Day 33: Berlin

August 20, 2013

Just as when in the forest, the thrill of solitude wears off if you are looking for some fresh bread, the thrill of seeing and hearing the airplanes overhead from the nearby Berlin Flughafen (airport) wears off if you are trying to sleep, or talk!

Adding to our noisy night was the fact that two families of Italians moved their tents in, practically on top of us, while we were gone. Feeling your personal space violated is one thing, but these turned out to be snorers as well. Italians do not necessarily snore differently from anyone else, but still overall I imagined myself in the slums of Naples (not that I have ever been to Naples - gotta put that on the list, nor do I really know that they have any slums)).

Right now we are sitting by the campground restaurant, waiting for them to open at 8. Eight!, gads, don't these people have places to go and things to do?

Ok, the buffet began, a little after 8. It was the second German breakfast buffet we have had, and both were the same in that they did not put out a really overwhelming amount of food. Rather, it was nice, but just adequate in terms of quantity. This is a problem, not just because we are pigs, but because we want to pilfer a bit for lunch. If you clean the buffet table out, we feel the management could get a bit crabby!

"Just adequate" or not, the breakfast was more than we have been eating of late, and I feel it gave me extra power. The power was not needed, though, because we were looking at only about 15 km of flat cruising into the city.

Our way continued to follow the Wall route, the Mauerweg, and in turn the Havel River. We travelled through leafy vacation home territory, spots where yards were full of fruit trees. Even when the signs declared 4 or fewer km left to go to Mitte, the centre of the city, all we saw was trees and water. This is very unusual near any big city, but it seemed great for the residents.

Whereas further north the wall was no doubt a barbed wire affair, now we followed in part the actual concrete Wall. It was not as high (maybe 10 feet) or as thick as I imagined, but it was of course effective. The construction was of vertical concrete slabs, and I discounted the idea of chipping off a piece. Not Dodie, though. So as a result we now own our own personal flake of history.

The route (and the wall) cuts down from the north and intersects the river Spree right at the Reichstag buildings. Nearby, in the Pariser Square is the Brandenberg Gate. Out of there, heading east is Unter den Linden boulevard. To the west is the large Tiergarten park, and further west, commercial parts of West Berlin. It's a simple mental picture, made simpler by our focus only on the parts from the Wall, east.

The simple mental picture, and the clear signage for "Mitte", broke down pretty fast as we hit our first "roadblock", in this case a closure of the bike path. We veered left, noodled around, asked some construction workers for directions, and got back on track. That lasted about 1/4 km. Then all hell broke loose. In fact, from guidebooks we have read, this hell has been rampaging for some time. That is, construction. I mean Construction. Everything is ripped up. You can't see the buildings for the cranes. And you certainly can't go to the Spree and turn left, just because your mental picture says that is the way to go. In fact, you would be lucky to cross the street. Any street.

So, we ended up with a nice tour of the Tiergarten, and goodness knows where else. Dodie gets really cross when she sees the GPS on - takes it as a vote of no confidence, I guess. But only the GPS knows where we really went.

We did finally come to the Reichstag. With the bikes to manage, we didn't join the crowd waiting to go in, but rather tried to absorb the ambiance outside. First off, in front of the building is a large and empty lot - maybe 4 acres of nothing - it's a bit strange. In other capitals, areas like that have at least nice grass and flowers.

Standing in the open area were several round display panels, discussing how the Nazis seized control of the government in 1933. I wondered if this display was a permanent and longstanding feature of the Reichstag "lawn". Soon, I got the answer. It is part of a special city-wide exhibition. See more (lots more) below.

There were naturally a lot of people milling about the area, but frankly we have seen many more in Paris, and especially London.

We proceeded along, into the square headed by the Brandenburg Gate. "Proceeded" is not quite accurate, though, becasue we had to fight through and around ... construction. It also seemed like some sort of special event was or had been ongoing, because of temporary fencing, marquee tents, and suchlike.

In one corner is the American embassy, guarded by stanchions to ward off, presumably suicide bomber cars, and by police.

We approached two officers to ask what was happening in the square, but they did not think there was anything unusual to speak of. In the square, a largish crowd was milling about. some seemed to be watching some kind of punk group, but others were photographing what turned out to be street performers in military uniforms and with flags.

