Friday - Chocolate and Checkpoint Charlie

Probably one of the tackiest, overrun tourist traps in Berlin is the site of the former crossing from the American to the Russian sector, called Checkpoint Charlie. Think of the Roman Colosseum where actors are dressed as gladiators and they pose for pictures for a tip. Here we have actors playing American border guards during the Cold War.

We spent only a few minutes here this (Friday) afternoon before heading over to Potsdamer Platz and the mall (Arcade) to grab some lunch. Afterwards, we stopped by the bank to get some cash and picked up some Starbucks to take to our room. In about an hour we'll be Face-timing with our grandchildren (Whoops...try again tomorrow!).

This morning, we went to Museum Island and picked up tickets for tomorrow. For $20 you can visit all four of the museums in a day. For the Perganom you have to pick an entry time, but for the others, you can just show your ticket. However, there is a special exhibit of impressionistic painters at the National Gallery, and the line for that today looked to be about a half-mile long.

On the way to the museum, we also stopped by the O2 store because Kathy's phone stopped working when she turned it off and on. It took the clerk at the store about a second to show us how to enter the PIN to re-enable the SIM card. He was smiling.

On our way to Checkpoint Charlie, we stopped by a beautiful, almost Parisian square called Gendrmenmarkt, anchored at both ends by a French (Huguenot) and a German (Lutheran) cathedral. What we came for, though, was Europe's biggest chocolate store, Fassbender & Rausch.

They have an endless variety of individual fine chocolates. Instead of buying a pre-built assortment, you get an empty container, and they fill it with your selection. Here's the selection that we picked out.

The Checkpoint Charlie tackiness only extends about a block. Another block beyond that is another block-long section of the Wall build upon the foundations of an earlier building, that contained the offices of the Gestapo and the SS. Those buildings have been torn down and replaced with an outdoor exhibit called the Topography of Terror, which traces the rise and fall of Hitler's Germany. Compared to the carnival atmosphere two blocks away, the hundreds of people were respectful and somber.

Leaving the exhibits and heading to Potsdamer Platz, you'll find a cobbled line buried in the street that traces the old line of the Wall. From time to time, you'll also find a plaque like this embedded in the cobbles.

Thursday - Friends at the Wall

Today we got up earlier than Wednesday and had a nice breakfast before meeting Paul Rostig, the pastor of Calvary Chapel of Berlin. Paul took us (by subway and bus) to his church in the Wedding section of Berlin.

We were excited to see that the church has rented its own building, so they can have a sign outside.

We sat and talked for an hour or so, and then went and climbed to the top of a large WWII bunker that looks like a mountain. Local climbers use it to practice free-climbing. After tiring ourselves out, we walked back into town and met another member of the congregation, Vesni, for a Turkish lunch and some fellowship.

After lunch, Paul had to leave, so we headed home via the Berlin Wall Memorial along the two block stretch of Bernauer Strasse. The local Berlin government has been investing a lot of money into this area, avoiding the commercialization of Checkpoint Charlie. From ground level, the Wall looks a little plain.

But, when you climb the three-story observation tower across the street, you can see the guard-towers, the two walls separated by no-man's-land and get a feeling for the daunting ordeal it would be to try and get across to the West.

Painted on the walls of the houses surrounding the memorial, are pictures from different years of the Wall. The original houses on Bernauer Strasse butted up right against the wall, so in the first year, (1961) many people escaped to the West by jumping out of windows and then being caught by the West Berlin First Department.

The East German authorities bricked up the windows, and, over the next few years, demolished all of the houses that directly abutted the Wall.

After reunification, several sections of the Wall that had been covering an old cemetery were removed and now they are being reclaimed by the vines.

By the time we got back to our hotel, it had started raining. Since we hadn't eaten yet, we headed out on the S-Bahn for a restaurant in Prenzlauer Berg, the former workers, then artists, now yuppie eating district. Kathy had a schnitzel (which I love). However, I've vowed to be a more adventurous eater, so I ordered goulash with pickled red cabbage and potato dumplings. It was interesting, but I don't think I'll be trying it twice. (Hourik, I forgot to take pictures; sorry.)