I went to Berlin and Dresden. Dresden is a city that was destroyed in WWII and is being painstakingly rebuilt down to the finest details. I found this restoration and recreation to be very impressive. Others felt differently. There was a woman on the trip who didn’t take photos because she felt everything was fake. Personally, I think she missed the point. They were importing fabrics from Italy to match what existed before and the expense was of no object.
When I visited East Berlin, the buildings built during the communist era were brown plain boxes of no architectural significance. This is juxtaposed to other the other places like Dresden and West Berlin. In Berlin, there are
many monuments and exhibitions and reminders of the Holocaust more than I expected and I was thankful for that. What is interesting too is they are encouraging graffiti well beyond the art on the Berlin Wall museum. Somehow it fits there. In Italy I find it appalling. I liked all the bears around the city, too.
Crazy but I never got a pretzel or bratwurst. Mostly because they were sold on the streets and I was always looking to go inside a restaurant so I could get a hot chocolate with some type of liquor. The weather was in the 40s so I am sure that you understand.