Berlin August 18, 2015

Hitler's Berlin: We met our tour guide Penelope at our hotel right on time at 10 am. We did a tour of Third Reich Hitler's Berlin. We toured some of the original and some restored NAZI buildings including the finance ministry, Luftwaffe headquarters, and SS building. We stood in a parking lot that now covers Hitler's bunker - cannot go into the bunker itself. From there we walked over to the Jewish memorial Walked through Tiergarten park and made our way to the memorial to Soviet soldiers.

 

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A view of the hotel lobby from the 7th floor of our hotel, the Berlin Marriot.

These are some of the excavated bunkers from World War II where Berliners hid during air raids.

A Third Reich government building. Large and intimidating.

East German era socialist propaganda murals of happy workers on wall of German Finance Ministry building

Carol with our tourgide, Penelope. She was from Australia but had married and lived in Berlin for many years.

Down below the pavement in front of the turquoise car is Hitler's bunker. This is where he and Eva Braun died.

A map of the bunkers below the parking lot.

This is the Holocaust Memorial. Very moving. Everyone has their own interpretation of what the stones mean.

Gypsy memorial. Soft, soft music could be heard coming from the surrounding trees. This was a very peaceful place.

The Soviet War Memorial was erected by the Soviet Union to honor the 80,000 Russian soldiers who died during the Battle of Belin in April and May 1945

The memorial was erected in 1945, within a few months of the capture of the city by the Soviets. It is located in

Tiergarten Park.

Flowers at the Soviet Memorial.

This is the Tiergarten Park. "Tiergarten" means "animal garden".

The beginnings of the Tiergarten can be traced back to 1527. It was founded as a hunting area for the King Charles. In 1530 the expansion began; acres of land were purchased and the garden began to expand towards the north and west. The total area extended beyond the current Tiergarten, and the forests were perfect for hunting deer and other wild animals. The king had wild animals placed within the Tiergarten, which was fenced off from the outside to prevent the creatures from escaping, and was the main hunting ground for the electors of Brandenburg. This king's hobby, however, began to fade away as the city of Berlin began to expand and the hunting area shrank to accommodate the growth. Now the Tiergarten is a huge, beautiful city park.

This is the composer memorial and is located in the Tiergarten Park.

Carol and her apple strudel.

Lou and his apple strudel.