38 Hours in Berlin - A weekend trip with all the sights

Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Along the way, we stopped to see the Topography of Terror exhibition, housed outside in what were once torture cells for the Third Reich Secret Service, the Gestapo, and the SS. A permanent home is under construction, and due for completion in the next few years. The exhibit documents a gruesome history of confinement and torture, while also telling stories of resistance.

Some distance away, we finally made it to Checkpoint Charlie, the infamous border crossing between the American and Soviet sector. Evidenced by the number of souvenir shops and the 1940s styled border station (complete with a dual sided sign featuring a young American soldier on one side and a young Soviet Soldier on the other), the border crossing has undergone massive changes. Nonetheless, the Checkpoint Charlie museum is not to be missed. It features a vast collection of objects detailing Cold War conflicts over borders, the construction of the Berlin Wall, and the forms of protest in Soviet occupied Europe. Highlights of the museum include the exhibits detailing the many escape plans and devices used throughout the Wall's history. Seeing what lengths that people on either side of the Wall went to in order escape is truly overwhelming.

Ready for some rest, we caught an afternoon snack in a nearby café. We slowly wandered through the streets and shopping arcades of East Berlin, and soon found ourselves back on the Unter den Linden. We then made our way slowly back to our hotel for dinner. It was a full day indeed.

Sunday

We began with a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. There wasn't much time to see anything far away, so we went for a short walk along the Ku'damm. We packed our things, checked out, and headed back to Wuerzburg. 38 hours went by quickly, and I can't wait to do it another weekend.

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