Berlin

Just got back from Berlin, spent 5 days there (felt like a month) and it was an amazing experience. Such great history, buildings and transportation.

Has anyone else visited?

I had a meal at the TV Tower on Monday night, quite spectacular at 368 metres. The lift went up 6m per second, too.

 

Thought you'd been quiet.

Wow, only ever seen it in the Bowie movies.

Get any pics?

 

I'll post what I think are the best ones

 

There's green everywhere, more than England, in my opinion.

 

I went last summer on the way back from Poland. Had a fantastic time. The best bits were visiting the Reichstag, the Neues Museum and eating wurst at the roadside stalls. We probably could have spent a fortnight there doing the sights.

 

Yeah, Currywurst is nice! Did you try any of the Berliner Weisses?


their beer with a sort of syrup in to make it taste sweet, was really nice.

We didn't go to Reichstag because you had to book 3 days in advance and we only had about 2 days left when we found out..

 

The space age thing is the TV Tower.
Did you manage to get to Treptow Park in the east? It has a lasting impression.
The Checkpoint Charlie Museum used to be excellent. Since the wall came down, I don't know if it still exists.
In the early 70's, when you could travel to the east with an escort (military, not exotic) going from a modern metropolis to an Eastern Block grey ghetto was a long lasting effect. The only cars in the east were the Trabant, and they were Government property.
It was like travelling back in time, but less than 2 miles from the modern West.

 

Yep, it's the TV Tower, Germany's tallest building. Heard quite a lot of other cities in Germany have their own version of it (Stuttgart do but it's not as nice as Berlin's)

We went to Checkpoint Charlie, but it's very commercialised now, with really horrible takeaways surrounding it.



I found the nicest buildings to be the French Cathedral and it's counterpart German Cathedral facing it.

We went to the Holocaust museum, Pergamon museum, Berlin Zoo and Berliner Dom, and then other places which we didn't go inside of.

 

It's a shame about Checkpoint Charlie.
I remember upstairs in the Museum we could stand on an orange box to look out of a small window and, with the Binoculars supplied, could look over No-Mans Land at the East German Guard who's job seemed to be looking at that window to see who was looking out. - Creepy, but exhilarating at the same time.

 

Apparently they have a chicken place next to it called Checkpoint Chicken or something..didn't walk far enough up the road to see.

 

I went to Berlin first in 1977. I was an au pair with a family from Hannover and they took me. As a country girl from rural West Wales it made a big impression. I remember seeing prostitutes on the street corners but not knowing - then - what they were.

We passed through Checkpoint Charlie to visit their relatives in the East. Even thought they were not particularly interested in me I remember how threatening it felt to be kept in their underground area as the intimidating East German guards checked the papers.

The most telling thing about the eastern part of Berlin then was the department stores - row after row of enamel cookware in the window displays and nothing else.

The Brandenburg gate and Kurfurstendam made a big impression and when I went back this summer I could work out where I had been before in relation to where the wall was. It is all an open plaza now, grand and impressive. Then it was bleak and dilapidated.

The city itself has changed out of all recognition. There are new stations and buildings everywhere in the centre which has largely been rebuilt, and everything is buzzing with life and culture. You would have to go into some of the poorer suburbs to get a feel of grimy, decadent Cabaret (my favourite film) Berlin now.

Well worth a long weekend and you can even get there easily by train.

 

I was also there in 77 & 78.
The other abiding memory I have is that you could only spend East german Marks in the East and you had to change Deutchmarks at the border at a rate of 1:1 (the international exchange rate was more than 7:1).
You were only allowed to change DM12 into East Marks. That was all you could spend - and you could not change back anything not spent.
Whilst in the East I was asked to exchange DM at a better rate, and also asked if I wanted to sell my watch.
At that time you never knew who you were talking to and daren't deviate from the regulatory transactions (didn't fancy time in an Eastern Bloc jail)
There were Official Couriers moving through the border daily with Diplomatic clearance, and there was a rampant barter system in place in the Consulates. Orders being taken for Dresden China etc. which came back in the Pouch. Nice little earner for some of those guys.

 

Id love to go the Germany have wanted to see the brendenburg gate and the reichstag up close for ages now. Did it set you back much Kyle?