The gasometer in Berlin is the only one in the world you can climb, but it must be with a guide. Take a tour to the top of the gasometer in the Schöneberg neighborhood to experience some of the best views of Berlin, see many of the city’s important landmarks, and learn about Berlin’s history.

Memorials to the 9/11 terrorist attacks attract attention, visits and bring up many emotions. New York, Pennsylvania, the Pentagon. But we discovered just recently there is also a 9/11 memorial at Boston Logan Airport tucked away next to traffic-filled arrival roads.

Our friend Tami Fairweather was passing through the airport, and on her way to the airport hotel to catch a ride, she happened to see a sign in the parking garage pointing the way to the memorial. Observant and curious, she followed the directions (a bit of a maze through barriers, on elevators, across grass and along concrete walkways) and walked into a somewhat eerie, quite still, and emotion-provoking glass structure – surprisingly quiet and peaceful for its location next to bustling roads.

She was in fact that October evening the only person there – perhaps the only one who was not rushing between flights, or maybe the only one of so few who knows about 9/11 Memorial at Boston Logan Airport. If you have a layover in Boston, it is well worth the time spent to visit.

9/11 Memorial dedication in 2008

According to Boston Logan’s own website, the memorial was dedicated in September 2008. It is open 24/7 for anyone to visit or to find a few moments of peaceful meditation.

The official dedication remarks, given by John A. Quelch, chairman of the Massachusetts Port Authority, about the two flights that took off from Boston Logan that tragic day included the following:

“For the past seven years, there have already been in place two memorials at Logan Airport, dedicated to the 147 men, women and children who perished the morning of September 11, 2001, on American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175.

“One stands outside Gate 32 in American Airline’s Terminal B. The other stands outside Gate 19 in United’s Terminal C. Both memorials appeared spontaneously, raised by airport and airline employees without fanfare or ceremony.

“These two memorials are one and the same. And there is no grander memorial. That memorial is the flag of the United States of America. The flags fly proudly to this day, and will likely fly forever. They symbolize the determination of this airport, this nation, and the community assembled here to recover from the grievous wound of 9/11….”

Alone with your emotions at 9/11 Memorial at Boston Logan Airport

Perhaps you won’t always be alone but our friend Tami was (at 8 p.m. on a fall evening) – and found that quite moving too. “I had no idea there was a memorial there,” she said. “It was unexpectedly quiet here — between the parking garage and arrivals traffic lanes at the A terminal — and more so since I was the only living human (at the 9/11 Memorial).”

The memorial, she told us, was a glimmering structure atop a slight hill with a small patch of well-manicured grass. “I found the solitude and twilight time to be especially effective at creating a thin space to slow down for a few moments and unite with those souls, and be reminded how precious and tragic life can be.”

Glass freestanding panels inside the glass cube are engraved with all the names of those who lost their lives, and this 9/11 Memorial at Boston Logan Airport is meant not only to honor the victims but also to make us consider our own lives. As the remarks said at the dedication:

“Changing our own lives will be the greatest gift we can give to the departed,” Quelch said in his official remarks. “They surely expect more from us than to merely memorialize their names. They surely want us to do more, work harder, be better, to be inspired by remembering them….”