Did You Know?

We saw Mark and Judy Becker off to the train station yesterday morning to catch one of the last flights out of Germany before the ash clouds from Iceland closed down airports. Though they had a short one-week visit, we were impressed with how many activities we fit in. They arrived last Wednesday evening, and we spent Thursday reconnecting them with Wittekindshof and our small town, which they visited 5 years ago. Then Friday we had a brisk morning walk up to the bus stop, and caught the bus just on time to get to our train to Wittenberg. We spent Friday in Wittenberg, seeing the Luther sites and sprucing up our Luther trivia. Saturday we trained to Berlin and stayed there 4 days, with a side trip to Potsdam. Our touring included stops at the following: Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Wall Documentation Center, East Side Gallery, Hackescher Markt and Hackescher Hoefe, memorial for the Nazi book burnings, Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Alexanderplatz/TV Tower, Potsdamer Platz, The Caller, Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial, Unter den Linden, DDR Museum, Reichstag, Park Sanssouci, Neues Palais (and Uni Potsdam where I studied abroad in 2007), Schloss Sanssouci, Cecilienhof (site of the Potsdam Conference), the Dutch Quarters and Brandenburger Strasse. The trip was very educational, largely because of the historical significance of Berlin during the 20^th century. Judy enriched our trip further by reading Rick Steves and filling us in along the way. We found ourselves saying many times, “I didn’t know that…” We thought we’d share a random compilation of the facts that at least one of the four of us didn’t know, and maybe you’ll learn something, too!

Katharina von Bora, Luther’s wife, was an entrepreneur. She made wine and beer, invested in real estate, farmed and owned the most livestock of anyone in town.

Luther preferred wine to beer.

Indulgences were written in Latin with blank lines to fill in names; the townspeople who bought them couldn’t even read what this ticket to heaven said.

The ICE train will get up to at least 249 km/h.

The major immigrant group in Germany and especially Berlin is Turkish.

Many apartments in Berlin (including the one we stayed in) were constructed in the 30s by the Nazis for their workers. They stipulated that the buildings had to have a courtyard at least 50 meters wide to prevent firestorms (like what happened in Dresden) in the event of a bombing. They were obviously planning ahead. Today, however, this allows for a peaceful green space in the middle of the complex.

With 4 people, it is a bargain to purchase the small group day card for 16 euros for unlimited transportation on all public transit.

The Hackescher Hoefe off of Hackescher Markt are a set of connecting inner courtyards in the middle of the big city. These are the only courtyards open to the public and reveal the hidden life of the big city.

The Brandenburg Gate is the last of 14 gates around the city from the Prussian empire.

The lady atop the gate was originally called the Lady of Peace. Napoleon stole her, but the Prussians got her back after defeating him in 1813. She was then renamed Lady of Victory.

Hotel Adlon, near the gate, is where Michael Jackson dangled his baby out the window.

Before the wall was erected in 1961, 100,000 East Germans were fleeing to the West per year.

Some buildings were incorporated into the Berlin Wall, including apartment buildings. Some tried, with and without success, to flee to the West from their windows. One successful woman was 77 years old and jumped 3 stories into a fireman’s net.

Building the wall even included digging up old graves and relocating them because they were in the way. In the 80s they demolished a church to fortify the wall, as well. There’s got to be some symbolism in there…

The location of Hitler’s bunker has remained undisclosed in order to prevent it from becoming a mecca for Neo-Nazis.

The Holocaust Memorial is made of anti-graffiti material and sits atop Goebbel’s bunker, which was discovered during its construction.

1 in 6 Germans in the former East have a Dacha (garden home) today; only 1 in 16 Germans in the former West do.

Something about nude beaches…Mark’s still not sure because he was embarrassed to stand in front of the naked picture display.

East German farmers earned almost as much money as engineers.

In the DDR, kindergartners had to take group potty breaks, and no one could leave until the last kid was finished. (Talk about peer pressure! I would have been so pee shy!)

There was an Easter German car called the Wartburg, which had a 2-stroke engine.

The TV Tower at Alexanderplatz was originally built to be the tallest building and also to represent the secular culture of the city because most other structures in the skyline were church bell towers/steeples. Ironically, when the sun hit at the right angle, it cast a cross-shaped shadow.

The Reichstag will hold your utility knife for you while you venture to the top of the dome, They aren’t, however, eager to give it back until you are certain you are walking through the exit doors.

The best way to get Mark high places? Don’t be very clear about what exactly you are doing. Get him to the top of the glass dome overlooking the city before he realizes it’s more than a mere trip inside the government building.

