Hard to believe it's only been a single day...

On our first day, as we enjoyed a somewhat abbreviated bus tour, we saw the memorial to the Berlin Wall

the incredible memorial to the Berlin book burning in 1933

and the amazing neighborhood (Mitte) where we'll be staying for the next five days.

On our first night...

After a quick "first impressions" session and a hilariously sleep-deprived introduction to the Germany Close Up support team--including our guides Arjan and Gregor--we headed down the street for a long, slow dinner at Cafe Oranien. See? You can hardly tell anyone's jet lagged....

And, while you're waiting for the rest of us to arrive

Some more Berlin city tips from the guide of all guides....

Slow Travel Berlin

http://www.slowtravelberlin.com/de/  It's a (slow) travel magazine, and they sometimes have a few nice essays on historical matters, and also gastronomy. (Say, this one: http://www.slowtravelberlin.com/2013/04/16/a-trip-through-berlins-ghost-stations/)

or this one

http://www.slowtravelberlin.com/2013/03/21/berlins-historic-market-halls/.

Check out http://unlike.net/berlin, an English city magazine with good restaurant, art ,etc. guides.

And, http://www.museumsportal-berlin.de/, a relatively new portal for all the museums (in English of course!)

Finding your way around the city....

From our awesome guide Arjan:

For Android users, there's a free map app called "MapsWithMe" that can be used offline - hence no data connection necessary while in Germany. Just download the Berlin package once you installed the app, enable GPS, and you have an offline 'GoogleMaps' with you.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mapswithme.maps&hl=en. There is no iPhone version... but this app might do the same trick (and in English): https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/fahrplan/id284970116?mt=8

For public transport planning, I can recommend the free app Öffi (in English) that actually covers many cities. It also has a Berlin metro map and surrounding maps of big stations like Alexanderplatz or the central train station. This app does need an Internet connection, so you should use it with a wifi connection (hotel, café) to avoid roaming costs.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach.oeffi&hl=en

And we are OFF....

After five days, ten sessions, of intense but fantastic prep, we are ready for Berlin (insofar as anyone is ever ready for Berlin)! Follow our journey over the next two weeks as we explore all that the "new" Germany had to offer. Ten of us together (eight HUCnikim, one USC Trojan, & a hybrid) will check out all there is to see.

"Would you..."

Controversy about a German TV show--"Wetten, das"--which sounds like a cross between "America's Got Talent" and "Jackass"--exposes all kinds of things about national identity: "Stupid German Tricks, Wearing Thin" (New York Times, January 30, 2013).

Ah, Berlin, you're always so complicated

Hat tip to @AMichael_Wright for this tip on Berlin Jewry's forward looking perspective: "Berlin's Jews Have Sights Set On Cultural Future, Not Historical Past" (from Haaretz).

Good Eating Awaits!

From The New York Times: "Michelin Stars Fall on Berlin." Start saving those Euros....

Applications for May 2013 Now Available!

GERMANY CLOSE UP: JEWS IN CONTEMPORARY GERMANY

Dates: May 7-14 (Stateside); May 21-June 2 (Germany).

This course explores the long, complex and often painful history shared by Germans, both Jews and non-Jews. By looking at diverse literary, philosophical, historical and religious sources, we will explore the changing terrain of identity politics in national, cultural and theological realms. Preliminary close and intensive study on all campuses through our cross campus e-Learning classrooms will be followed by an intense 12-day study tour of Germany. Sites there include museums, memorials, monuments and markers of the varied and joint culture of Jewish and non-Jewish Germans. Our discussions before departure will investigate the background and controversies of those places we will visit and will prepare students for conversations with the Germans of different backgrounds (rabbinical students, university personnel, tour guides, politicians, community leaders) who are in the process of determining their shared future. All of our preparation will create an awareness of contemporary German Jewish life. The class will visit Berlin, Worms and Speyer; institutional visits include the Centrum Judaicum and the Neue Synagogue, the Jewish Museum, walking tours of (former east and west) Berlin, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, primary locations for Liberal Judaism (the former Hochschule fuer Wissenschaft des Judentums/Leo Baeck Haus and the Abraham Geiger College) and a trip to a concentration camp.

Open to students in all programs. Prerequisites include completion of the modern Jewish history core course or approval from the instructor. Requirements include full participation in all course activities, preparatory reading, the writing of a directed journal during the trip, and several short papers meant to help prepare students for the trip. The class is being offered in cooperation with Germany Close Up: American Jews Meet Modern Germany. For further information and for an application, please contact Leah Hochman at hucgermanycloseup@gmail.com.

Shabbat

We're headed to the New Synagogue on the Oranienbuergerstrasse where the egalitarian minyan meets. Most of the congregation has already headed up north to Limmud.de and we'll be joining them tomorrow. Completely coincidentally we met the other Germany Close Up trip on the way to Leipzig yesterday so we'll see them again in the morning.

We'll post some more photos--from Limmud and our goodbye dinner--after Shabbat.

We say goodbye to Brandon tomorrow but the rest of us have another day together. It's hard to believe the trip is almost over!

a Napoleon complex of sorts

This morning, on our fascinating tour of Leipzig, we stopped at the Voelkershlachtdenkmal (Monument to the Battle of the Nations) which marks Napoleon's defeat in 1813.

this one is for Adena

Rabbi Ducky and Martin Buber (together in Worms).

Worms and it's many splendored delights...

We could have shown what we really did in Worms, which was check our email (free wireless in front of the Rashi House, the museum and reconstructed beit midrash that marks Rashi's visit to the city) but instead I'll suggest that we listened very carefully to our guide Maria....

(Here we are just outside the cemetery in Worms--the second oldest cemetery in Europe with a gravestone that dates to the 11th century--about to take a tour.)

We're fine, I promise!

We've all heard from family and friends worried about the e-coli situation in Europe. We've been very lucky--this is a meat eating crowd--and no one has even had a hint of cucumber (or produce) related illness.

Here's the group in the women's section of the synagogue in Speyer, right in the heart of medieval ShUM (Speyer-Worms-Mainz) aka Ashkenaz.

And we're back!

Sorry for the long delay! Internet access was less than optimal in Heidelberg and Leipzig (though the breakfasts were divine).


Here's the group last night at dinner in Leipzig's famous Auerbach Kellar, made famous by Goethe in Faust, and made infamous by the devil who came out and performed live right after this picture was taken.