Following three amazing weeks of rehearsals culminating in two exhilarating performances, my time in Berlin was coming to an end. I had been so busy finding my way between language classes, coaching and the rehearsal spaces that I hadn’t really had much time to do any sightseeing.
My parents had come out to Berlin to watch my performance and to spend a few days in the City. On my last day with my travel pass in hand I met up with my Mum, Dad and brother Tom and we did a whistle stop tour of Berlin.
We started near to where I had stayed in Berlin in the area aptly called “Charlottenburg” which was an independent City until 1920 when it became part of “Groß-Berlin” Greater Berlin”. We wandered around the gardens of the “Charlottenburg Palace” and then decided to take a look inside. The palace was originally built in the 17th Century and expanded by Frederick the Great in the early 1700s. The palace had been wonderfully restored to its former beauty and each room gave you a little insight into the lives of the people who had lived there.
After leaving Charlottenburg we made our way by train and tram to Kleistpark where I had my last class of my course, following which I met up with parents again at Alexanderplatz. Tom wanted to go up to the top of the Berlin TV Tower so they went to get the tickets whilst I was in class. The trip to the top of the tower was really quick by lift and the views from the top over the city were fabulous.
We grabbed something to drink and then it was off to the “East Side Gallery” which runs along the river Spree on Mühlenstraße. It is the longest section of the original Berlin wall left standing and following the collapse of the Berlin wall the eastern facing side was converted into an open-air gallery by over 100 artists. It was quite surreal to walk along it and trying to understand what it must have been like to feel constrained by such an omnipresent construction.
We finished off the day at Potsdamer Platz where we stopped to eat. The area has changed beyond all recognition since the fall of the wall as the area has been reconstructed with new shopping complexes, public areas and office developments. However there is a permanent reminder of where the wall had been as a line of bricks makes its way across the square to where a small section of the wall still remains.
We ended the day walking towards the Brandenburg Gate and stopped at the Holocaust Memorial. The memorial was quite thought provoking as it has been constructed using 2711 concrete slabs of differing heights with the ground falling away as you walk between them. As you walk between the slabs you seem to just disappear to anyone watching, a very eerie experience.
Finally at the Brandenburg Gate we stopped to take few pictures but as the weather was starting to change we decided to run for the bus, as we passed the Reichstag we could see the bus we needed just pulling into the stop. We only just made it with seconds to spare and as the bus pulled away the rains started. After a little bit of shelter, I finished my evening with a great get together with the rest of the cast and company.
There is so much more to see and do, I do hope I can come back and explore a little more.
I am glad you were able to experience and enjoy the city you were based in – your pics are splendid.
Thank you, it was an easy City to get around when I got used to it. So happy we made time to sight see.
Best wishes
Charlotte
It seems like you had a really wonderful time Charlotte…
I loved every minute 😊.
Best wishes
Charlotte
It is wonderful to see the Wall has come down. That it is no longer a wall to keep others imprisoned. But a place to show art. I am reminded of John F. Kennedy’s words, speaking in Berlin in 1963: “Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was civis romanus sum [‘I am a Roman citizen’]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’… All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!'”
That’s powerful, it’s nice to think of the wall as a gallery now and to heal, but it’s good they left some of it up as a reminder not to do it again.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Wonderful. Thank you
Glad you enjoyed them.
Best wishes
Charlotte
What fun and I enjoyed the photos.
Thank you Jovina 😊
Best wishes
Charlotte
Lovely photos, Charlotte. Thanks for sharing. Happy to see you with your family having a fun time. Congrats on all the hard work and for a successful show and classes there. Blessings & hugs! xo
It was my Mums birthday that week so it was good to celebrate 😊. Thank you Janice.
All my best
Charlotte
How nice! Hope she had a good one! 😘
Brilliant pictures Charlotte, so pleased you had such a fantastic experience and shared it with us. See you soon xx
I feel like I’ve learned a lot which is exciting. See you soon.
Best wishes
Charlotte 🙋🏼
Very nice tour of the place. Yes, I agreed what would people felt when the wall was there. The concrete slab construction is very interesting. I am wondering what the thought behind that was.
