Wednesday 11th July 2018
Following a great evening spent with our hosts Lutz, Antje and Lisa, Lutz kindly offered to drive us into Berlin today and take us to some special parts of the city before he headed off to get on with domestic chores of his own.
Lutz and his family grew up in East Berlin and he lived through the construction of the Berlin Wall, which cut off West Berlin from virtually all of surrounding East Germany and East Berlin, as well as its demise in 1989 and its subsequent demolition. His personal experiences and emotional connection to these events proved invaluable when he was describing the many areas he took us to.
First stop an area near the Oberbaum Bridge, over the River Spree, where some of the Berlin Wall still stands.
During the time of the Berlin Wall, the bridge was used as a pedestrian border crossing for West Berlin residents only. We drove past where Lutz used to live on the way.
The East Side Gallery, a heritage protected landmark, consists of murals painted directly on a 1300 m long remnant of the Berlin Wall, near the centre of the city.
It is a monument to the fall of the Berlin Wall. This area of Berlin is currently undergoing massive construction and regeneration work.
From here Lutz took us to another area of the city where the Gedenkstatte Berliner Mauer/Berlin Wall Memorial is located.
Along Bernauer Straße is the memorial park, Mauerpark/Wall Park, a former part of the Berlin Wall and its Death Strip. When Berlin was a divided city, the Berlin Wall ran along this street and it became famous for many attempted escapes from the eastern part of the city into the West.
Along with the memorial park, where rust coloured metal poles mark where the Wall once stood, there is a long section of the preserved wall remaining and the Berlin Documentation Centre and a visitor centre with a viewing tower.
Lutz was happy to talk about his own memories of living during the presence of the Berlin Wall and how it affected his family and school friends, many of whom he still keeps in contact with.
A final drive through along Friedrichstraße, one of the busy shopping areas and Lutz dropped us close to our next landmark, Checkpoint Charlie. Although not much to write home about, its Cold War significance is well documented.
Onward we made our way on foot through Potsdamer Platz, a modern hub for entertainment and shopping towards Tiergarten Park. At our time of visiting, the park was out of bounds, due to its use for outdoor viewing events connected to the World Cup.
We passed the huge and not insignificant Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which consists of 2711 columns forming a vast maze-like Holocaust memorial, with an underground exhibition room.
A diversion at this point, as we couldn’t access the park, meant we had to make a detour around the American Embassy before reaching Pariser Platz and the restored 18th century Brandenburg Gate.
The final historical landmark on our foot tour was the world famous Reichstag Building opposite the State Park/Platz der Republik. This parliament building was quite impressive and was topped with a Norman Foster glass dome with 360 degree views of the city.
All began well. We purchased a couple of beers and settled down on the top deck to enjoy the sights. We began in the direction of the Reichstag and Government Quarter, along the green areas of the State Park and the House of the World’s Cultures.
We turned to head back to our starting point and continue further along the River towards Berlin Cathedral, Museum Island and Nicholas’ Quarter, when the heavens opened!
We sheltered in the dry of the lower deck where we enjoyed the remainder of the cruise.
Back on land and after a phone call our wonderful taxi driver, Lutz picked us up for the journey home. The rain continued to pour down for the remainder of the journey, accompanied by lightning! The first rain we had experienced in months, as had Lutz 🙁
Blame the British 😉
How lovely…😏