Well, first of all, I'd like to burst your bubbles just in case you guys think that we do have snow. Nope!!! When they say snow for Germany, it just means the mountains. We have a beautiful day here today, about 6 and sunny. Since we've been here, cloudy, windy but acceptable. That's why we bought the new coats. Very nice to walk in the weather. Oh yes, we've had flurries, if that's what you want to call them - but they fall like bubbles, just a tease as to what it could be like if we were somewhere else in the world.
Now for Berlin. One can't imagine, especially if you are Gerhard, that we just hopped a train and poof, we are in a huge, lively city of 3.5 million. It's so large that the locals plus the tourists, together, don't make the city feel small.
We have done much since our arrival here on Tuesday. It is a fast-paced, alive city whose motto is 'a rolling stone gathers no moss.' They believe that 'change and growth' are important. This is a non-sleeping city where it is said that 'If you grow tired of Berlin, then you are tired of life.' It appears to be true.
We've walked for hours, taken many subways, trams, trains and a city tour bus and yet there is still so much more to see. We did spend 2 hours going through the 'Story of Berlin' so that we could get a really good understanding of how Berlin came into being. It was very moving, especially the guided tour through the chemical warfare bunker of which there are 20 throughout the city and are prepared to hold 2500 people each for only two weeks. Does this sound unreasonable to you that out of 3.5 million people, only approx 50 000 people could be saved? It was the gov'ts attempt in the 70's to conquer the growing fear of a world chemical war. The bunkers were created out of 20 underground parking areas which were complete with food, hanging beds, air quality control and toilet facilities. There was so much wrong with them that it would have been impossible to keep anyone alive.
Yesterday we took the jump on, jump off tour bus to the entire route of East and West Berlin. I remember the last time that I was here, in 1988, that I had waited 2 hours on my tour bus trying to get back out of East Berlin - yet, yesterday G and I just walked everywhere freely. We visited the protected and guarded part of the Wall which is left there for all to remember the stupidity of the gov't and walked along it to read a museum load of info set out for all to learn. We walked the route of 'Check Point Charlie' and stopped in East Berlin for lunch. After our trip to the Brandenburg Gate , (a critical border crossing where many people had been murdered trying to cross the 'No Man's Land' between the two parts of Berlin), G and I stepped into a special place set aside to remember the uselessness of it all. The building was called 'The Silent Room' where outside traffic and noise was impossible to hear. It was very humbling. The room was bare and white with only a piece of art hanging on the wall which held a light into the center of a dark tapestry. In the center was a bar spot, similar to the no-man's land.
Even on my first trip here, one could feel the difference between the two lands. On one side, plenty; on the other, just enough. Throughout both sides of the city, renovations and constructions are plentiful. After the US, France, Britain and the USSR had declared war on Berlin trying to stop Hitler, both parts of this city were in ruins. The west side had begun fixing and building right away, but the east side didn't. Now, still after 1989 and the fall of the wall, that part of the city is still trying to recapture it's beauty.
Much of the night life and excitement lies in the East side now. It is a growing concern but you can still see how different it is in the way the buildings are different, the way he subway entrances are smaller and in the way parts of the city have been kept in a shabby existence.
Just a note to ponder: Gerhard's cousin, Irma and Horst, with their daughter, lived in East Berlin during the entire closed-gate status. They had one of those special little cars that one was allowed to own and, as they say, lived a good life - even though they weren't allowed to exit to the west. You've got to give them a thumbs-up for surviving and thriving.
Above all else, we are very happy that they did.
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