Sea Day and Germany - August 19 and 20

She Said

Today is our second day at sea - after a very long but wonderful day in Germany.  It is a beautiful, sunny day in the Baltic.

Before I get to our day in Germany, just a few notes about our first day at sea on Sunday.

(FYI, I give you titles so if you don’t want to read about something, you can skip that section)

Sunday Observations

Sunday was a lovely relaxing day.  It was cloudy, foggy, and a bit rainy at times as well as a bit chilled but it really didn’t bother me since I was still recovering from our travel day the day before and my lack of sleep.

We moved from the North Sea to the Baltic around 6 PM Sunday.  We saw more boats on the North Sea than I think we have ever seen in one day on any cruise, even in the light fog.

I did notice the demographics of this cruise are significantly different than that of our last few cruises.  While there are many people older than us as is often the case, there are a great many younger couples as well as younger couples with children.

Dinner Table Problems

After milling about during the day, relaxing and reading, we arrived back to our room with a new table assignment for dinner.  The night before we had a table for four but our table mates, whoever they were, did not show up. Because (as we always do) we asked for a table for two, we thought we hit the jackpot.  So, when we got a new table assignment which had a handwritten note at the top “New table sharing,” I was not too thrilled I am probably the opposite of many who go on cruises in that I am fairly anti-social.  I don’t want to have to work at small talk. When I am on vacation and relaxing, I don’t want to have to work at talking to strangers. For me, that is indeed work. Sure, I like people but being fairly introverted, that takes effort for me. It is easier now than it has been for me in the past, but it is still something I just would prefer not to do on vacation.

As a result, I immediately proceeded down to the dining room to solve this problem.  My first plan was to check out the new table. Maybe we now have a 2-topper and they needed our table so others could “table share.”  As I wander the main dining room, I quickly realize there are no placards, as they usually have, on the tables with the table numbers.  Well crap! So I go looking for the maitre’d but he/she is nowhere to be found. As I leave the dining room, I realize the Guest Relations Desk is a few steps away.  It’s a long shot that anyone can help me there, but I decided to give it a go. Their assistance consisted of dialing reservations and handing me the phone. First, they think I have moved from the earlier seating to the late seating and when I further explained, I was told they are reservations and I need to talk to the maitre’d and that I should go there now as he will most certainly be there.  I said “Are you sure?” “Oh, yes, of course.” “Well tell him I’ll be there in 30 seconds.” So I waltz (not literally, but wouldn’t that be a site!) back to the dining room only to wait at the maitre'd station for several minutes before a waiter came by and told me to come back at 5:30, when the maitre’d would arrive. It was 3:30. I gave up.

Fast forward to 8:30 when we arrive for dinner: 10-person table.  Ugh! We sat there for several minutes before anyone arrived. We were hopeful, that again, we would be the only ones at the table.  But no. It was fine, I suppose. Good enough, I’m not going to try to move the seating again. I suspect all the 2-person tables are taken.  There were three empty seats but I sat next to a charming retired gentleman from Essex (in Britain) and Blaise sat next to a retired woman from Chicago who was traveling with a woman (who was also sitting at the table) from New York, also retired.  Across from us was a retired couple from South Carolina who recently moved there after spending 20 years in Atlanta, having originated from the Northeast. It was fine. I enjoyed dinner and the company wasn’t too bad.

After dinner, we went to the casino to gamble our obligatory $20.  We are up by $4 and some change.

Now we move into our day in Germany (Monday, August 20, 2018).

Getting There

We specifically chose to do an excursion through the cruise ship because Berlin is 3 hours away and that is where we wanted to go.  If we book through the cruise ship, we are guaranteed the ship won’t leave without us. Too much can go wrong 3 hours from the ship.

About a month before our cruise, an excursion popped up on the Celebrity website which intrigued us.  It was a visit to a concentration camp and then a few hours in Berlin. Since we plan to return to Berlin someday, we wanted to see the concentration camp knowing Berlin would get short shrift.  It was a trade off we were willing to make.

If you have never been on a Celebrity Cruise and taken an excursion through them, it is quite a process.  You meet in the theater, one member of your party goes to the stage where a table sits with stickers on it and excursion staff behind it.  You show them your ticket and they give you numbered stickers for your excursion. You affix the sticker on your lapel and then wait for your number to be called to head for the gangway.

Blaise and me waiting for our number to be called and all of us lemmings waiting for excursions . . .

Concentration Camp

We had a 2 ½ hour train ride to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp operational from 1936 through 1945 during which time they killed 50,000 whose death certificates all indicated death by natural causes. Note this facility was opened long before the war began.

