Berlin Journée 2, Partie 2

So after resting a little after all that walking, I got a delicious cheese pretzel from a street vendor. Oh, Germany! You and your delicious pretzels!

This was conveniently right next to Berliner Dom. Even though it looks pretty old (at least to me), Berliner Dom was actually finished in 1905. So compared to a lot of famous European churches, it's practically brand new! Nevertheless, I was so taken with how it looked on the outside, that I wanted to see the inside too. When I found out it was 4€ to enter, I was a little annoyed because I don't think churches should charge admission, but it turned out that it also included walking around the dome at the top, so then I was okay with it.



The inside was so beautiful! Everything was really clean and gold and marble-y. The organ was playing a little too, which was pretty. One really cool thing was that you could go up to a balcony seating area and look down on the main floor of the church, which gave you such a pretty view of everything. In all the other churches I've been to, going up a level was either not an option or cost extra. But looking down on everything (or right at eye level with some of the statues and molding) really added to the experience.

Then, I took about a billion stairs up to the dome, where you could go out and walk around the whole thing, so you could see an incredibleee panorama of the whole city. Since it was right near closing time, I was practically the only one up there. It was really cool to look out and see all the Berlin landmarks I recognized.

Right as I was about to go down, a security guard came and told me and an older woman that we had to leave now anyways. She was a little slower going down the endless stairs,¹ so I lost track of them on the way down. Following the exit signs, I ended up in this creepy crypt underground, where there were a few lingering tourists and  a bunch of tombs for important dead people.

If I recall correctly, the Berliner Dom closed at 6 and the information center at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe closed around 8. So I headed over there to the sort of underground museum. I didn't take any photos, but the center was very interesting and solemn. There were stories and photos of Jewish families and what happened to each of the family members. There was also a room with letters people had written to their loved ones during the war. A lot of it is hard to read, but I'm glad I went.

So that was my second day in Berlin! À bientôt!

1. Some of them were pretty steep too! I wish they had had an elevator for her.