On our ride into Berlin on the train it was interesting to witness
apartment block after apartment block in 1950s-60s style and realise this is a
city rebuilt at a particular time in history. Everything on this train line was
very similar and it wasn’t until later we realised this was the old east Berlin
we were riding through. It’s difficult to know today where the line was but you
do notice at times which part of Berlin you are in. Our Hotel, for example is
part of the old East. It’s a grand old lady from a period where bathrooms are
still made in small white and green tiles and bedrooms were separate (a room
with a bath meant hand basin); the lift will only accommodate four at a time and
the waiters wear kitchen-type aprons and
have difficulty understanding your questions. On our first night we walked Kurfursten damm window shopping and looking at the differing architecture. It was a safe street
to walk with people out and about, high end fashion in the windows and the
weather was warm. We chose an Italian meal out, just a block from our hotel. We
have discovered over the last three days that Berlin is full of restaurants
with varying prices. For the remainder of or meals we took the advice of Trip
Adviser. One of the best finds was a Chinese Restaurant for lunch, where we
were served a “business lunch special” where we ate a two course meal for
around seven euro each. The food was fresh and very tasty and we even managed
to catch our emails with free wifi.
We visited three museums. Our first call was “The story of Berlin,” an
interactive and clearly labelled museum displaying of the history of Berlin.
There’s a lot to be learned about the place and we took it all in piece by
piece. It covered lots including the rise and fall of monarchy and governments,
the history of medicine, arts and culture, housing and architecture, the place
of religion and inevitably the rise and fall and rise again of Berlin in World War Two and
the years after. It was a good place to
start as our next plan was to take a hop on hop off tour of the city where a
lot of what was learned could be identified and looked at more closely. One of
the strangest experiences in The Story of Berlin Museum was an escorted tour of
the still operating emergency bunker in the basement. This is converted carpark
with an airlock door for decontamination, security check and control of
numbers. It houses only 3,600 people who would have to make do with stretchers
in very a very confined space. This bunker was built in the 1970s when
Berliners were very afraid of not only the East/ West divide, but Americans as
well. Berlin keeps 20 bunker operable today as disasters like Fukishima keep
the threat of “anything can happen” alive.
We took the tour bus to Checkpoint Charlie and what remains of the
Berlin wall next to the now demolished Nazi Headquaters.Checkpoint Charlie was a
disappointment for its crass commercialism, people trying to sell you rubbish
and people asking you if you spoke English and trying to get what they can out
of you. We spent more time around what remains of the Berlin Wall beside the
now demolished Nazi headquarters. The bus tour with 20 stops took us as far as
bus stop 16 where it was announced that I was 6pm and all buses would be
stopping. Fortunately we were at Berlin
HBH, the train station, so it wasn’t a problem really. Well…a slight problem as
it was so huge and quite difficult to work out where to go. We worked it out by
taking our time, and all was sorted. What wasn’t so good was the credit card
had gone missing as well as the cord to the computer, so we spent a number of
hours hunting through luggage and not having a lot of success.
The following morning after a panic over a lost credit card had abated
(found in a discreet zip and not stolen), we took ride on the bus to look at
the shops. We rode to the top of a very beautiful department store which was
old but had a glass elevator running through the middle of it. We tried to find
a replacement cord to the computer but it’s too new. We contacted our last
accommodation in Paris to see if it had been found there. We gave up looking
for a while and decided to visit the Bauhus Museum instead. This was a good
move and we had an enjoyable couple of hours there. Did you know that today
Berlin has four universities and three art universities? It’s good to see that
today the arts are alive and well here. Love it.
We found our bus again from here, and continued back to the stop close
to the hotel. We also found the missing
cord to the computer in a bag within a bag within a bag so all was well. We
rested up for a few hours, then headed out to sample a bit of night life. The
woman at reception must have thought were a bit stupid, as she directed us to a
very dingy part of town with very little evidence of a night life at all. So we
walked back towards Hackescher Markt and found an Irish pub with music and later a nice tapas
bar for food and wine. It was, from there, an easy ride home.
In the morning we packed up, caught up on a bit of news, and found our
way on the M49 to ZOB where the Berliner Bus would take us to Hamburg. This is
a little advertised bus line which extends its run all the way to London and
deep into the East as well. We’d picked up tickets about four months ago for
nine euro each. One of our better bargins, I think. We scored a seat
upstairs at the very front of the bus
where we had an unrestricted view. Our friendly neighbour next to us pointed
out the old Russian army barracks, told us stories of escape through the
Hungarian border to the West, and being present at the fall of the Berlin Wall.
He then told us he wanted to come to New Zealand before he fell asleep for the
remainder of the journey.
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