Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Berlin.
Day 12: Berlin's Historic Heart - Saturday, August 19, 2023
We started this morning with a guided tour of Berlin with our local guide. We jumped on the tram to meet Matt on Unter den Linden Street near the Brandenburg Gate. Rick does know how to pick the local guides as Matt was very knowledgeable about the history of Berlin. His tour was excellent. We started at the well known Brandenburg Gate. |
Guide Matt, Stan & Janice, Brandenburg Gate, Quadriga on top of Gate
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Our next stop was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, also known as the Holocaust Memorial. It is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman and Buro Happold. It consists of a 19,000-square-metre site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. It was a thought provoking sight.
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Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe with Janice
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One of our last stops was The Topography of Terror. It is a rare undeveloped patch of land in central Berlin, right next to a surviving stretch of Wall. It was once the nerve center for the Gestapo and the SS. Today this site hosts a modern documentation center, along with an outdoor exhibit in the Gestapo headquarters' excavated foundations. The exhibit does a good job of telling the powerful story of the Nazi government in the place where it happened.
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The tour is over. We rested up a bit before heading out to our last dinner and saying our goodbye's to our fellow travelers. It was a great tour. We met a lot of interesting people both on the tour and locals. We learned a lot of history that we did not know. We visited many historical sights. We ate a lot of the local cuisine which we really enjoyed. If you liked this scrapbook, you too can have this experience by signing up for Rick Steves' tour.
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