Ich bin ein Berliner

As many of you may have heard, "Ich bin ein Berliner" were JFK's famous words declaring himself a "Berliner," showing his support for West Germany in 1963.   However, it was reported that JFK accidentally called himself a ""jelly-doughnut" as Berliner is a German doughnut.  (As it turns out, JFK was right - the grammar choice made it clear he was a person and not a sugary breakfast treat).

And in the footsteps of JFK and Ronald Reagan (OK maybe we weren't THAT important), we made our way to Berlin. Unfortunately by the time we arrived, there was no wall left - I of course wanted my money back and a plane back to Brussels.

Coping with my disappointment, we made our way to the hostel in what was formerly East Berlin.  We wandered through an alley and climbed the stairs up to our hostel, following the crooked signs for the THE HELTER SKELTER.  Upon entering, one could not avoid the impending message on the hostel wall:

In dreadful anticipation, we moved into the next room to check in:

In reality, it wasn't as bad as it seems. But for those of you who remember the Christian hostel in Amsterdam (post is below!) going from "God's Mailbox" to skulls and bones is quite a shock.  Helter Skelter even felt the need to put this warning up on the pool table:

Fortunately we didn't spend much time in the hostel.  We visited the few parts of the wall that Mr. Gorbachev forgot to tear down.:

The wall to the left in this picture is one of the longest stretches of the wall left:

We also visited the Brandenburg gate, formerly a gate between East and West, and the gate where Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech:

We saw the most famous checkpoint between East and West Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie:

While Berlin no longer has an area called the "American Sector" they have kept this sign at Checkpoint Charlie:

We saw the Reichstag, housing the German Parliament.  We unfortunately couldn't get into the famous "Dome" so we decided to have a little bit of fun outside. The result were some ridiculous "jumping" pictures.

 We then went further back in history to an even darker time in Germany's history.  We first visited the Holocaust memorial and museum.  The winning design for the memorial was simple but powerful - a series of gray rectangular blocks, ranging from 3 feet off the ground to 10 feet.  As you are walking through, you easily are lost - you descend into the darkness of the blocks.  You rise for a second, seeing the sunlight and hoping maybe that you can get out, only to see the path drop into further darkness. After twists and turns and sporatically running into others you know, you make it out - and the sunlight has never looked brighter.

We also visited the museum, which was equally humbling.
 

Berlin also has the Gestapo Museum, detailing the horrors of the SS and their operations in Berlin. 
 This first picture is a map of SS headquarters and departments in Berlin during the war - including Communications, Recruitment, Military Planning.

This picture in the Gestapo Museum was taken in Brussels, only a short walk from my house.  It shows prisoners being moved by SS guards.

We had a chance to visit some other historical museums, including the German history museum with artifacts going back to early civilizations:

One of the true gems in Berlin was the Pergamon Museum, which reconstructed some of the world's treasured monuments.  This first picture is of the Pergamon Altar from the 2nd Century BC.

Pictures from "Museum Island" where most of the museums are located:

You can't go to Berlin without enjoying the food.  I don't think I've eaten as much sausage in a 3 day period as I did in Berlin!  And the choices are endless - bratwurst, currywurst, bockwurst - you name it they have it.   We also enjoyed the nightlife - with a group that loves to have a lot of fun, we discovered another great side of Berlin.

And lastly the trip home! The seats here are heated, oddly enough.  The vents are alll under the seats, causing it to rise up - certainly a strange metro ride.  We woke up at 5 in the morning and had to navigate 3 trains and a shuttle bus to get to the airport, but we made it back to Brussels.

NUTS!

After we had our fix of EU jargon in Luxembourg and German sausages in Trier, we visited Bastogne and Liege in Belgium for a tour of Belgian and WWII history. 
On the bus ride to Bastogne we wached Band of Brothers, depicting US soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge.  To watch the battle they fought and be driving to the actual soil where it took place was really something to step back and think about. 
We started at the memorial in Bastogne, the Mardasson Memorial to honor Americans killed or wounded in the Battle of the Bulge.  In Latin, the Belgians have written on the monument,  "The Belgian people remember their American liberators – 4th July 1946."

Around the top of the memorial are the 50 states - Carleigh and I: 

Next to the monument was a museum with history and relics from the war. The title of this post takes its name from one of the best stories - when the Germans demanded surrender from the US troops at Bastogne, the commander Anthony McAuliffe replied, "Nuts!"

From the German ultimatum:  "There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town..."

McAuliffe's reply:   "To the German Commander, NUTS!, The American Commander"


Here is a sign that US soldiers took during the war as a souveneir and returned to the museum.

We then traveled to the actual battlesite - today still forests as it was during the war. 

We visited the foxholes, preserved to give a sense of what it was actually like.  While the trees provided cover from German fire (which was coming less than 20m away, where the light is in the picture), the shrapnel would bouce off the trees in every direction.

While the US was victorious, it was the bloodiest with more than 70,000 US casualties.  We visited both American and German cemeteries.  At the US cemetery, it was quite humbling walking among those who had given their life in battle - one solider in particular was a Medal of Honor winner for crashing his plane into a German target.  Most were from the air force – of those who died in enemy territory and were only recovered years after their death.  The families had hope that their sons would come back home.

