Another long day with (partially) uncooperative weather, but
in the end, a good day.
This morning we headed back to the Brandenburg Gate
where
who should we run into but the actors Terry Bradshaw, William Shatner, Henry
Winkler, and George Foreman, all filming an episode of their tv show, Better
Late Than Never. Winkler did a
selfie with one of the students, but Shatner was just “get out of my way.”
From there we headed to the Information Center for the
Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe.
I always find this memorial deeply moving, with its emphasis on the
individual stories of those who were persecuted. It’s always easier to tell the story of those
who were the perpetrators than the stories of the victims. The perpetrators have a single narrative,
while each victim had his or her own unique story.
As we were leaving it started to hail. Only half the students had umbrellas, but the
storm was short. We walked to the Roma
Memorial that had been closed off yesterday and then back to Unter den
Linden. Lots of fast moving clouds, some
with rain, but we arrived safe and sound.
We went back to the hostel so those who needed jackets and
umbrellas could pick them up. I went off to a vegan restaurant nearby for some
vegetables. I ended up getting the
roasted cauliflower with tahini.
Then we went to the Pergamon Museum, where I had arranged
for the students to have free admittance.
Because of the extensive renovations to the building, less than a third
is still open (the Pergamon Altar won’t reopen until some time in 2019), but
what’s on display is still spectacular.
Not all students went to the Pergamon, and some left early,
but I arranged to meet them all at 3:40 in front of the Berliner Dom. By 3:35, 8 of the 10 were there. At 3:40 we went to the bus stop and then the
last two students came running up (they got lost). Luckily, they had time before our bus came
and we all met our guide just before 4 pm.
I had contacted Refugee Voices Tours and we took the “Walk
Around Berlin With Syrian Eyes.” The
idea was to visit important sites in Berlin history and contrast them with
recent events in Syrian history. Our
tour began at the Finance Ministry (site of the 1953 protest), continued to the
Topography of Terror, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Gendarmarkt. Along the way we learned about the massacre
of Hama in 1982, the rise of the Arab Spring and the uprising in Syria leading
to the Syrian Civil War. We then heard
about the Syrian refugee crisis and how our guide and family made his way from
Syria to Egypt to Libya to Italy to Germany.
Afterwards, we went to a Syrian-run restaurant for a very
good buffet dinner. Some of the students
said it was the best meal we had had in Berlin.
Some of the items on the table: Mutabel (what I would call baba ghanoush), tomato and cucumber salad, falafel and hummus, muhammara (one with cheese, one with za'atar), lamb mandi, and kibbeh (my favorite).
Tomorrow we leave for Dresden. As of my last email from the university, they
intend to pay my hotel in Prague in less than an hour (at 2 pm, California
time).
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