The upright slabs of concrete seemed to slot into the base which was longer on one side than the other. There is lots of building work now. I would like to hear from people that watched the wall being built from both sides and how they felt about it too.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Great tour of Berlin with some excellent photos. It must have been lovely to have your family with you for a few days. Best wishes, Clare x
I was too busy to spend much time with them but they had a good explore and took me to their favourite bits.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Great tour, Charlotte. I’m sure you will be back to Berlin many times in your career, until it will seem like a second home.
That’s a very lovely thing to say Noelle thank you.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Looking great as ever!
Thank you Benn 😊.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Yeah it does look like some bad weather was coming! Lovely photos!
Thank you, I had a mixture of weather, very much like home. Sunny then raining in the same day.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Brilliant photo’s Charlotte.
You all certainly fit a lot of sightseeing into few days.
Fabulous experience which will give you lots of memories..😀😘
I met a lot of lovely people as well.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Congratulations Charlotte, very nice – Thanks for share with Us – All the best for you and familly !
I’ve enjoyed a short break before the big move. Nearly fully recharged.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Lovely photos, Charlotte, and great that your family were able to visit.
Yes it was, this was their main holiday from work this year so I’m glad they came to visit me after they spent a few days in London with my eldest brother.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Hi Charlotte,
Loved your tour of Berlin! So glad that most of your family got to be with you during the final days that you spent in Berlin. Loved the photos too!
Thank you Darlene. We had a great time, so happy to leave everything to my parents to organise the day 😊.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Thank you for the pictorial of Berlin! My mother’s grandparents are from Germany, although I admit to not knowing where… Glad your family could join you, looks as though you had fun.
Great fun thanks Annette. My first visit to Germany, I had imagined more fairy book traditional buildings and colourful clothes for some reason but it was a very cosmopolitan City. It was very functional and well planned. I loved to see the character buildings in Charlottenburg (great name). I even got to watch them changing the posters in the underground.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Wow a wonderful trip with your family. A great memory for all of you.
We read about Charlotte and Berlin in our history classes. Some of my relatives hailed from Germany in the nineteenth century, so I am very interested in it.
I’ve had a nice break to recharge my batteries now. I must admit visiting Berlin has left me wanting to know more about the history of the wall. My brother is the history buff of the family so he had a great time exploring.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Tell your brother a historian friend recommended ‘Where Ghosts Walked: Munich’s Road to the Third Reich, by David Large and ‘Ghosts’ of Berlin by Brian Ladd. We read both for a grad history class I took in 2012.
It’s an amazing city. We have visited a couple of times – once on a conference and once because I booked an opera there! We felt very happy and welcome on both occasions, though the opera was strange. It was Onegin done in the style of Bertold Brecht. Everyone was dressed and painted as a clown and stood on stage for the whole opera. They moved in patterns upstage and downstage with small repeated variations… the singing was wonderful!
I studied Brecht for my A level Drama and put on a play I wrote with two fellow pupils in his style. We didn’t sing but it was quite unique we were told. I really enjoyed Berlin I just wish I’d had more time to explore.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Great to see such smiles after your three weeks of rehearsals and learning ~ congratulations. You also show how special connections are with your photos of your family, I would think not a better feeling especially being able to tour Berlin. “The Wall” photos are the ones that really capture me… Wishing you well Charlotte ~
I’d love to see you photograph the remnants of the walls Randall you’d do a much better job. The stories of the Syrian refugees pasted on to them was a great use of the stark concrete blocks.
😀 Best wishes
Charlotte
Enjoyed your photos very much Charlotte ~ and I bet seeing and reading the stories of the Syrian refugees must have been great to see & read. Wish you a great, beautiful day ~
Looking at this and reading, I now feel as if I have been. Never traveled to Berlin but it does look very interesting. Wonderful post, Charlotte. Can’t wait to see where you go next!
Thank you Beth, my parents checked out the routes and places to visit whilst I was rehearsing and organised the whistle stop tour for me so we made the most of the last day.
Best wishes
Charlotte
What a lovely tour of Berlin… and great photos you captured! Thanks for this interesting post, Charlotte. 🙂