Styrofoam beats rock in Berlin celebration
Berlin has been commemorating the anniversary of the fall of the Wall all year. But the celebrations will culminate November 9 with the toppling of a brand new wall at the Festival of Freedom.
This wall, however, isn’t made of concrete — it’s constructed of nearly 1,000 eight-foot-tall Styrofoam blocks painted by young Berliners, including more than 5,000 students. The new wall, stretching from the Brandenburg Gate to Potsdamer Platz, is set to tumble domino-style during an open-air concert 20 years to the hour after the real Wall fell.
While the new wall symbolically falls, the old Wall continues to be doled out piecemeal to guests at some of Berlin’s top lodgings. “Tear Down the Wall” and “Fall of the Wall” packages are still valid at the Westin Grand and Hotel de Rome, respectively, and include a piece of the Wall. At the Westin, you can chip your own chunk, while the Hotel de Rome pairs young guests with locals for their Teen Tour.
The Berlin Marriott’s new “Go East!” package includes entrance to the Berlin Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie. So does the Ritz-Carlton’s “Remember the Wall” offer, which begins with a welcome “Gorbachev” cocktail and a bit of GDR nostalgia: a bottle of Rotkäppchen sparkling wine and Knusperflocken chocolates (say that five times fast). You can turn back the clocks further still with a city tour in an iconic East German Trabant.
— Kate Goodin
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