Berlin Trip

11 November is the day… that the history honours group left for Berlin! After a meetup at Utrecht Centraal in the early morning, we traveled to the Hauptbahnhof Meininger Hotel. There we dropped all the luggage before walking towards East Side Gallery. This walk, which lasted for about an hour and a half, allowed us to see the Reichstag, Unter den Linden and the Siegessäule in the twilight. At East Side Gallery, a small group of students told us about the different paintings on the wall and taught us some of the histories they represented. The new paintings on the old wall made for interesting temporal contrast, which we discussed over dinner at a traditional German restaurant.

The next day we were up early to travel through Berlin to get some bikes. Via this mode of transport, we could discover the city much quicker than by foot. To test them, we biked to the Computerspielmuseum. A museum about computer games, which gave us an insight into the history and future of the leisure time of teenagers. Frans Willem decided to give one of the computer games a try, and we’re proud to say he crashed his virtual car only once. After that, we biked via a scenic route towards an old monastery, as well as the oldest building in Berlin: the St. Nicholas church. There, one of the students told us about the history of these old buildings, surrounded by newer buildings, thus representing the different layered times of Berlin.

The bikes then proved their worth, allowing us to get from East Berlin to West Berlin in no time whilst achieving our fitness goals for the day. We visited the Gedächtniskirche, where Frans Willem could tell us about the history of the city, and which stood in contrast with the oldest building and churches we saw earlier in the day. To even further explore this contrast, a group of students then went to the Pergamon museum, where old temples and art were kept, whilst another group biked for an hour to get to the Stasi museum. Both groups met up at the Siegessäule afterward, to bike to the restaurant for dinner together. There, stories about the museum visits were exchanged over Lebanese food.

On Sunday, the last day of the trip already, the group once more took to their bikes, to bike the Unter den Linden road again, via the Reichstag and the Brandenburger Tor. At the Stadtschloss, which we had to reach via a small detour due to the German remembrance day that had Unter den Linden partly locked down, Frans Willem could once more explain the layered time that could be seen in the newly raised building, which is based on the original Stadtschloss, but was destroyed and is now rebuild. After the twentieth group picture was taken there, the group had to return the bikes and travel to the hostel by tram, to get the bags and get to the train. There, some more group pictures were taken while everyone mused about the past few days. Educational, yes, but also just a lot of fun. And biking.

10/10 would recommend.

The Berlin Committee.