German Journey

After leaving Israel, I flew to Germany to hang out with Kathleen. Our plans were aggressively unplanned, but we ended up going to Cochem and Bernkastel, a couple of towns near her house, then Berlin for a few days, then Luxembourg city. Pretty cool.

The first day was spent visiting the towns. Most of the towns where Kathleen lives feature at least one castle, mostly on a vista overlooking the rest of the town. This is Schloss Cochem.


Closer up to the castle. We unfortunately missed the tour of the inside, but got to walk up to the castle. The image on the side of the castle is of a man carrying a child across a river, presumably the Mosel, which runs through the town.


After Cochem, we went to Bernkastel. In the middle of a bunch of winding streets was this guy. We're not sure who it is a representative of, but he's intense.


The town also had a cemetary with a memorial to its citizens who lost their lives fighting in World War I.


There's a castle in Bernkastel as well. I pointed this out to Kathleen, but she put the kibosh on walking up there in the rain.


The following day we journeyed to Berlin. Our key points of interest were the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, and Checkpoint Charlie, but we ran into lots of other interesting architecture and history along the way. This is the Kaiser Wilhelm Church. Bombed out during WWII, a new church has been built alongside the remains.


The inside of the old church has been restored, and features some amazing mosiacs.


After some walking, we made it to the Brandenburg Gate. Quite an impressive structure. German architecture overall was interesting; it seemed to me fairly aggressive, perhaps because I'd just come from seeing mostly holy sites in Israel.


The Reichstag, famously burned during the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s. It's been rebuilt, and the dome you see placed on top. The dome also has a restaurant inside, and parliament once again meets in the Reichstag.


We wandered for a ways between the Reichstag and Checkpoint Charlie, encountering several impressive buildings along the way. These are the French and German Cathedrals in the Gendarmenmarkt. The two are nearly indistinguishable, with the French Cathedral being built by Huguenots fleeing persecution in France, and the German Cathedral built shortly thereafter. I believe the German is on the left.


Also on the Gendarmenmarkt is the Concert House. The pictures on either side of the entrance are somewhat similar to the poster for Silence of the Lambs.


This church was one of many buildings designed by a famous architect, but I'm afraid I didn't catch his name.


How many Germans does it take to change a lightbulb? Two, along with a cherry-picker, and utility van. Extremely difficult operation, that.


The Berliner Dome or Berlin Cathedral, built at the end of the 19th century.


We went to the Checkpoint Charlie museum, which has been around since before of the Berlin Wall. They had a lot of fascinating exhibits on people escaping across the wall, and also had the original sign from Checkpoint Charlie.


Outside they had a mock-up of what the Checkpoint used to look like. Kathleen is standing watch.


This is the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall still standing. A fence had to be erected around it to protect the wall from souvenir hunters looking to chip pieces of the wall off, although it was obviously too late for some sections of the wall.


Berlin gave way to Luxembourg City. We first stopped at a memorial cemetary. Among the 5000-odd American dead, General George S. Pattion was buried there.


I had never been to such a cemetary before. It was humbling to look over the rows of lives sacrificed to allow me to be where I am today.


There was also a German cemetary near the same spot. The American army was in the habit of burying both their own and their enemy's dead, and both were later moved to these two sites. The difference in style is interesting. Additionally, Kathleen pointed out that while there are several American flags flying over our cemetary, the German cemetary is absent of any German flags.


Luxembourg City itself was pretty cool. At one time one of the most heavily fortified locations in Europe, it had centuries worth of fortifications, along with underground tunnels and fortifications.


The city center itself had some churches, one dating back to the 13th century, an abbey, and the Grand Ducal Palace of Lexumbourg. It's still in operation, and we observed the guards closing down the Palace for the day.


So after lots of good German beer and food, it was time to return home, with the hope to return again sometime. The layout of German towns, little hamlets really, and the greenness of the countryside was enchanting, and hopefully I'll get to return and drink in it further.