Day 91 - Early Morning Commute / Quiet Car

As you would likely guess, my commute takes the same path as Emily's. I take the Metro from Frederiksberg to Vanløse where I switch to a train, taking the H to Måløv and finally grabbing a local bus to Novo.

All told, if I leave the house at 5:40 I can clock in at just after 6:20. This is important because I do actually have to clock in. As a new employee I have no paid vacation this year but I can take advantage of "flex time". Any minutes I work over eight in a day roll into a bank that I can then use later for days off. It works.

The train has multiple car options - regular seating, bikes and baby carriages, and my personal favorite, the quiet car. No phones allowed. Collin's dream car.

I head to Chicago on Wednesday. We still have much work to do with the Chuckster, but I'm excited to see him. I envision myself as in one of those soldier-comes-back-from-Afghanistan videos. Yes, I just compared Denmark to Afghanistan.

A true Copenhagener

While Collin catches his breath after a week of working, Danish classes, planning a trip home, and unpacking I thought I would write a quick blog.   I am now the proud owner of a "new" bike.

I purchased this from a friend of mine.  My inaugural trip was the ride home from her place.  Fortunately she just lives down the same road from me so I just had to go straight really.  I tried to not have to stop at any red lights but sadly I did have to stop at a few.  Luckily the curb makes it a little easier for me to rest while still on the bike...it's a bit tall for me.  But I will get used to it!  Now we just need to find one for Collin and we will really begin exploring this city/country.

The bike does have a bell, but I do miss my mickey mouse bell of my youth.

I am also excited to put stuff in the basket.   Perhaps a baguette.  (thanks to rachaelbat for the following Conan picture)

Hopefully I will learn the rules of the road and not anger too many experienced Danish bikers.  Wish me luck!

Day 84 - New Day / New Job

This morning I start work at Novo Nordisk in the antibody technology group. It's going to be weird - I haven't worked in a lab in a long time.

Day 80 - Tomorrow I will sleep in my own bed

An actual bed that is mine. I cannot wait. Updates forthcoming.

GotW #1 - Reinhard Furrer

Reinhard Furrer, 1940-1995

I learned about Reinhard at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. We'll talk more about that tomorrow or possibly Saturday.

Today, I'd like to talk about the Astronaut / Physicist / Tunneler / Pilot / Philosopher, Reinhard Furrer.

He grew up in what is now Austria but was then Germany. He studied Physics in Berlin and in 1964 helped to build "Tunnel 57" which allowed 57 East Germans to flee to the West.

He had this to say about it.

"... doing something to fight the injustice of the Wall was a matter of character. People did not want to sit by while that kind of injustice went on. We wanted people to realize that in doing what we did we were embodying the conscience of West Germans. We were defending moral values. It was very much an act of humanity. I would do the same again today. I expect that from every German."

He went into space as a member of the last successful mission of the Challenger. This was a Spacelab mission. He is the third German to enter space.

There were many awesome quotes from Reinhard at the museum and I unfortunately recorded none of them. You have no idea how much I wish I had recorded the actual quotes. They were awesome. I have this.

"I would have liked to be asked, when I arrived back, what it had felt like to be out there, how I had felt in the midst of all that glittery blackness orbiting the Earth like a star."

Reinhard died in a plane crash. He was a passenger in a Messerschmitt Bf 108. The crash occurred after the completion of an air show at Johannisthal Air Field.

Here's some more good stuff to read.

- Egon Shultz and "Tunnel 57"
- Berlin Wall History Mile
- RTB's World of Wonder

Berlin - Sunday, Day 2 - Painstation! and Currywurst

Before we met up with our favorite Münchener, Emily and I took the U-bahn to the Brandenburg gate. Portents of things to come?

As I walked by, Mario definitely said - in his best Mario voice - mamma mia! My only complaint is that if you're going to do Mario and Luigi you need short / stumpy and tall / lanky. Think Gervais / Merchant.  Oh well, it was still a good mamma mia. If Wario was there I might have lost it.

You are now looking - from the East - at the Brandenburg Gate. In 1989, from the West, it looked like this.

I'll give more on the Trabant (Trabi) tomorrow when I do the DDR Museum, but here's a quick look at some painted up ones that are part of Trabi Safari.

Cristoph has a tremendous skill at finding awesome niche museums / sights. Berlin was no exception. Willkommen im Computerspielemuseum.

It was fantastic. Plenty of time to learn about the history of video games and long nostalgically for the years when you totally pwned Klax on the TurboGrafx-16. And by you, I mean me.

So the museum. Tons of fun stuff. We played tabletop Puckman!

Vintage video games are freaking hard. I am particularly terrible at Donkey Kong.

I did do well at Frogger. Sadly Centipede was occupied. You know what wasn't occupied? 3D F-Zero!

No, I am not just trying to look cool. This was the only way to keep the glasses from falling off. I finished a disappointing third.

The jewel of the museum was the Painstation. To use it you need to sign a waiver. And have museum staff turn it on. The instructions.

Yes, this is S&M Pong. Only in Germany. Time to start.

