Berlin

Adrian hadn't been to Berlin, but he'd heard me talk about it for the last three years :) There's something captivating about a city boiling over with history, so much of it horrific, but with a determined will to move on and present a new face. But perhaps in fear of being seen to mask their dark history, they put it on display for the world to see. The result is a bizarre mix of old and new.

So you see tourists swarming around the remaining pieces of the Berlin Wall, 'beach' bars with pumping techno music, fences plastered with black and white images of the Wall and Death Strip, touristy Checkpoint Charlie and souvenir shops selling 'pieces of the Wall', Cold War symbols like the TV tower with its giant disco ball, a huge expanse of concrete blocks serving as a memorial to the Jews killed in WW2, and perhaps most amazing: an invisible line between East and West Berlin, where the wall once stood. Here the typical grey concrete apartment buildings of the East stop abruptly, and the less uniform buildings of the West begin.

We took an Insider walking tour led by an amazingly knowledgeable Czech/German/Swedish/Scottish guide. We spent our days seeing the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Hackescher Markt, Alexander Platz, the Pergamon Museum and the East Side Gallery. We ate currywurst and Adrian sampled the best (?) beers in the world. I got to use my German. And then we climbed on a night train bound for Switzerland and said a sad goodbye to Berlin.