Sachsenhausen was not a death camp, it was a “prison” and concentration camp housing all types of enemies of the Third Reich including Jews, homosexuals, other members of what they considered “inferior” races, and other political enemies.  I could go on and on about the details of this camp. It is a blog in and of itself, which I may one day write. It is too significant an experience and an important part of history to identify here. It was a moving day, to say the least.

Entrance to the Visitor's Center of Sachsenhausen

 Entrance Gate and Building to the actual camp/prison

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Actual iron gate in the middle of the building above. This German phrase means "work sets you free."

This is on the side of the building above facing the inside of the camp.  There was no glass when this was the concentration camp.  It was open so the guards could shoot anyone who tried to escape.

But to give you an idea of the atrocities that happened at Sachsenhausen - Sachsenhausen had a state-of-the-art hospital.  Don’t be fooled by that though. It was used for a variety of human medical experiments on their prisoners, mostly Jews. One of which was gangrene testing whereby they would cut the arm, put hay in the arm, sew the arm back up, and wait for the hay to rot and gangrene to set in.  Then they would cut away at the arm, segment by segment to see how it progressed up the arm and experiment with medications for it. They would also bring in young children and expose them to disease to see how long it would take for them to contract said disease.

The "Hospital"

They would also test new shoes for soldiers.  This was done primarily by the gay prisoners. No one really knows why.  They were testing new types of soles for shoes for soldiers. The guards would give them each a pair of shoes, without asking size, tell the prisoner to put them on and then would make them walk for hours upon hours for days on end in a certain route to see how the soles wear.  When they figured out this really wasn’t a true-to-life scenario, they decided to put heavy packs on their backs to walk the same route. Keep in mind these folks were not being fed or cared for so they were not in the best of health. We walked their route during our tour.

Route walked by the prisoners testing the shoes

We also learned of the commander’s wife’s interest in tattoos.  She would have the guards make the prisoners strip down and if she saw a tattoo she liked, she would have him killed and the tattoo would be cut out and framed as art in their house.

We saw the firing squad area, the storage facility for the bodies, and the crematorium created after they determined transporting the dead bodies risked their getting “caught.”

 The firing squad area

 Memorial on the farthest left square in the picture above

The door where they took the bodies after the prisoners were shot. This is where their corpses were housed until transport and then later cremated once the crematorium's were installed.

 Several of the crematorium ovens.

 Memorial within the room of the crematorium and place that housed the corpses of the prisoners.

What is etched on the outside of the crematorium area.

This location was never intended as a death camp, but the consequence of what they were doing resulted in the death of every prisoner.

The place where the autopsies were performed; not to determine cause of death (they were all of "natural causes") but the results of their human experiments.

This camp also had a section used as a prison by the Gestapo and the camp authorities. This “subcamp” as I will call it was used to discipline those in the camp and prominent figures arrested by the Gestapo.  I’m not going to walk through all the atrocities performed against these folks. It is too much for here. What is interesting to note was they had rooms where various political prisoners from various countries were held and they had, what amounted to memorials, for those prisoners in his particular room or where those rooms were located.  Among the differences between this area of the prison and the rest of Sachsenhausen was each prisoner had his own room, whereas the other prisoners (mostly Jews) were housed in one big room.

Individual cell for "special prisoners"

Make-shift memorial for "special prisoner" inside a cell

Make-shift memorial for "special prisoner" in a location of a former cell

One last thing to note is this camp was in East Germany.  The East Germans erected a memorial monument here representing each country where Sachsenhausen’s political prisoners originated.  The East Germans did not recognize this place as a concentration camp for Jews or others, but a place that tortured and killed only anti-communist prisoners. That’s it. When Germany unified, there was discussion of whether to tear down the very large monument or leave it. They decided it was part of their history and left it not wanting to forget that part of history but did choose never to hold memorial services/events involving that memorial.

East German Memorial.  Each triangle represents a country from which political prisoners were held - enemies of communism.

All in all a very sobering and saddening tour.  Not being a student of psychology, it is beyond my comprehension how an entire mass of people could conspire to perform such horrible acts against a group of people.

Our tour guide told us, it is still a law today that no German child can be home schooled to assure all children learn about this horrible time in their history so as not to repeat it.  Apparently this is a real threat as there are enough neo nazis out there to require this.

I cannot say enough about this tour.  It was amazing and emotional and I am thankful for the opportunity to see this location.  More later.

Berlin

After Sachsenhausen we headed to Berlin for a traditional German lunch (see Dana’s Food Watch below for information regarding the food)  and to hit the highlights of the city.

When we arrived at the hotel for the meal, we walked in, and Blaise said, “This is where we stayed when we were here a few years ago for the Nokia visit!”  What are the odds! For those of you who remember, this was the second half of Blaise’s business trip when I met him in Marseille and travelled on to Paris.  I went back home after Paris and he moved on to Berlin and Stockholm.