Christoph is apparently terrible at Pong. Here is some screaming after the whip / shock.

And the heater.

Christoph was the first to crack. It's just as well, I really didn't want to find out how far I was willing to go to win a game of Painstation.

Afterwards we went to Curry 36 for the very Berlin Currywurst.

A little too much sweet tomato-y and a little too little curry for my taste, but it was still fun.

Next up, Collin and Emily learn what life was really like in East Germany at the very interactice DDR Museum.

Berlin - Sunday, Day 2 - Breakfast and The Wall (Part One)

Sunday morning we made our way to the Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer (Berlin Wall Memorial). Before I get to that I wanted to mention this from Saturday night's train ride home.

Technically speaking, drinking on the train is verboten. In reality, everyone drinks on the train. People of all ages and social strata. Beer. Bottles of wine. It was surprisingly very much under control. It was still just around midnight - things might get crazier as the night progresses.

Berlin is very much a late night city. 

Anyway, Sunday. We started with a nice breakfast at Schwarzwaldstuben. Cheeses, breads, fruit, jam, yogurt, etc. It was very nice. 

We tried physalis. It looks like a tiny tomato and tastes a bit like a gooseberry. Here's what the leaves look like.

From here it was off to the memorial. Berlin is just teeming with graffiti - both interesting and banal. I'm filing this one under interesting.

The memorial starts with a visitors center. It is connected to an outdoor tower from which you can view the entire memorial along with a closed section of the wall that is as it was during the height of the cold war.

Our vantage point in these pictures is from the west looking to the east. 

Construction began in 1961. Over the next 28 years it would be strengthened, modified, and redeveloped. Now with more death strips! What began as a barbed wire fence became a highly fortified concrete wall surrounding the entirety of West Berlin. The East claimed that the wall's purpose was to curb all western / fascist influence from disrupting the delicate new socialist utopia in the DDR. In reality it was built to stop East Germans from defecting to the west through West Berlin.

In the years leading up to the construction of the wall, 3.5M East Germans defected to the West. West Berlin was a natural jumping off point as it was by far the eastern-most point of western departure for any East Germans wishing to leave for the west. After the wall was built, around 5,000 attempted escape and approximately 600 died in the process.

Now I'm going to break away and pull out my virtual soapbox. I apologize, but I can't - in good conscience - talk about these things without addressing my feelings on the importance of these walks through history. Much of the historical aspect of this trip highlights two main points for me. One, man's astonishingly hideous inhumanity to man. Two, man's collective failure to learn from the horrors of the past. We keep doing the same things over and over again in the name of decency, freedom, exclusion, security, paranoia, and / or country. And when we do those things we forget about real decency, tolerance, and humanity. It depresses me. It makes me angry. </soapbox>

Okay, the wall memorial. Inside the visitors center is a great picture / news clipping / document center highlighting the construction of the wall, attempted escapes, and the political climate during the various periods of the cold war. It is fascinatingly complex and I can't even hope to try to explain the effects of world events on the construction of the Berlin Wall and the Cold War in general. 

This is just such an amazing period of history. So many important intertwined events and actors. This trip actually makes me wish that I had taken more time to learn post World War II history. It's never too late!

Below is a picture of West Berliners watching - with smiles! - the construction of the first wall.

And here's Checkpoint Charlie with American tanks on one side and Soviet tanks on the other.

The "death strip" in this section of the wall has been transformed into the current memorial. 

This death strip area was originally part of a cemetery. The East Germans removed the stones, and paved over and / or disposed of the bodies. Today there are several crosses commemorating these displaced graves.

Originally, the wall was actually interspersed with buildings in this area. When it was built, the windows and doors were bricked up. Like this.

There are pictures of the final moments with people jumping out of windows to escape. It's heartbreaking. Eventually the DDR destroyed most of these buildings in the successive redevelopment of the wall.

In 1985 the DDR destroyed the Versöhnungskirche, again in the name of security.

I'm going to close with another interesting aspect of life in post wall Berlin. Ghost stations. An odd quirk of the Wall is that there were U-bahn and S-bahn lines connecting various points in West Berlin that ran through small portions East Berlin. West Berliners could travel on these trains, but the trains did not stop in the East Berlin stations - except at Friedrichstraße where travelers could transfer from the U6 to another S-bahn line without leaving the station. The trains would slow down but not stop - there were heavily armed DDR guards  standing at attention in very low light at each of the ghost stations. 

West German rail maintenance had no access to the tracks in East Berlin. If a train broke down the passengers would have to wait for DDR guards to escort them back to West Berlin. Other tunnels were blocked, entrances were closed or disguised as guard boxes, and motion detectors were placed in the stations and tunnels.

As always, I'm sorry if there is any incorrect / missing info here. I am not a historian. These are also my thoughts and don't reflect those of anyone else other than me. Many of the pictures were taken by either Emily or I. The rest were snagged from the internet. Thanks to the following - non-Wiki - sources.

- Cold War Museum

- Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

- National Geographic

Next up; Collin, Emily, and Christoph visit the Computerspiele Museum.