This was a commercialisation of Berlin history, something we later saw in the many street vendors with knockoff Russian military or other hats, or ones posing as American military at heckpoint Charlie. Two of these performers seized on us Canadian cyclists and posed with us, as Japanese and other tourists photographed the spectacle. Then, naturally, one asked Dodie for a "tip". Our cheeky lady said "Here's one - always take your shoes off before going to bed".

Out onto Unter den Linden, and the first chore was to collect a Linden leaf. The Linden, or Basswood is not a tree we are familiar with. But the souvenir is because this street is so famous. Famous or not, the street was a wreck! The whole thing is ripped up, for a subway station, or something. This really coloured our early view of the city. In fact, it often was our view.

Still. we carried on east, with the street changing names to Liebknecht and then Prenzlauer Strasse, before arriving at our cross street Immanuekirchstrasse. This is the street where Dodie's dad, Walter, lived. The street is lined wiith quite elegant apartment buildings, and seems to have become fairly hip - with two Indian restaurants, one Thai, a bakery, a cafe, and so forth.

We sat, quite sadly, on Walter's front step. We know he is not coming home.

Across the street is a Lego store. We thought it would be fun for the grandchildren to get some Lego from "Walter's store", so we nipped in. From there, it was over to our hostel, just down the same street. So for now we live on the same street as Walter did.

We ditched most of our bags and headed out on the bikes again. First stop, Walter's synagogue and school, just across Prenzlauer. Here were some shocks. First - barriers like at the American embassy, and police. We went over for a chat. The police guard is 24/7! The risk is not viewed as Nazis, but Palestinians. Aaaarggh.

We asked if it would be ok to go in. The officer was very doubtful on this. Finally he did go in, and dragged out a young man to speak to us. Dodie explained about her Dad. There was no great welcome, nor in fact any welcome. After some begging the man did take Dodie inside for a minute. Nominally, there was a musical performance in rehearsal - to account for the cool greeting. That seemed pretty darn thin to me. Don't know what to make of it, though.

Now we retraced our steps, back down Unter den Linden and south toward Checkpoint Charlie. We passed the large Historical Museum, and here looked harder at the display about artists and cuultural figures who had been deported or killed after 1933. The display took the form of cylindrical displays, each telling the story of several people. When you walk in and among these displays, it's spooky.

On to Checkpoint Charlie. Now, at last, we could concentrate on seeing throuugh the construction and observed the many museums and churches, the state opera, the Humboldt University, etc., which all are very substantial and impressive.

Checkpoint Charlie is on Friedrichstrasse, a major cross street of Unter den Linden, and part of the boundary between east and west Berlin. To put it that way, it sounds so simplistic. But Friedrichstrasse is not simple or trivial. It is the street. The place where Russian and US tanks faced each other in October 1961, the place where WWIII could have been triggered, the place where workers demonstrated, and where desperate people died.

Today, it remains intensely interesting, and weird too. First off, the street to the north of the checkpoint is lined with a display that tells the story chronologically of the events surounding the wall and the checkpoint. So as you walk along reading, you are walking through history.

All the material on the boards you could no doubt find in a book. But to read it here is something else again. You look at a photo from fifty years ago, look behind the tanks, crowds, or politicians pictured, and say "That building in the picture is this one, right here !"

The famous "you are entering the American Sector" sign has been reinstalled in replica, just where it was, and the guard house too. The original sign, though, is still here, in the Mauermuseum - right here. The museum was established in 1962, here, to protest the Wall.

On the weird side, at the replica guard house, street performers in US army uniforms pose with the crowds for tips (not the Dodie kind!), and tellingly - there is a McDonalds at Checkpoint Charlie. Also, behind the wall off historical panels is a "beach resort" with drinks and wurst, offered in an environment covered with sand. wtf?

And finally, if you do not want to go to the beach, you can buy a curry wurst at Check Point Curry!

That, in brief, is our story of today. But make sure to look at the photos and captions (when they get posted). There is more in there than has been described here. For example, the square where the Berlin book burning took place, May 10, 1933, and what we saw inside two churches.

What did we think of Berlin overall? One, they should chose a couple of projects andd finish that, rather than rip up the whole place. Next, despite lots of interesting buildings and many museums, it is not charming or lovely. As for the memories of German and Berlin history, we did not go in to any museums or sites, but it seems well done, and the history is certainly actively kept before the tourists and general public. It's disturbing, though, not what you would call entertainment. That's fitting, but a day here with a quick spin around is about all we can take.

About Walter's house - our main reason for coming - we are glad we did, but it was stressful. We are ready to get back out in the country.