Thursday 20th April - Berlin Day 1, Germany

We had planned to take a trip to Berlin some years ago.  Angela had even arranged a secret trip for me, but my then employer was not very amenable to last minute (in their eyes two months was last minute) pleas for leave, so the plans were dashed.  This time we had no employers to get in the way.  We drove to Camping Krossinsee just outside Berlin - this was to be our home for the next few days.  The journey down was not as smooth as some as we were now experiencing more English style traffic jams.  To add insult to injury, the weather was none too good.  We started out in thick fog and then snow, although, thankfully it did not settle.

                   

Camped in the woods                               View of the lakeside                                       Restaurant overlooking the lake

We arrived at 3pm to a warm welcome from the camp host.  She was able to recommend the day travel card which would take us into and around the city all day by bus-tram-train for just €6.  The facilities on site are good, but although the Wi-Fi was free - it didn’t work.  This was no surprise to us, given our previous experience.

That was yesterday.  Today we decided to make an early start and took a bus from just outside the campsite the couple of stops to the S-Bahn (suburban commuter rail).  There we took the U-Bahn (underground) into the city.  The whole journey took about 1.5 hours, but we were kept occupied by all the sights around us, so were able to just enjoy the ride.

There is such a lot to do in Berlin that we took some time working out what to do first.  We took the U-Bahn to Friedricstrasse as a starting point.  Here we headed for Check-Point Charlie.  OK it’s a bit touristy, certainly nothing like the Check-Point Charlie when the wall was still in existence (or at least I am told), but I would forego the edginess of that experience for the freedom of today’s inhabitants.

         

 A re-enactment for tourists                             American sector and Mcdonalds

There was the obvious stuff for us tourists, but enough of interest for it to be worthwhile, and of course there was the whole sense of history of the place.

As if there wasn’t enough excitement in town we stumbled on a film set in the Gendarmenmarkt - at least we think it was a film set.



More prosaically, I had an ongoing problem with a tooth and so had booked an appointment with a dentist for 5.20pm today.  Unfortunately , this meant we had to get an earlier train back.  However, not before Angela had visited Babelplatz, the scene of the mass book burning by Nazi sympathisers.  There was a strange monument/art installation there where one could look through a glass panel set in the road and see down to room full of empty shelves representing the books that were burnt (you have to squint a bit to see it, as the glass is well worn from all the foot-fall.   A plaque nearby states: “In the middle of this place, on the May 1933 National Socialist students burned the works of hundreds of freelance journalists, philosophers and scientists”.  Throughout our travels we have listened to various audiobooks, particularly on long evenings and long car journeys.  Our current companion is a boxed set of 'The Book Thief' which was a Christmas gift from Roland's sister.  The story is set in Berlin and describes the book burning so we were particularly keen to come to this site.

                   

Babelplatz                                                    Glass panel revealing empty book-shelves

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