A Walk Through the 20th Century | Spencer Hollander

As the sun rose at 04:43 through the middle of our huge bedroom windows, there was nothing we could do other than wake up and complain about the previous long day. The cold shower and morning coffee helped a little but everyone was still dragging. But like every day on E3, we keep moving on! We left our new hostel around 08:30 to catch the subway in the Main Station. Little did we know, the train we were supposed to hop on was not running for some reason. The sense of seriousness in the group became surreal because now we had to walk a little under 3 miles to meet our tour guide at the Brandenburg Gate within the next ten minutes. Mrs. Paige and Meyers starting walking even faster than their “normal” pace. Even for a marathon runner like myself, I thought we were basically running. Not caring who fell behind, they just kept looking forward and never turned back until they reached the meeting point at Starbuck’s. By the time Mrs. Paige and Meyers arrived, the last group of people were 400 meters behind. We met our tour guide named Chris, who was a Canadian from Toronto. The first thing everyone thought was, “There is no way this guy is as cool as our main man Eddy from the Hamburg tour.”

Chris first brought us across the street in front of the United States Embassy, which was located in the Pariser Platz. This square, in the center of Berlin, is one of the main focal points of the city. It consists of buildings such as the French Embassy, Brandeburg Gate, U.S. Embassy, Hotel Adlon, and many more. We learned about all of the famous presidents and important people who have stayed in the presidential suite of the Hotel Adlon. From Barrack

Obama to Michael Jackson famously holding his child out over the balcony on the second

floor, the Hotel Adlon has played a significant role in the history of Berlin. Chris then gave us a descriptive explanation of the Brandenburg Gate and how this was one of 18 gates around the city, and represents unity and peace throughout Europe.

We ventured a couple blocks over to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This one of a kind German memorial pays tribute to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The memorial covers an entire city block with concrete slabs of varying sizes. Walking through this memorial was a beautiful experience because as you got deeper into the memorial the sounds of the world began to fade away and allows you to reflect on the mistakes made in the past while remembering those who lost their lives.

We then made our way towards Hitler’s bunker which was just a dusty old parking lot. Standing on top of the place where Adolf Hitler killed himself was a scary feeling. However, it was really neat to experience considering the amount of years I have spent in school learning about this exact location. We then came across the Deltlev Rohwedder House which served as a Nazi Ministry of Aviation. Just down a block from that, the Berlin Wall was standing tall, still partially intact, with a small exhibit for everyone to experience. Hearing the stories of people crossing the wall from Chris was really astonishing. I couldn’t imagine waking up one morning and not being able to see my family for 28 years. Lastly, we visited Checkpoint Charlie, which was the name given by the Western Allies to the most know Berlin Wall crossing point. It was odd seeing actors dressed in military uniforms taking pictures with tourists because everything was fake at this “checkpoint”. Overall, the Berlin tour gave us a great appreciation towards the capital of Germany and why it represents one of the most historical cities in the last decade.