The German parliament elects the Chancellor; the people elect the parliament.

Hitler never stepped foot into the Reichstag.

Perhaps because of recent rebuilding after war damages, the city has been able to incorporate a lot of energy-saving construction. For example, the glass dome atop the government building is open air, which allows cool air to circulate and allows hot air to escape the chambers below. It also has a series of mirrors with a shade that rotates throughout the day to reflect the sun for natural lighting below.

Hiroshima happened after WWII was over in Europe.

The Berlin Wall stretched all the way into Potsdam and crossed in front of Cecilienhof.

Of the original Big Three, only Stalin attended all of the conferences deciding the fate of post-war Germany; Churchill was defeated in the election and Roosevelt died.

Stalin was considered the host of the Potsdam Conference because Potsdam was in the East. He had red geraniums planted in a star shape in the front, which is still carried out today.

And finally, there is good reason that we get completely mixed up about which Friedrich or Wilhelm or Friedrich Wilhelm did what and lived where. Here’s a little timeline of the Prussian rulers:

o 1640 – 1688 Friedrich Wilhelm

o 1688 – 1713 Friedrich III, renamed King Friedrich I

o 1713 – 1740 Friedrich Wilhelm I

o 1740 – 1786 Friedrich II

o 1786 – 1797 Friedrich Wilhelm II

o 1797 – 1840 Friedrich Wilhelm III

o 1840 – 1861 Friedrich Wilhelm IV

o 1861 – 1888 Wilhelm I

o 1888 Friedrich III

o 1888 – 1918 Wilhelm II

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Ah. There we go. So my mom arrived two weeks ago and as soon as she was rested up, we headed for Ireland. We started off in Dublin, where we enjoyed a couple Guinnesses, listened to much live music, and watched traditional Irish dancing. We visited many of the highlights, including the Guinness Storehouse. The self-guided tour was crazy informative and a great mix of visual, audio and olfactory stimulation. We learned the secrets of a perfect pour, which we’re guessing is why it tastes different in the US, then enjoyed a complimentary pint at the top of their tower while overlooking the city. The other major highlight was the writers’ museum, which sent us off yearning to read so many classics. None of us realized how many major authors hailed from Dublin and Ireland: Yeats, Shaw, Beckett, Wilde, Swift, Joyce, the list goes on.

After two days in the capital, we picked up our rental car and the true adventure began. As someone who gets motion sick ridiculously often, there’s nothing like being the passenger on the left side of the car while driving on the opposite side of a narrow windy road lined with rock walls to really throw off your perception and inner ear…but my stomach made it through. I did find that in times of mounting motion sickness, I was all the more likely to become my mother and grab for the glove box or my door or seat or whatever was in reach. You know, the logical response to perceived danger.

We headed towards Galway, and stayed in the small town of Spiddal, chosen for the glorious bed-and-breakfast we’d booked there. We stayed in a thatched cottage (Cloch na Scith, if anyone happens to go to Ireland) run by an Irish family. The husband was born at the cottage, as well and his father and grandfather. The woman was a joyful do-it-yourselfer who gave us a soda bread baking demonstration and was proud to have Gaelic as her mother tongue. (The Galway area is definitely a good place for linguists.) We spent both days driving around the area, taking in the scenery, which consisted of many rock walls that stretched far into the distance, many sheep walking in the middle of the road, and many thatched cottages. Each night we enjoyed bread, cheese and wine next to the turf fire. Our first full day there, we stopped at a local craft fair, then drove up to Connemara and explored the area. The next day we left for the Cliffs of Moher, passing through The Burren along the way. The Cliffs were impressive, especially in the massive rainstorm we were caught in. When we bundled into the car again, we stripped down our layers and laid them across the hatch to dry as we started the journey back to Dublin. We stopped only to grab a late lunch at a hole-in-the-wall café with quirky mismatched lampshades that were really pieces of art.

It was a great trip, better than we had expected, and we wished it could have been longer. The people were incredibly nice (…plus their awesome accents helped), the sights were gorgeous, and our ears and tastebuds were pleased, too. Every bit of it was stimulating. Plus, we’re thinking it was good prep for the city of the Celtics, Boston. Next year Dan will be at Boston College’s Graduate School of Social Work for his Masters of Social Work, and I will be at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education for my Masters through the Language and Literacy Program. We’re both excited, but I think Dan’s mostly looking forward to being closer to Kevin Garnett.