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On the bus from Berlin to Krakow June 30 2014 8pm
So if your friend, Marion, buys you a famous Berlin currywurst you are not supposed to spill curry sauce all over her foot! Oh dear I was on form there and strictly sober so no excuse there either. It was a lovely day when we met Marion and her boyfriend Rene under the 'world clock' in Alexanderplatz. After the unfortunate incident above Marion was still happy to treat us to a boat cruise on the river. It was very civilised with drinks all round. Jane tried the beer with strawberry syrup and all sensibly refrained from the beer and coke (50:50?) on offer. Marion seemed well settled in the city. With so much going on and it all so easy to get to it is not surprising. I was impressed that as Berliners they got free public transport for the evenings and weekends. As we puttered by the famous river side sites Marion, with her East German roots, gave us an interesting perspective on real life during a dramatic period in recent European history. We were very grateful how Marion and Rene introduced us to their city.
That was on our first of three days in the city. Without further a do it important at this point to thank our hosts whilst we have been in Berlin, Anna and Peter, and by proxy Hilary for putting us in touch. Anna was a school friend of Jane's friend and swimming partner Hilary and she kindly agreed to host us for three days of our world tour. It was such a pleasure to stay with them. Anna and Peter had met in Calcutta and had been all over the world with the German Foreign Office so had some interesting stories to share. In Peter I found a fellow football fan and in Anna Jane found a fellow football widow. This travelling lark isn't that hard when you are watching Brazil and Chile swap penalty misses with a glass of single malt in hand.
Peter and Anna live on the North side of what use to be West Berlin. I was happy to join in Peter's pre-breakfast walks to get a paper and rolls and learn from him more about how the city developed particularly in the suburbs we passed through. One thing quite
unique is the way that West Berlin houses often have another house in the back garden. This happened during the 'Wall' era when there was such limited space. At breakfast we were treated to Anna's rainbow of home made jams and the rhubarb ginger (with a touch of banana) brought back fond memories of my Grandma's star confection.
We are starting to collect recipes from those we meet and Anna has given us a great chicken spicy marinade we had on the BBQ on evening. We might start blogging them so you try them for yourselves.
We visited the city each day. It has a really vibrancy. Of course the majority of buildings are new and they have certainly worked to create interesting new ones from the destruction of their twentieth century history. I particularly liked the Sony Centre and the Norman Foster dome on the Reichstag is spectacular. A word of warning if you want to see the Reichstag dome up close: Either book up on the internet three weeks in advance and do as we did on Anna and Peter's advice and book a table at the Reichstag cafe, a day in
advance. This gets you into the Reichstag and around the Dome and if you are really cynical you can just ignore your reservation at this point. We recommend otherwise: you can get tea and excellent cake for 20 Euros for two with a great view of the city while they could easily have charged you 10 Euros a piece to visit.
It is clear why they do not want to charge for the visit. When you get to the roof terrace and climb the helix up the inside of the dome you can look from above into the very epicentre of current German democracy. They want to promote democracy as the scars of the population living under tyrannical dictatorships are still vivid.
You have to say that Berlin has done well to portray its recent past to the visitor. We visited the private and a little expensive Museum of Checkpoint Charlie which none the less gave dramatic descriptions of escapees tales from the GDR. The Tyranny of Terror gave a full description of the rise and downfall of the Nazis in the shadow of one of the few remaining parts of the Berlin Wall. And probably most impressive of all was the so called 'Tear Palace' which reconstructed with first hand accounts what is was like to cross between East and West Berlin at the FrederickStrasse station.
The simplicity and yet individuality of the Holocaust memorial is surprisingly thought provoking. You are slowly immersed as you walk between the 2711 concrete blocks always clear of you own position and yet with no idea of who is in there with you except for fleeting glimpses. If you want to know more don't go on Monday as we did because the information centre is closed.
Berlin certainly isn't just about the grim reality of the city's recent history. If you are young enough, and we aren't, the club scene is as broad as one could want it to be apparently. We did not even track down Earl Okin's variety club recommendation. We did find a youthful flea market (following Anna's direction) where we sampled the offerings of a Turkish kitchen. We resisted filling our backpacks even more. It also made me realise that all those vinyl records I carefully kept in the roof might be worth something. They wanted 12 Euros for a well used copy of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band!
We also visited a variety of other interesting sites, so Berlin is definitely to be recommended, probably the younger you are the better, and do try the currywurst - just keep it to yourself.
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Christian
non-member comment
Hi Jem and Jane, nice to see you in Berlin with Marion. It's a shame I wasn'T in the Kanzleramt -epicentre of German democracy and the Iron Lady - by now, also I should have been there more than you. I hope you enjoyed the Berlin night life and I wish you a fantastic journey. Best wishes Christian