This picture is from the German one - each headstone is for 6 German soldiers.  This was also emotionally difficult to walk through, though in a way much different from the US cemetery.  Senior SS officials as well as drafted 19 year olds were buried side by side, even in the same grave - thus a blurry line between war criminals and soldiers younger than me.  

The group in downtown Bastogne:

That night we stayed in Liege, where we celebrated Kristen's birthday in the city at a few different places. 

In the morning we took a tour of Liege, but I don't remember too much because I think our tour guide was a little crazy.  He was this little old man who started the tour by talking about the "red bricks" on the houses for 15 minutes.  Our first stop on the tour was actually an apartment complex of "red bricks" where our guide explained how people lived there, with their kids, and how the kids could play - you can picture 17 American students standing awkardly in the middle of a Belgian apartment complex while residents wonder why the heck the tour is in here.

Thus we didn't get too much out of the tour, but thanks to the internet I can piece together a few things.  For example, Liege has the dubious honor of being the first town ever hit with an aerial bombardment.  However its history of being attacked goes back to Roman times because of its location. 

The steps leading up to the fortress at the top:

Gothic courtyard:

Town hall:

Ancient Tunnels and Roman Gladiators

Way behind on my posts but it's a good thing because that means I've been nonstop busy with travel!  Finally getting warmer in Belgium and we're enjoying the nice weather.

A couple weekends ago we took an amazing trip with our professor to Luxembourg, Trier (Germany), Bastogne (Belgium), and Liege (Belgium).  This post is just on Luxembourg and Trier

1. Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
First a little geography - Belgium is the pink-purple country just north of France. Germany is in light green, and the little yellow dot below Belgium is Luxembourg.  It is incredibly small - the entire city of Tucson, Arizona has more people than Luxembourg country (502,000), and the town of Hamilton, New Jersey (shout out!) has more people than the capital, Luxembourg City (89,000). 

We went to see the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, which is similar (but with great differences) to the US Supreme Court.  It has the final say on all issues of European Union law.  We actually were able to sit in on a court case on an immigration issue.

The whole group in the courtroom

Laura, Kristen and I.  If you look closely on the left, you can see the lawyer from the UK wearing a wig - some traditions never die.

Waiting for the trial to begin, you can see the interpretation booths in the back.  The trial was translated live in at least 10 to 15 languages.

In the court case, Germany was trying to kick out a Turkish citizen who had been born and raised in Germany (they have no birthright citizenship) but committed various crimes. The question was over Germany's right to do this within the EU-Turkey agreement (Turkey is not in the EU).  When we asked when the case will be decided, our speaker responded, "How long does it take grass to grow?" 

Luxembourg is a very modern city and one of the richest in the world, but it also has an incredible history.  There are still remnants of a system of forts and tunnels dating back to the Roman empire.

This is the Gelle Fra monument and it marks the sacrifice of Luxembourgers who lost their lives in WWI.  Luxembourgers were in fact fighting against each other in the war, as the Germans drafted many for service while others fled to fight with Allied France.  The monument shows the slain Luxembourger on the German side and the victorious Allied Luxembourger - but it is not triumphant - he has won the war but killed his fellow countryman.  A strong anti-war message...

Luxembourg is so small that it is not uncommon to run into the Duke or Prime Minister on the street.  The royal residence:

And of course a picture just for fun, taken by one of my friends in Luxembourg:

2. Trier, Germany
Trier was a key seat of the Roman Empire, and has the largest collection of Roman ruins in northern Europe.  Our group examining a skeleton:

This statue below is very well known - this is the original from the Roman era.

Trier was actually the seat of the Roman Empire from appx 306 to 312 under Constantine (who brought Christianity into the empire, among other things).   This was his throne room, which is now a church.  Wrongdoers would have to march down the aisle and plead with the emperor.  Visitors could never turn their back to the emperor and would have to walk out backwards.

Not lacking an ego, Constantine had this sculpture built of his own foot to remind people of the "footprint" he left on Trier.

The Porta Nigra Roman gate was built around 160 AD and is humongous.  It had two laters of defense - when the enemy broke through the first doors of the gate, a second gate would trap them in a small room, and the Romans could then pour fire on top of their trapped guests. 

I'm all the way on the right:

Trier also has the largest remains of Roman baths outside of Rome, built under Constantine.  We took a really awesome tour.
We would all be under water if this picture was taken 1700 years ago, bathing with nobility:

We walked through the complex duct systems, which were manned by the slaves.  They served the purpose of holding water, heat, or waste, so we may well have been walking on really old sewage.

We traveled just outside Trier to see an actual Roman ampitheater.  Gladiators fought here to entertain the masses.  We actually walked through a cage where the lions, tigers, and bears were held before the events.  Thanks to some ipods, we had "virtual" gladiator fights in the arena.

Trier is also famous for being the birthplace of Karl Marx, subtly marked by the plaque under the window.

We had fun time going out at night in Trier. We were told about a bar where US soldiers stationed nearby were often spotted, and given the 12 to 5 female to male ratio it was clear where the group would be going.  But we all had a lot of fun and saw a lot of people dressed up for carnival.

Tidbits
Luxembourg is officially "The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg."  It is the only country in the world "ruled" by a Grand Duke.

Although only 500,000 people, the Luxembourgers have their own language called Luxembourgish.  It is a mixture of French, Dutch, and German but unintelligible even if you understand all three (so we were told).