We then made VERY brief stops at Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, the Jewish Memorial, and what is left of the Berlin Wall.

 Jewish War Memorial

Jewish War Memorial

Checkpoint Charlie is a place I’ve heard about and have seen in movies like Bridge of Spies so it was really wonderful to see in person.

Us on the American side of Checkpoint Charlie which was used solely to allow Americans to pass to and from East Berlin.

Blaise and I also walked through the Brandenburg Gate to say we did it.

From the Berlin side.  Brandenburg Gate was constructed by German royalty to welcome people to Berlin.  What I found odd is the front of the statue was facing towards Berlin, not away from to welcome visitors.

From the outside portion as if you were walking into Berlin.  Blaise and I walk through from the inside to the outside.

I was most interested in seeing the Berlin Wall.  I remember watching the coverage on TV in rapt attention when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.  I was truly fascinated and in awe; it had never in my life occurred to me something like this would happen.  It was just the way it was. I was 22 and had only graduated from college a few months earlier. It was stunning and made a huge impact on my psyche.

Blaise at the Berlin Wall

 My pointing out the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall

We also drove by Reichstag and the German Chancellery where Angela Merkel has a residence at the top which her husband refuses to sleep and “requires” Angie to sleep in their private residence. Hmmmmm...

 The Reichstag

 The German Chancellery

The bridge from the parliament building to/from the offices of those in parliament.  The politicians are the only ones who can walk on the top walkway; everyone else must walk on the bottom walkway.

Summary

It was an amazing day!  It was a day packed with lots of stops and we were exhausted.  So much so, we slept until 9:45, something we haven’t done in years.  The problem with getting older, I guess, is you just don’t sleep in. In our defense we did have a time change and moved forward an hour last night.

Here are a couple pictures that don't fit elsewhere:

Only building left in Berlin built by the Third Reich.

This is a hostel. So what you may say. It just so happens this is owned by North Korea because their consulate is in this building.  Now the consulate only uses two of the rooms.  The German government tried to shut it down but it can't because it is the property of North Korea.  Thus, the North Koreans are making a bit of money in Berlin in violation of sanctions and there is nothing Germany can do about it.

Random dude with ridiculous hair

Tomorrow, Tallinn, Estonia which we will do on our own.

Dana’s Food Watch

Dinner Sunday:  Blaise and I both had the chilled pear and honey soup.  It was delicious and reminiscent of somewhat runny applesauce.  I had the Signature Celebrity Beef Tournedo with a mushroom sauce.  It was cooked medium rare and it was delicious. Blaise, being a creature of habit and also knowing his new delicate stomach could handle it, had the salmon. It is one of the three main course options they offer every night.  For dessert, Blaise again had the cheese and crackers while I had the apple crumble a la mode. I am a sucker for a good crumble and this did not disappoint. And if you have a crumble, cobbler or fruit pie, don’t you have to have it a la mode?

Lunch Monday:  We had a traditional German meal while in Berlin and since we got back to the boat after 10, we really only snacked on the train and back on the boat.  Lunch was a caprese salad, although it was not described that way. It was described as tomato and mozzarella slices with pesto and a rocket salad. Rocket translates to those of us in the U.S. as arugula.  They call it rocket there. We ate late, about 2PM so I ate the whole damn thing. The entree was served family style and consisted of sausage and sauerkraut, chicken stuffed with some sort of pesto stuff, herbed potatoes, mashed potatoes, and veggies (peas, carrots and cauliflower).  For dessert was traditional German apple pie with cream. This was amazing! So much so, Blaise, who never eats sweets, and nearly the whole thing.

FYI, Blaise told me Sunday my description of food is lacking.  When he asked me to tell him about one of our canapes, I told him it was sweet with blueberries.  While I thought this was rather descriptive, he thought it was funny. So my disclaimer is - I am NOT a food critic.  I describe it as I see it and I am not well-versed in food descriptions.

He Said

We’re at Sea!!!

Sea days are always a time of relaxation and reflection, well mostly… Ami was busy playing on the chromebook (I think writing) while I was busy watching the comings and goings of the shipping lanes in the North and Baltic Seas, actually that means I was sleeping for TWO straight hours on the chaise loungers in the Sky Lounge overlooking the bow of the boat.  It was fantastic, then we hit dramaville, we came back to our room to find a note saying that they had changed our seating assignment, that sounded good, we were alone at a 4 topper on night one and were hoping to get a two topper but we hadn’t asked to be moved so Ami immediately sprang into action. Oh no they didn’t, they better not have moved us to a BIGGER table, and she was off to see where our new table was in the dining room.  She was disappointed to find that all the table numbers had been removed after the first night and she had to ask the maitre'd where it was.

