Wanderwochen

Oh, dear.  At some point I'll catch you up on our vacations and visitors, but right now you'll just have to be content with skipping to the present.
 

Spring has sprung in Berlin!  Dafna (Wisconsin-born and -bred) will tell you that it was never winter since it didn't snow, but she's wrong-- there was about 3 cm of snow one afternoon and it dipped down into the teens (Fahrenheit) for a couple of days.  Those of you who survived the Polar Vortex are not going to be happy with us, but the early spring and lack of winter has brought on terrible early allergies.  I'll stop my complaining now.

So, the spring weather and the bittersweet realization that we're leaving soon has given us the added incentive to explore more (also, eat more bread, because I love Madison and everything that it has to offer, but this depresses me).  I'm pushing myself to investigate a new part of Berlin weekly.  Here's 2 for your virtual sightseeing delight:

Pfaueninsel

This was a Familientagesausflug (yes, that's one word in German-- family day trip) last Sunday, a warm, sunny day.  Though it's not that far away, the travel took some planning-- train to bus to ferry-- but was well worth it.  Also, the fact that we needed to wait (an unheard of on Berlin public transport) 21 minutes for the only bus to the ferry stop allowed for some quality time with (one of) our favorite Chancellors, Otto von Bismarck and some lovely views across the Wannsee.

 
















We survived the 3 minute ferry ride to the island with no incidents and took off to explore.  Sure enough, around the corner was the first eponymous bird.  Okay, it was really cool to wander a nice sized island among 30 free-range peacocks (another 20 or so are kept caged for breeding purposes).  There are also goats (surrounded by a poorly-marked electrified fence, Dafna found out) and later in the spring, water buffaloes.  Both species are used as grass-management.  There's a castle (of course, any neighborhood in Germany worth its salt has a castle) and several out-buildings.  I liked the Jagdschloss and it's retro wood-paneling; Micah preferred to lounge at the Luisentempel and remember our neighbor and the model for German frauen, Queen Luise.

 

Hunting blind

 

 

Micah paying homage to Luise

And, the peacocks:

Where are the peacocks?

Breeding peacocks (not at the moment!)

Castle in the background

 

D being Queen

Bavarian Quarter

In my quest to walk 10,000 steps a day (Madison friends you're going to make me keep this up, right?) I've been exploring different neighborhoods and areas of Berlin.  Schoeneberg had been on my list for awhile but quickly moved up when I learned about the Places of Remembrance Project.  As you can imagine, being in Berlin (and probably all of Germany) makes you think a lot, because you know, Rick Steeves keeps telling me that Berlin has a multi-layered tragic history.  There are many, many memorials to many, many groups of people, but almost every neighborhood has a memorial to the Jews who were murdered in the Shoah.  I found this one to be particularly interesting.  My pictures aren't so great, but throughout this area there are about 80 signs attached to lampposts announcing what Jews were and were not allowed to do starting in 1933 or so.  It documents just how detailed and petty and threatening the Nazis were, even at the beginning of their reign.

 
The pictures are kind of cute, with bright colors and approachable art, which I think was probably well thought out; it makes people ask questions-- "Why is there a picture of a pacifier by your apartment?"  Wandering through the neighborhood I also saw 4 maps showing all of the signs, so the artists and the neighborhood government clearly want people to find them, notice them and ask questions.

Look familiar?

 

 

 

 

How about now?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rathaus in Schoeneberg is where JFK gave his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, but is also the home to an enormous exhibit entitled "We Were Neighbors".  The pictures on the websites are much better than anything I took (see also the project that the local elementary school-- and this is not a Jewish area anymore-- undertook to remember the Jews and the synagogue that once stood at the site of their school), but the details were amazing, and again, the ease of access (a roped off area off the lobby of the rathaus, no need to go through security, 2 docents to help, etc) made me think that they really want to own the history of the immediate area, if not the city and the country as a whole.

Biographies from the "We Were Neighbors" memorial.  Along the sides are index cards with every one of the 6000 people deported from Schoeneberg named.

A Vote

Okay, I've realized that getting the pictures on the blog is a pain in the ass and what is likely holding me back from writing more often.  So, tell me, would you rather read more more often but have fewer pictures or should I keep with my current not-very-often rate of blogging be continue to include lots of pictures.  Or you can tell me that you don't really have the time or interest to put time into thinking about this.  Either way...