream. 

Somewhere under all that whipping cream is a Belgian Waffle.

I walked around the Grand Place and the took the city bus tour.  Did you know that Belgium invented French Fries?  I wonder why we don't call them Belgian Fries?

One of many french fry stores.  They serve them in a paper cone with mayo on top.

There are over 400 types of beer here, you could try one a day for over a year!

Stella!!!

I went to a chocolate museum.  A "praline" in Belgium means a cream filled chocolate; there are no nuts in a Belgian praline (hooray!).  I learned about how white, milk and dark chocolate are made.  I even tasted the original cocoa mass (basically the straight chocolate with nothing added to it) - whoa!  The cocoa mass was so bitter that my eyes watered and my lips puckered.  How someone in the 1800's envisioned mixing cocoa mass with sugar to make it taste better, is beyond me.  I would have dropped it and ran in the other direction.

The chocolatierre making pralines.  She went to cooking school and specialized in chocolate.

The museum taught all that the myths about chocolate are not true.  It does not give you pimples, it does not rot your teeth, cause headaches or make you fat.  Everything in moderation, of course!  The chocolatierre taught us how to make pralines and then we got to eat them.  I love it here.

It only took me a few hours in Brussels to master a new trick.  The first day I arrived (for those of you who know me, yes, it was the first 10 minutes) I bought a few chocolates in the first store I saw.  I now have a bag - my proof that I am a so-called spender.  I then go into the many other chocolate and candy shops, with my empty  bag (empty unbeknownst to all shop owners) and they give me free samples.  I barely had to eat the entire time I was in Brussels!  I have never seen so many awesome chocolate, candy and cookie stores in my life.  Brussels is Zanner Heaven.

Cookies - my favorite food group.

Brussels is also famous for eating mussels and fries otherwise known in French as  "Moules et Frites".  I had to take a break from the chocolate and enjoy this local delicacy.  The waiter provided me with a big silver bowl to throw out the shells.  The mussels were served in a salty broth with onions, celery and something green.  I loved it.  The fries were so good I didn't need ketchup.  To make my meal even better at Chez Leon, the Moules & Frites special which came with a  free Belgian beer.

Moules & Frites with Belgian beer (only 399 more beers to try...)

No trip to Brussels would be complete without seeing their famous statue - the Mannequin Pis.  It's a statue of a little boy peeing.  With all the fan fare I thought it would be huge.  I almost missed it!  Other than the crowd of people around - I would not have noticed the little guy.  Years ago, the king of France (Louis XV) provided an outfit for the Mannequin Pis as an apology as a Frenchman had attempted to steal the statue.  As tradition, France has provided many different outfits for the statue.   He was naked when I saw him. 

Mannequin Pis.

Mannequin Pee in relation to Mee.

Of course the city has to capitalize on everything Brussels is famous for.  Someone created a life sized, chocolate inspired, waffle eating, little boy peeing statue.  Much to the delight of tourists.

Whoa lady!