The biggest issue of the day was her finding out that I accidentally used her shower gel as my shampoo, you know, no glasses in the shower!!  Anyway, she’s always very possessive of my using her stuff, even accidentally, probably because that stuff cost so damn much money and I don’t appreciate their value anyway, my hair looks fine with Head and Shoulders or It’s a Ten/Crack shampoo.  So she tells me that she put the shampoo, the cheap stuff, on the left hand side of the shower and hers on the right. So there’s two bottles on the left so I decide I’ll fix her little red wagon and use hers, I know this WILL make her mad but I figured it was worth it.  I let her in on the bit and she says btw those are both cheap shampoos and neither of which were mine. Damn, I washed my hair twice for no value add, very sneaky woman!!!

As for dinner, we ended up at a 10 topper, we haven’t sat with that many people on a boat in years but we made the best of it; we met some lovely people and we sat and made small talk until we got thrown out so they could set for the morning’s seating at 11p.  All sweet folks and the older woman sitting next to me was flirting like a big dog, my wife had better watch out, but if I did my math calculations correctly she was 71. Now don’t get me wrong, if she was 71 she looked not a day over 50 but nonetheless I was very happy holding hands and being very thankful that my wife was right beside me for the best part of the night’s conversations.  It was a good time but lets hope Ami can browbeat the maitre'd for a two topper longer term, I would prefer we be alone to enjoy the down time. Alone time is so precious, but we’ll see what happens longer term, I suspect I know Ami and how it will end but that’s for another day… So until Berlin, Gute Nacht!!!

Off to Berlin

I was most looking forward to and dreading this day the most, why, because it was going to be a very long and sad look at humanity but I was so looking forward to knowing more about the mindset and better understand how this could ever happen.  

We arrived in Rostock at 8a and had to be ready for the excursion at 8:45, they were a bit late and we left at 9:05a for the train.  Everything seemed a bit chaotic but we hit the train with just a couple of quick turns and up the ramp to the waiting train. We met our first guide Henry who would be with us throughout the day and would be providing logistics and help with organizational needs as required.  He was extremely helpful and explained how things would progress throughout the day as we pulled out of Rostock. Our guide, Sean (sp) got on the train at Saschenhausen’s stop to begin our tour of one of the first few concentration camps in Germany. This one is fairly unique in that it ended up in Soviet controlled East Germany after the fall so it had been used for Soviet propaganda after the fall of Germany.  There was even a Soviet Memorial that was erected after it became a Soviet prison after the war.

Words cannot do justice to what man is capable of doing, they say power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, it is so true, the brutality and conditions that were experienced by those poor prisoners is just mind boggling.  Sean asked us several times, had you been there, how would you have reacted, would you have mounted some sort of insurrection or would you have just allowed it to happen? It’s a excellent question, certainly reminded me of learning to shoot in the military and being asked every single day “Will you be willing to kill your enemy to save your country?”, you can’t answer either without being in the moment.  I hope I know the answers but I hope I never have to find out. And I hope the world never has to find out again. Sean did an exceptional job, he was extremely professional and yet somber and reverent while explaining every minute detail, it’s just hard to hear how people could do this to other people; I’m glad I had an opportunity to see it in person but it does make me all that much more disappointed in my fellow man than ever before, I hope this can never be allowed to happen again.

After Sachsenhausen, we boarded a bus for Berlin and hit the highlights, Checkpoint Charlie, of which I suspect my wife will show you a good pic of us in front of it, and the Brandenburg gate as well as the Berlin Wall.  I was most shocked by the fact that we ate at a hotel in former East Germany, the Westin that by happenstance was the SAME hotel I stayed at while on business here four years ago. It was surreal, I didn’t remember where we stayed, I walked into the hotel and turned to Ami and said, this was the hotel I stayed at while we were here!! I had beer under the staircase, and we walked to Checkpoint Charlie and the Jewish Memorial right down the street, it was exciting but nonetheless surreal in some small way.  Lunch, I knew was going to be great, and it was. But when I was there 4 years ago, I didn’t realize how close we were to the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag, less than 5 minutes, and we never even drove by them, dumb Americans, we do so live in our own bubble. The ride back was quiet and we all slept on the 3 hour train ride back to the ship. We got back late and went to a late dinner of hamburger and fries, and in bed by midnight. An extremely emotionally packed day for me, more tomorrow...

 The Westin where Blaise stayed 4 years ago on a business trip.

The table by the stairs is apparently where Blaise had a few beers until wee hours of the morning. Yes, Blaise actually drinks. Very rarely, but he does.