I am sure that you are aware of the history of the Wall, and we were there for the 20th anniversary of when the Berlin wall fell.
If you don't mind, I'll take this chance to let you know a little of my memories of when the wall fell. In November 1989, I was working in Matsuyama, Japan. Since it was the first trip, we were staying in apartments, and had little contact with the western world. In late November, a consultant came over from the US to work with us. One evening at dinner, I asked him what was new in the world (literally). He answered that the Berlin wall fell. We thought he was kidding, until he showed us a newspaper. Pretty amazing that I missed that significant point in history.
Back to the current story...
We parked next to the Bundestadt, which is the seat of the German government, and very near to where the Berlin wall had been. The line to visit inside the Bundestadt and the glass sphere behind it was very long, stretching outside and half way across the area in front. Time is short, so we passed on the line.
The next stop was the Brandenberg gate, which was located just east of the Wall and served as a symbol of the suppression. Interestingly, the U.S. Embassy is now located next to the Brandenberg gate. I have to believe that this was intended to show that East and West Germany were united again. Walking inside the gate, there were many interesting people. Several street artists pretending to be statues, soldiers, etc. were there, acting it up for the tourists' cameras. There was also a peace meditation taking place, inviting any passer-by to join.
After passing through the tourists, we walked down to Checkpoint Charlie. This was the main gate that was used to pass from East to West Germany. When we got there, we found a construction wall with pictures, several tourist shops, and a private museum. It was less than spectacular. No - it was downright disappointing. We did notice that the path of the wall was marked by brass plates put into the street and sidewalks.
Wanting to see some of the wall, we checked the guide book to see if there were any sections still remaining. This took us to the East Side gallery. This gallery is a section of the wall that was kept intact and is used by artists from around the world as a painting canvas. It was very interesting to see the different paintings which generally depicted the artist's feelings about freedom and the fall of the wall.
It was a long walk from the gallery, but we saw several interesting things that showed the age and modernity of Berlin today. There was a auto service station that had regular fuel along with a hydrogen filling station and a car recharging station.
After passing the art museum, we ran across a barricaded section of the road. Hmm... no one we asked seemed to know what was going on. Must be some VIPs who were going to do something. There was a local fair, so we grabbed a brat and a beer, and decided to wait and find out. So we waited for quite a while, then saw some people bringing wreaths to the memorial for fallen soldiers. Interesting, but pretty much a waste of time.
On we walked, back to the Brandenberg gate, noticing the brass plates in the street. Went to a souvenir store and bought a piece of the wall. The people who gathered up the bits of concrete were definitely entrepreneurs. The street performers were still there, but the peace meditators had left.
All in all, a pretty good day of being a tourist.
