Boogying on Hitler's Grave... sort of

That's right! Only yesterday did yours truely visit several historical places in Berlin, one of which included the site of Hitler's bunker where we were invited by our tourguide to dance (and do a number of less polite things) over the location of his "cremation". Not only was this the site of Hitler's bunker, but it was only a hundred feet or so from the location of what was once the Berlin wall. As the tour guide put it... this is the most important piece of earth in the 20th century. How ironic is it that it is now the site of 70's-style low income apartments. How unepic, yet deliciously ironic! Our tour guide's name was Barnaby and he hails from Wales, but is living in Berlin because he is a musician and they prefer cheeper cities. The tour was really excellent, and Barnaby was both knowledgeable and funny. Amongst other things, we saw the university were Hegel taught Marx, which also happens to be directly accross from square which was the site of the famous Nazi book burning (sorry, AJ, but Hitler was not actually there signing autographs). The square now has a small room just beneath it with a glass roof where you can see enough empty white shelves to store all of the books that were burned. We also got to see remnants of the wall, Checkpoint Charlie, and possibly the only square on earth with two churches, one built by Protestants for Catholics, and another for Protestants built by Catholics. Only in Germany...

Today, we travelled by S-Bahn to Potsdam to visit a few castles from Frederick the Great, but they were mostly closed. On top that, it was a really gray, depressing day, so we returned to Berlin proper somewhat defeated. Or spirits were thankfully lifted when we decided to visit the Reichstag and were able to get in and visit the dome. You're actually allowed to walk all over the entire roof of the Reichstag and then you can enter from there into the giant glass dome, which doesn't even have doors to enclose it from the weather. Since I'm at an internet kiosk at my hostel (The Circus), I can't upload any pictures, but I'll do my best to describe the dome. It's made up of levels of glass panels around the inside of which winds two cork-screw walkways to the very top of the dome which has a huge opening at the top and from which we could lay back and look up and the grey nighttime sky of the city (cool, but it would have been nicer if the stars were out). The dome sits directly over a giant circular sunroof that looks right down into the giant meeting chamber where the Bundestag meets (in fact, you can see into that room from the streets - the Germans clearly believe in the transparency of government!). At the center of the dome is what can only be described as pillar of mirrors in the shape of tornado designed to bring as much light as possible from outside into the chamber. It was absolutely the coolest thing I've seen in a good while. For pictures (not mine) click here.

More updates when I have the time! Berlin is amazing!