Berlin First Glance

 I was sitting at the Brandenburg Gate with an overpriced Dunkin Donuts coffee and I was suddenly reminded of a story that an old friend Eric had shared with me when he was at this exact spot with another friend Dwayne on New Year's Eve 1989/1990.  I will not share the details of their epic story but he was kind enough to send me a few photos of them standing in front of the still standing Berlin Wall behind the Brandenburg Gate. It is a timeless photo as the drab and dreary scene is punctuate by the grey sky surrounding a sad and violent history. 

I remember having conversations with various people about heading to Berlin for Pink Floyd's concert at the wall in the summer of 1990. To a person we all passed because we were conditioned that the summer was for working our tourist jobs as waiters and summer was when we made our money. We would never get the time off, so we did not even ask. 350,000 other people can now tell the story about how they saw Pink Floyd play at the Berlin wall. I can talk about working a double and making $160 that day. I want a mulligan on that one.

Contrast the above photo with the tourist Shit Show that is now on display for all to see. This is the front of the gate and the photo above is from behind as that is where the wall was established in this area. It is surrounded by Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, cheap souvenir shops and various bus, peid-cabs and walking tour groups, then toss in more than one Tik Toker with both a camera and light setup doing their look at me Tik Tok dances. 

I get times change and the horrors of history are usually replaced by blatant consumerism and the "I was there" photo. We are all guilty of that at some point.

Bullet damage from the battle of Berlin

Case in point, I joined a free city walking tour with with Sandman Tours. City walking tours and the infamous Hop on Hop off busses are excellent ways to get introduced to any city. Although I have been watching some great videos with the Honest Guide from Prague who exposes the Hop On tours as a huge scam. The walking tour of Berlin hit all the major points like Brandenburg Gate, site of Hitler's Bunker, Memorial to Murdered Jews, part of the Berlin wall that still stand and the very touristy Checkpoint Charlie. What these tours include is running commentary about everything including buildings that we were walking past, pointing out WW2 damage still visible and never repaired. Standing atop Hitler's bunker and standing on or near the spot where his body was burned was hard to fathom as it was now beside by a bubble tea shop. However there were photos and diagrams detailing the bunkers location. The government tried to destroy it but in the end they filled it with concrete so it would never to be used as a martyr's shrine for those who still believe, and yes, they still exist.

Checkpoint Charlie

 This photo is the "replication" of Check Point Charlie and yes, I stood line line to take this photo, as you do. Of course like anything else this photo does not do the history of the place any justice. Have a look at the photo below, that will do the trick. A tank standoff between the Allies and the Russians that could have easily ended in Boom Boom Boom that's all folks. 

My day finished with a wander back through the the city centre, revisiting the Reichstag Building, The memorial to the Murdered Jews, the Berlin Cathedral, and a beer at a cafe in Alexanderplatz just because it looked really cool in one of the Jason Bourne movies...it was not.

Jetlag and all the walking was starting to kick in, so I had a second beer then found my way to the train for the easy and fast ride back to my hotel. The good news is I fell asleep around 10, but then at 1:13 am the Jetlag kicked in, good times. 

Check Point Charlie,  October 27, 1961
The Real Deal