Don't mention the war!

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Prague-Hof-Berlin
Tom Griffith The German edition of Fawlty Towers is called 'The Crazy Hotel', and features the Dire Straits song Walk Of Life as the theme tune. I know this because me and my old mate David introduced a German to the pleasures of Basil, Sybil and Manuel, and of course we made sure we showed him the best episode of all - The Germans (called, in Germany, The Germans are Coming). It was quite something watching poor old Michi trying to grasp the humour of such comic gems as John Cleese telling the German tourists that they started the war by invading Poland, and then goosestepping around the room like a Nazi. All credit to him, he did find it quite amusing, but I think that there may still be a slight discomfort with laughing at anything Nazi-related.

I left Prague a few days ago and travelled back to Hof, a lovely Bavarian town of about 60,000 not far from the Czech border. My old flatmate and buddy David plays in the local symphony orchestra there, so I dropped in to catch up. There followed a typical Bavarian day of eating lots of pork and drinking lots of beer. Hof is famous for its sausages, and the Germans being rather partial to some processed pig meat, there are lots of them around. In fact, the town centre was full of old men selling wurst from little street stalls. And the beer was to die for: locally brewed, ice cold and as tasty as fermented hops can get.

From Hof I travelled up to Berlin, and got to see my first German neo-Nazis on the train. Two skinheads, wearing Nazi insignia and menacing frowns, marched through the carriage liked they owned it, carrying a large crate full of beer between them. I saw a couple of Turkish women shrink back as they walked past. Pretty vile stuff.

I arrived in Berllin last night, and met up with a few friends: Jess, a British actor who has just done a Merceds commercial, another old flatmate called Dirk, and his girlfriend Freia. Luckily it was a Saturday, and so I got to sample a bit of the famous Berlin nightlife. We went to a disco in the semi-renovated carcass of an old ballroom. The place was brilliant - lots of beautiful people partying away in the faded splendour of the 19th-century ballroom. It must have been a great night because I am having trouble remembering much more than that.

I spent today checking out the main sights of this wonderful city, in true Berlin fashion - on a bike. The area around the Brandenburg Gate was absolutely heaving, as the city is playing host to the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the European Union. There were food stalls from all 27 countries, a bit of music, some speeches, and apparently it was all topped off by a free Joe Cocker gig. I missed him but did see some mind-numbingly awful poetry read by a German girl with the most grating voice I have ever heard.

The Gate used to mark part of the border between East and West, and not far from this part of town was the famous crossing at Checkpoint Charlie. All of the 150km wall has been pulled down now, bar a few hundred metres that has been kept for posterity, but there is still plenty of evidence that it existed. The foundation bricks have all been kept, and run along many of the streets in the centre of Berlin. The buildings in the old West and the old East are slightly different, with the general consensus being that the 1960s East Berlin ones are the ugliest.
However, my favourite way of spotting the East from the West: the traffic lights in West Berlin have a normal little green man; in the East, he has a little hat on!

The section of the Wall that has been preserved lies in an outdoor museum called the Topography of Terror, which is pretty amazing stuff. Directly below the Wall are the old foundations of the SS Headquarters from WW2. Seeing this juxtaposition of the heart of Nazism lying below the symbol of the odious East German communist regime reminds you just how tragic the last 100 years of German history have been.

The other spot I had to see was the Reichstag, which housed Germany's parliament until someone - most probably under Nazi orders - burned it down in 1933. It was ravaged during the war, and then rebuilt afterwards, but not used for the parliament until the two Germanys had been reunited. A flash new dome was added in 1999, and it houses the parliament once more. The highlights inside are the spiralling walk to the top of the dome for some great views of the city, and the preserved bricks covered in Russian graffiti, from the Red Army soldiers who stormed the building in 1945.

Anyway, it is well past midnight here, and an express train to Frankfurt awaits me in the morning. From there, I finally fly into Cairo, and my trip to Africa begins. Thanks for reading until now - I promise a post from Egypt just as soon as I get my head around the place...

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Photos

The Reichstag
Site of the current German parliament, the home of the Weimar Republic, and famously set alight during the Nazi years, giving Adolf an excuse to ban the Communist Party

The Wall
A surviving section of the Berlin Wall. Note the missing chunks of concrete - souvenir hunters got lots of it, and you can even buy postcards that come with a tiny piece of the Wall attached...

Bayern Bier Hund
Enjoying a spot of the local brew in Hof

Brandenburg Gate
The symbolic centre of Berlin, and impossible to pass through when the Wall passed directly behind it

Dave and Michi
My mates Dave and Michi enjoy a stein in Hof

Wurst, anyone?
A Hof deli, well stocked with every type of pork product imaginable...

Comments

[Gerry de Malet]

love the blog
Tom, yours is the first blog of my life and I am enjoying the tour. Prague is one of the places that I have missed but is now firmly on my list of must do things. I do hope you enjoy Egypt. I found it fascinating and have just found a book I purchased in Cairo in 1989 written by Florence Nightingale about her travels in Egypt, a place where things hardly change. I once thought it would be fun to live in Aswan for a couple of months each year and use it as a base to explore all the wonderful sights the country has to offer. The whole thing takes my breath away. Gerry

[Penny]

Little Green Man
I loved the little East German traffic light man. We went on a four hour walking tour when we were there and our guide told us that they tried to phase him out after reunification. There was a massive backlash from Easties unhappy with the loss of their icon, groups were formed and word on the street is that the traffic light man from the East is now replacing that of the West.

[Alan]

Cashing in on the wall
Gilles and I are doing an continuing learning course on Archaeology and the Berlin Wall souvenirs are the new fake Mummies that came out of Egypt in the 1920’s. It seems that everyone has broken up parts of the concrete driveway spared a few colours on it a sold them of as Berlin Wall souvenirs.

[Nigel]

Ships of the desert.
Tom, you didn't tell me that Kev was with you in Egypt. The picture of him in front of a pyrimid wearing a blue shirt is great.

[Ouaga]

I AM my father...
I know. Scary isn't it...

[Dirk]

I am a donut
Tom, it have been very good to see you in Berlin and to show you a bit of Berlin's spirit and history. There is much more to see and tell. Hope you can make it again soon and we have more time to spend. Try to make it in summer , Berlin is much more alive and crazy then. All the best for Africa and keep me updated about the kilimandscharo. Dirk