Where will life lead me?: Berlin for Thanksgiving weekend (11/29/13)

What to do when there is no need to cook an entire turkey for Thanksgiving: travel of course. So Jeanne and I got on a bus at 11 pm on Thanksgiving night to start a journey to Berlin. I had never been to Berlin so it seemed better to go on a trusted USO tour to see where things were and so I didn't have to find parking (that is the worst thing about traveling...finding the parking). Admittedly, I really do not like having to sleep on a bus, not my idea of a good time, but we all have to make sacrifices sometimes. Needless to say, by getting on the bus so late, sleep was the idea, so that we would arrive in Berlin refreshed (yeah right) bright and early...ok, just early on Friday morning.

How do I start off my trip after a not so great night of sleep, my knee went out (only slightly) which caused me to fall up the stairs...two weeks after the fact it is still hurt, so yes, I smacked it good. Motrin was my very good friend the rest of the trip. But, I wasn't going to let a little knee pain stop me, there were sights to see and Christmas markets to visit.

Our first real stop in Berlin was at the Flughafen Templehof. This was the location where the army had its pilots who then became the air force. It is also the location of the planes involved in the airdrops of food and other necessities to german people...to include operation gum drop (dropping candy to german children).

This is a memorial for those pilots involved in Operation Gum Drop

So here is a little extra information about Operation Gum Drop (or candy drop):
"Berlin Airlift pilots enjoyed their mission of flying into Germany to deliver food and supplies to the German people. It was a wonderful feeling to be delivering food and help, rather than delivering bombs.
During one mission, pilot Lieutenant Gale S. Halverson (then 27 years old) decided to tour around the area of Germany where he landed each week. During his tour, he met lots of children who came out to watch him take pictures of the sites. Unlike most children, they did not beg money or candy from him, but just stood and watched. In a flash, an idea came to him. "You kids wait until tomorrow and I will drop you some candy from my airplane."
The next day, Halverson kept his promise and dropped three small handkerchief parachutes of candy from the plane. He used the flare chute in the bottom of the plane. From that first idea grew a daily effort to drop candy from the sky to the German children.
The excited children wrote their thanks and began calling Lieutenant Halverson, "Uncle Sam" or "Captain America."
In the beginning of the candy drops, Halverson used his own weekly candy ration. Soon the other pilots and support staff started giving their candy and gum and their handkerchiefs. The project grew so big that his old army base also began to contribute candy and handkerchiefs. The city of Mobile, Alabama, formed a drive to request help. Soon, candy and handkerchiefs from around the country began arriving for the pilots to drop. One week, Lieutenant Halverson flew 368 pounds of candy and fifty pounds of handkerchiefs from America back with him in his C-54 airplane that he had brought to the states for maintenance work." (http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/jc/jc5c.htm)

Next we road through part of Berlin that didn't give the best first impression. It was not the prettiest place I have ever been. Seriously, every building seemed to be grey and had all kinds of graffiti on them. Then we came to the Oberbaum bridge, and it was lovely. The bridge crosses the River Spree.

sorry for the glare, not much choice when taking picture inside a bus.

This is the same bridge while standing by the wall.

Once we crossed the bridge we were met by a happy little bear:

This is the Best Buddies Friendship Bear (not the same as the Berlin Buddy Bears) that was dedicated by Eunice Kennidy Shriver to people with intellectual disabilities who inspire those around them. It is a rather happy bear that is across the street from a large section of the Berlin Wall that is still standing.

We then saw a large section of the Berlin Wall that is now a sort of open air museum and gallery as various artists have created murals on the sections (of course the graffiti artists and vandals have also left their mark...shame too as some of the murals are quite nice). So these are some pictures of some of the sections:

I liked this section the best

I just liked this poster for Absinthe...still have never tried it, probably never will...but who knows.

Just a few pictures on our drive:

One of the Berlin Buddy Bears...these were created to promote friendship etc...kind of like the cows...they are located throughout Berlin...so there will be a few in this posting...some didn't come out so well with taking them as we drove along, but some weren't bad.

another of the bear versions...this one a soccer bear (not fully like the buddy bear, but they do like their bears...it is the symbol for Berlin)

Our next stop was at the Olympic stadium. The museum was actually closed at the time but the curator was kind enough to come in just so we could see it; awfully nice of him.

Next a little time for lunch at the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) at Schloss Charlottenburg (the Charlottenburg palace).Seemed a good place for a first Feurzangenbowle (gluhwein with rum) in Berlin.

We then went to the Allied museum on Clayallee (this used to be part of an army base...now the museum is in what used to be the library and theater).

yes another buddy bear...this one depicting the candy drop

depicting a guard tower in position by a section of the Berlin Wall.

care packages that were dropped.

parts of the broken Berlin wall and hammer and chisel used to help bring it down.

After WWII (during the cold war) Berlin was broken into 4 sectors...the American, British, French, and Russian.

sorry for the glare. After WWII when Germans were saying they were not Nazis they had to complete paperwork about themselves...believe it or not, many lied on this paperwork. Luckily some cabinets were found that contained files on nazis (part of them shown above) and this would allow the government to see if they happened to be in the files...of course many disappeared by the time the check was done.

makeshift wedding dress

Our next stop was rather somber...it was in the Grunewald district of Berlin. Some people going to the Grunewald Train station might not realize that it was a place of historical importance. Especially not if they didn't go up the little road to a specific platform to the right of the station. This wasn't a sight of some great heart warming speech, it wasn't a site of anything particularly good...no Gleis 17 is the platform where most of the Berlin Jews were deported. Now it is a memorial to these 50,000 people who were shipped off, most to their death.

What better way to brighten a mood than some pretty Christmas lights and decorations...and then a stroll to the Christmas market not far from our hotel.