Spring 2009 European Tour:  Berlin, Part I
May 6th
By: John B. Holbrook, II
 

Wednesday morning I woke up after a very restful nights sleep in the Hotel De La Paix in Geneva, re-packed my luggage, had breakfast and prepared to fly to my next destination - Berlin.  But before I left, I took this photo of Lake Geneva at sunrise:  

 

After breakfast, I caught a cab back to the Geneva airport, and waited for my connecting flight to Dusseldorf, then on from there to my final destination - Berlin.

 

A last look at the Jura mountains before I left for Germany:

 

When I arrived to Berlin, the watch company A. Lange & Söhne had some friendly faces waiting to greet me at the airport: 

 

  The ladies showed me to the car which  A. Lange & Söhne had arranged to take me to the hotel:

 

Ahhhh Germany....it was good to be back in Deutschland:

 

As we neared our destination, we began seeing some of Berlin's famous monuments - here's the Berlin Victory Column:

 

We soon arrived to the hotel - the fabulous Hotel De Rome:

 

I was told by that the Hotel De Rome was one of the very best hotels in Berlin - I was duly impressed:

 

 

The bathroom was particularly nice:

 

 

After settling in and unpacking, I ventured out on a little evening tour.  One of the Lange representatives actually is from Berlin and she drew me a nice little walking tour to take on a city map.  I walked about three miles in a square around the hotel, which was perfectly located within easy walking distance of most of the historically significant sites in Berlin.  First up is the King Friedrich II of Prussia Monument:

 

You know you're in a nice neighborhood when there's a Bentley and a Bugatti dealership 2 blocks from your hotel:

 

 

The magnificent Bugatti Veyron  - top speed 253MPH, and a price tag of about 2 million dollars.

 

 

It was a short walk up the street to see the Brandenburg Gate:

 

From there, it was only a block around the corner to visit the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which is also known as the  Holocaust Memorial:

 

The collection of 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field is a work of abstract art - they're meaning is open to individual interpretation. It was inaugurated on May 10, 2005 and opened to the public on May 12 of the same year

 

 

 

It was only a few more blocks walk to see an actually remnant of the Berlin Wall which separated the Soviet controlled East side of Berlin from the free from 1961 until 1989.  The barrier came to symbolize the Iron Curtain between Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc.

 

 

When I was in high school, before the fall of the Soviet Union, I never dreamed I'd ever set foot in East Berlin, much less take a photo of my watch in front of the Berlin wall:

 

 

The Berlin Wall Memorial site:

 

The Berlin Wall Museum at the historically famous "Checkpoint Charlie:"

 

 

I didn't have time that evening to visit the Berlin Wall museum at Checkpoint Charlie, but decided I would definitely come back later in the week.  From there I took a stroll on Berlin's famous "Friedrichstraße" - the street with the very best shopping found in Berlin.  I happened upon a Bucherer store on this street:

 

 

Unfortunately no spoons were available at this location - apparently they only give those away in the Swiss Bucherer locations. :( After I did some window shopping, I headed back to the hotel, and had to change for dinner as I was meeting some representatives from Lange as well as some of the other US based journalists. Then it was off to bed, as tomorrow would be a busy day of tours followed by the cocktail party and dinner where A. Lange & Söhne would unveil their brand new watch - the Zeitwerk!