A Berlin Welcome

Today I headed to Berlin on an early train from Amsterdam.  After arriving in Berlin the first thing I noticed was the modern train station.  While many European countries will use an existing building and convert it into a train station, Berlin has a three story train center.

View of the three story train station.  The station symbolizes the very modern city of Berlin.

 This is one thing that I noticed when walking around Berlin.  Due to WWII and subsequently the Berlin Wall, Berlin does not have the narrow streets of traditional historic cities.  Most streets are three lanes wide and all the buildings are very modern.  It is a city reborn from the ashes of both fascism and communism.

There are no narrow cobblestones streets here in Berlin.

However, there has been a large effort to restore and maintain historical buildings.  On my first day, I visited the East Side Galleria, which is a part of the Berlin Wall that has been converted into a mural art museum.  It was fascinating to see the different messages each artist decided to depict with their small section of the Berlin Wall.

The East Side Galleria is a very long section of the Berlin Wall preserved as an mural gallery.

If only East and West Berlin had such a cozy relationship, things might have been different.

All the cities with walls, and what a world with walls does to the people.

Me and the Berlin Wall.  I was not alive to see it fall, but can appreciate the historical and cultural significance.

I really like this mural; an interesting take on Picasso's La Guernica.

Tomorrow, I will meet a friend from

Germany and explore more of the city.  Stay tuned!