Berlin again - Jewish Museum & Holocaust Memorial

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The only dismal weather day we had in Berlin fell on an appropriate day, the day we went to visit the Jewish museum and the Holocaust memorial. They are both really amazing and made even more so by the city they are in.

We spent hours in the Jewish museum but still did not manage to take it all in. It was designed by the architect Daniel Libeskind who named it "Between the Lines" because of the two lines within it, the one of Connectedness between Jews and non-Jews, and the other of Voids left as a result of the Holocaust. It is one of those museums that has to be visited many times to see it all so somewhere I am sure we will go back to.

The Holocaust memorial is a strange memorial but again, a fascinating place to visit. It is an area lined with concrete blocks all the same length and width but varying in height from flat on the ground to over 4 metres tall. It is made even more bizarre by the fact that there is no sign anywhere saying what the memorial represents so, without knowing about it, it could be looked on as anything from a strange building site to just a bunch of concrete blocks. Knowing what it is makes it quite an amazing place to visit. Underground there is also a very good visitors centre with stories of not just the Holocaust but also the lead up to it, how decisions were made and also many stories by survivors and their families.

In-between visiting these two we stopped off in Potsdamerplatz and Berlin's ultra-modern Sony Centre and surrounding modern buildings and shopping centres for a bite to eat. Inside the Sony Centre, preserved in glass casing, is a portion of the original old building that was on the site of the Sony Centre. It shows a part of the very opulent ballroom and one of the restaurants next to the display actually has some of the original features from this building!

Outside the Sony Centre there is also a part of the original wall that divided East and West Berlin. It is certainly a city with a very chequered history.

After such a heavy day we went and had a pizza and beer supper with Jonathan and Kurt at one of their local restaurants.