The critic remembers

Best meal (fancy): the lasagna I had for lunch at Kampinski's (Berlin); it was probably meant as an appetizer, given its modest price (8.50 euros), but it ended up being the tastiest heap of pasta, vegetables, and cheese in memory.

Best meal (simple): the falafel and sides at Dada's, on Linienstrasse, right below Friedrichstrasse, in Mitte; another Best Ever.

Best music (expensive): Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, performed by the orchestra, choir and soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic, June 3.

Best music (free): Bach's First Prelude for Unaccompanied Cello, performed in a square in Weimar by a young musician.

Freundlich katz (friendly cat)

Best music (overall): blackbirds singing, from dawn to the very late dusk.

Best animal moments: 1) the endangered white storks, feeding in a field, we viewed from the bus while travelling between Dresden and Berlin, June 5. 2) the mouse with a single stripe down his back Eddie and I saw while strolling around the garden of artist Max Lieberman in Wannsee, June 4; 3) the cat we finally met (after nearly two weeks of all-dog, no-cat streets) in Weimar, who approached shyly but ended up cavorting with us like an old friend.

Max Lieberman house & garden, Wannsee

Sebastian, Topographie des terrors

Best learning experience: Topographie des Terrors, thanks to our guide, Sebastian G.

Most beautiful interior: the church in Aachen, tied with the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig. N.B. This is a correction from the original post.

Most beautiful streets: the old, winding ones in Lübeck.

Best street with mix of commercialism, charm, walkability: Friedrichstrasse, Mitte, Berlin.

Best street with mix of commercial and residential: Tucholskystrasse, same area.

Most overrated tourist site: Brandenburg Tor.

Most touristy big city: Cologne.

Quietest tourist town: Weimar.

Best hotels: Leonardo Hotel, Weimar; Augustinenhof, Berlin.

Best museum: Cologne's Wallraf (European art from several centuries).

Perspective taking

As I promised last week, I am back this week for some reflections on my trip.

A map of Europe's Jewish population - in the house of the Wannsee Conference, where the Final Solution was drafted.

First of all, I would like to describe very briefly - perhaps unfairly so - the book I finished reading a couple of days ago. It's ALONE IN BERLIN by Hans Falluda. I bought it in Berlin, on the wonderful Friedrichstrasse, early in the trip, and I read it on and off during the second half. It certainly kept me absorbed on a several train rides and the on plane home.
Alone in Berlin was published in 1947, shortly after the author died, unfortunately. It fictionalizes a true story of two "ordinary" Germans during the war, a simple man and his wife, who decide not to lay low and keep quiet while Hitler marches all over Europe, killing innocent people (including, in the novel, the couple's only son). The novel is fascinating for several reasons. 1) it's a gripping tale of a horrible time, complete with absorbing plot, distinct and captivating characters, and well-wrought setting; 2) pathos manages to alternate with absurdity (a trait peculiar, I have found, to European literature and film); 3) the insights Falluda provides into the human condition in general - and, in particular, how people of all stripes handle war - are utterly unforgettable.
(I alos enjoyed recognizing parts of Mitte, Berlin's central neighborhood, where I walked and stayed.)
Although almost completely uneducated, Otto and his wife Anna decide to do their best to oppose the war, and that consists of spreading the word of its injustice. This they do by writing messages on postcards and leaving them around Berlin. Eventually they are caught, falling to the inevitable fate of those who dare to confront tyranny. They are convicted of treason, punishable by death.
I felt despair many times while reading; after all, it was based on a true story and the war really went on like that. At the same time, the absurdity had the effect of making it bearable, not only because it injected a welcome dose of twisted humor. The reminder that life is absurd, when you really think about it, gave me a deeper understanding of suffering. If everything is ridiculous, then how do we define tragedy? Human egos, human ambitions and vanity all seem petty and absurd - yet they are as responsible for what we call "evil" in the world as anything truly frightening, like sadism or a complete lack of empathy. What else caused the great massacres of the 20th century but exaggerated self-regard? At least one person - with the help of equally egotistical and sycophantic hangers-on - had the supreme arrogance to think his ideas could change the world for the better. His ideas and nothing but. If there is one distinguishing aspect of the despot it is a manic disdain for discussion and perspective.
Coming home from a life-changing experience, I have other kinds of perspective to ponder. But it is still important to remember that things are not always as they first (or later) appear.