15 June

We had a well above average hostel breakfast, and then walked to the nearest hop-a-bus stop to do the grand tour of Berlin. The weather was very cool, and we could have used warmer jackets, but it sure beat melting in the heat. We made the complete bus circuit to get our bearings, then got off at Checkpoint Charlie, where the Russians and Americans used to stare each other down through their tanks' gun sights. We toured the very thorough museum there and learned all about the history of the wall and the various means of escape employed by East Germans during the Iron Curtain days. We then walked to the site of the SS and Gestapo headquarters to read and see pictures chronicling the mass insanity that was the Third Reich. Mel Gibson and his idiot father should really spend a couple of weeks in this part of the world.

We decided we'd had enough depressing stuff for one day, so we strolled around the shopping areas and had dinner in the revolving restaurant at the top of the local TV tower. I was struck by the lack of a real skyline in Berlin. There are a few tallish buildings, but nothing notable, and they are scattered about rather than clustered in one area.

On the subway ride home, an accordion player came aboard to entertain the riders. I couldn't stop thinking of Bill Bryson's comment that the Germans should have been required to lay down their accordions along with their arms after WW2, and tried hard not to laugh out loud. I did not succeed. It's amazing to look around Berlin and try to envision the near total destruction that was here within my lifetime. The re-birth of East Berlin since re-unification twenty years ago is also amazing. Only small sections of the wall have been preserved as historic artifacts, and those just survived accidentally, since the people of Berlin were eager to remove all traces of that era. Fortunately, the historic significance occurred to somebody before it was all lost.

Hop-a-bus

Checkpoint Charlie museum

Mühlendammschleuse

East Side Gallery - Andrey Sakharov

East Side Gallery murals

East Side Gallery murals

East Side Gallery murals

Berlin Arena	Now what do we do?	Reichstag Building
Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Steg	Berlin Central Train Station

Moltkebrücke

Moltkebrücke

Carillon Berlin Tower

House of World Cultures (art center)

"Snake" building near Luther Bridge	Bellevue Palace	Victory Column
Charlottenburg Palace	office building Kurfürstendamm 21	Kaiser Wilhelm	Memorial Church

Der Südbrunnen (Lebensalter)

Embassy of Saudi Arabia

Berliner Philharmonie concert hall

St. Matthew's Church

Potsdamer Platz

Potsdamer Platz

portion of wall at Topography of Terror museum

close-up of wall

Checkpoint Charlie

1:08 pm

Joe by Checkpoint sign

Deutsches Currywurst sausage-mobile

1:11 pm

Topography of Terror museum

Gestapo HQ prison cells

zoom of previous photo

Nazi buildings

zoom of previous photo

1. Reich SS Leader & Chief of German Police in Reich Ministry of the Interior 2. Chief of Security Police & the SD 3. Personal Staff of Reich SS Leader 4. Reich SS Leadership, SS Main Office 5. Reich Security Main Office

1934 photo of the area	another photo & info sign	larger version of photo
N side of museum grounds	building ruins	zoom of previous photo's sign

Shopping area

Public Art Houseball	Galeries Lafayette Berlin cone	Französischer Dom	Friedrichswerder Church gallery
looking N from Schleusenbrücke	Rotes Rathaus (city hall)

TV Tower

	6:50 pm	6:31 pm	6:31 pm
6:31 pm	6:30 pm	6:30 pm	6:30 pm
6:29 pm	6:28 pm	6:25 pm	6:26 pm

After supper

Weltkugelbrunnen Wasserklops

"Berlin" on the Tauentzienstrasse

KaDeWe shopping mall

KaDeWe shopping mall

Hostel room

bedroom

bathroom