Berliner Dom - Berlin Cathedral

I had not planned to visit the Cathedral, it was not highlighted in my Eyewitness Travel Top 10 (the book I treat as my bible in every city we visit - they never let me down) as special but we were there and there was no queue so we stepped inside.  We paid €5 each to go in (reduced from €7 because of our Welcome card travel pass)

I'm so glad we did.

It was quite amazing, almost as impressive as the Sacré-Cœur in an architectural way, but not in the spiritual.

It was remarkable for the fact that is was almost totally destroyed by fire in 1944 and the dome had collapsed completely.  The rebuilding started around 1975.  Although, as it was in East Germany, parts of it were still being destroyed (because of ideology apparently!).  They are now talking about finding the money to rebuild the part that they recently destroyed!

My photography was not up to catching the sheer grandeur and scale of it all.

Beyond the Church itself there were rooms you could go into that had information and pieces from the rebuild to see.

I don't like audio guides much, I find them isolating and there was not a lot of information in English to read (one of the few places we went to in Berlin where that was the case) so I'm a bit scant on detail to be honest!

But there were a number of pieces around that I suspect had a great relevancy. I was putting my hat on the piece of wood in this wall plaque to be significant!

There were arrows to go this way, although it did not look totally inviting.

And to be frank I was starting to wonder if we should have been there at all.

I felt like Alice in Wonderland in a corridor of locked doors.

And then one opened up to a viewing area.

I like the way the Germans allow 'tourist' happenings in Churches in a way the French do not.

The arrows continued, with the route seeming ever more dubious about whether we should be there at all.

Especially being as there was no one else to be seen.

But we found ourselves on the roof with the gods (rather like walking around the top of St Pauls)

It was very worth the climb, looking down on the Altes Museum where Hitler gave speeches and the crowds of Third Reich supporters gathered.








The walk down was a bit perturbing

There was a very large crypt full of very important people and if you know anything of Germany history before 1914 you'll do just fine.  I pretty much wandered through dumbly clocking up many Wilhelms!  

There were loos there and a small cafe, always a good thing when on a tourist trail of an afternoon.

It was well worth the hour we spent in there.