Berlin
Posted by Martin Orr on Thursday, 20 July 2006 at 17:36
Since Saturday I have been on holiday in Berlin with my family. Much of the centre of the city is a building site or full of new skyscrapers, following the fall of the Wall. Certainly the square Soviet apartment blocks are not terribly attractive. Apart from a few 18th-19th century cathedrals and museums, the history that you see is very much dominated by the Cold War. Evidence of the Nazis has largely been swept away, such as the completely unmarked car park which now stands above the bunker where Hitler shot himself. Nearby is the new, and somewhat peculiar, Jewish Memorial, a large square covered in concrete blocks which range from 50cm to 5m high.
The line where the Wall ran, back and forth across the middle of the city, is usually not obvious; it ran close past then-existing buildings as well as new ones. We saw one piece which has been preserved as well as a museum about the Wall, escape attempts and non-violent protest.
On Tuesday we went to Potsdam just outside Berlin, where the Prussian emperors lived. The Park Sanssouci is huge, but I was surprised by how small the palaces were: only one storey tall and one room deep.
The rest of the family flew home today; until 14th August I am Interrailing in Germany and Italy. Tonight I am in Wittenberg.
-- Martin