Back from Berlin

We got back safely yesterday from our long weekend in Berlin. We had a fantastic time and enjoyed the company of two friends we've made in our village.

The weather was fantastic -- clear blue skies and moderate temperatures in the high 60s or low 70s every day. We hit almost everything on our list except 2-3 museums that were lower priorities, and a nearby town with two palaces that maybe we'll see sometime in the future.

Took lots of pictures and in the next few days we'll be blogging about everything. We saw a concentration camp, the Checkpoint Charlie museum, a couple chunks of the Berlin Wall, the ruins of the SS headquarters, the building where Colonel Stauffenberg launched Operation Valkyrie to assassinate Hitler and where he was executed, the Brandenburg Gate, a Memorial to the Murdered Jews, the plaza where the Nazis held a big book burning, as well as some fun stuff, like hitting several Starbucks, Madame Tussaud's wax museum and seeing a movie.

The things we saw and read gave me a lot to reflect on in the coming days. I think I'll still be processing for a while. It was completely unintended, but the order in which we saw things seemed to follow the same emotional trajectory of Easter weekend. It was interesting to immerse ourselves in a hellish period of Jewish history during Passover/Easter, and to think about the implications of the Easter story against the context of the Holocaust. I think going to Berlin on this particular weekend added something for me.

It also was interesting to have recently seen some WWII movies that added a lot of imagery in my imagination to what I was reading and seeing. Some great movies I have seen recently that were on my mind while we were in Berlin:

The Pianist
Life is Beautiful
Schindler's List
Valkyrie
The Longest Day
Empire of the Sun
The Lives of Others

Movies I'm planning to watch now:

To End All Wars
Anne Frank: The Whole Story
Enemy at the Gate
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Jakob the Liar