Day 47: The Best Free Walking Tour

Sandeman's Free Walking Tour was one of the best experiences of my entire Europe trip and almost single-handedly made the spontaneous two-day trip to Berlin worthwhile. We had signed up for the 11AM tour, but missed it, so we sat on a bench in front of the Brandenburg Gate for an hour, waiting until the 2PM tour. I had an amazing strawberry cream and Belgian chocolate Haagen-Dazs ice cream in a waffle cone.

We walked around the Tiergarten for a bit in the wait time, passing a nice pond along the way, as well as the memorial to the Soviet victims of the Second World War.

Just before 2PM, we headed back to Parisier Platz, where the tour started right in front of the gate.

The Brandenburg Gate, originally known as the Peace Gate, was built in the late 18th century and features a statue of a Quadriga on top, pulled by Eirene, the goddess of peace. At the time, only the royal family was allowed to march through the central archways. Our guide explained how Napoleon had taken the statue to Paris in the early 19th century, but it was restored to Berlin after his defeat. The featured goddess was then redesigned as Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory, and looks down on Parisier Platz as a snide symbol of victory over France.

Right on the square was also the Adlon Hotel, one of the most famous hotels in Europe, with notable guests such as Tsar Nicholas II, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford.

The first stop we came to on the tour was the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. It was a large square consisting of many rectangular cement blocks, set on undulating ground. Some blocks were short enough to step on, and others were twice my height or higher.

My history prof once said that there was only one country who had done a good job of memorializing its role in WWII, and that was Germany. He was very right. Unlike in Austria or Hungary, Germany fully owned up and apologized for every victim of the war in a separate memorial. There was the Soviet memorial, and one for the Roma, another for the homosexual victims, the T4 victims, and the largest one for the Jews. The entire city was like a museum itself.

Our next stop was to a parking lot, also known as the site of Hitler's former bunker, where he had committed suicide with Eva Braun. If I hadn't been on a tour, I would never have stopped there. There were no signs, no recognition of what the site had once been. We stood right over the bunker, as well as by the willow tree beside which Hitler and his wife were cremated.

Next, we headed over to the former Luftwaffe headquarters, which became the socialist ministry after WWII, and currently acts as a tax office.

In front of the building was a memorial to the June 17 1953 People's Uprising in East Germany, which was brutally suppressed. As we happened to be there right on June 17, the 62nd anniversary of the protest, there were flowers all around the memorial.

Just around the corner from this was one of the largest remaining chunks of the Berlin Wall, next to the Topography of Terror museum. Pieces of the wall were strewn all over Berlin and we had come across some of them in random places on the streets or in public parks.

Additionally, running all the way across the city was a long line where the wall used to stand.

From there, we walked to Checkpoint Charlie, the best known Berlin-wall crossing point during the Cold War.

Our second-last stop on the tour was at Gendarmenmarkt, a very photogenic square. 

It was the site of the Konzerthaus, as well as the French and German Protestant Cathedrals. Our guide explained how, prior to WWII, Berlin had been a very accepting and tolerant city compared to the rest of Europe. For this reason, many persecuted groups moved there for refuge. When the number of French Protestants in the city began to rival that of the German Protestants, a new church was erected for them right across the square, mirroring the German cathedral.

Although many buildings in the city had to be reconstructed after the war, most of the statues were preserved and hidden in bunkers when the bombings began. This meant that on many buildings, the statues were much darker than the buildings themselves.

Our final destination was Bebelplatz, the site of the Nazi book burnings on May 10 1933. The memorial there was a simple glass panel in the ground, which showed a room underground painted entirely white and lined with empty white bookshelves. The State Opera was also visible from the square, although it was undergoing renovations.

The tour finished there, however, we headed back to the Topography of Terror, a free specialty museum, to check it out for an hour. It had a wonderful exhibit that explored the lives of notable Nazis and the Nazi regime. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay as long as I would've liked as we had to catch a night train to Munich. Dinner was calamari and coconut soup before catching the bus back to the station.

Photos by Julie Zhang.