Heading out early today to get to Check Point Charlie, the Wall and whatever else we can discover along our journey.
Obviously rush hour at the metro station....everyone rides a bike there....and commute the rest of the way.
On our way, when we saw this very modern apartment building....yikes.
A great time to enjoy a wee cappuccino and visit with this delightful doggie. 'Lottie' is a working dog in the city of Berlin. She is in an office building were she provides respite, affection and quiet time to the staff there. She needed a coffee to start her day too.
Is no one else going on the Metro but LD?
Interesting enough, there are former 'Ghost Subway Stations' in Berlin. For 28 years, most of the under ground trains (in East Berlin), except one, were blocked....shut down...even bricked closed.
In a matter of days after the 'wall' came down, they were reopened.....looking exactly as they did since 1931.
Our first sign of the 'Wall.'
So much of the 'wall' is gone. But these brick marks show where the 'wall' once was.
96 miles long. It was built to keep the people of East Berlin, in the communist east. Between 1949 to 1961, 3 million people left or escaped.
But then....they went to bed one night in 1961 and when they awoke....the 'wall' was erected.
I would be standing in the former Western Berlin.
Debbie is standing in no-man's land or the death strip.
Between two walls, that were 12 feet high, made of concrete, with barbed wire on top..... there was 30 to 160 feet wide of what was no-man's land.
138 people died at the 'Wall' trying to escape.
Check Point Charlie. The last stop for especially foreigners leaving or returned from East and West Berlin.
These fellows are happy to get photos with tourists.
Looking from the former East side to Check Point Charlie in the West.
Following the trail of the 'wall.'
It leads us to another section of existing wall that doesn't have graffiti on it but is definitely damaged from trying to bring it down...or open it up.
In 1963, during a visit to Berlin, President John F. Kennedy was quoted for stating the USA support of the people of East Berlin, by saying "Ich bin ein Berliner."
("I am a Berliner.")
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan asked the Soviet President, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
In November of 1989, half a million protesters shouted in chant, "Wir wollen raus" ("We want out.")
The DDR was actually going to open the restrictions a wee bit to let a few more Easterners out, relaxing some of the rigid travel restrictions....but...
A man named Gunter Schabowski, a spokesperson for the DDR, was reading a statement about the issue and when asked by reporters when this would take effect he said "ab sofort, unverzuglich" ("immediately, without delay.")
Thus the 'wall' came down.
Looking for pieces of the 'wall.'
Got some.....
After 28 years....Berlin is now a complete city.
As much as they are keeping the dark history alive, they are also looking forward with this very cosmopolitan city that is hard not to love.
Pieces of the 'wall' I picked up myself.
The last, of over 100 guard towers along the 'wall' that has survived.
Interesting fact is that more than 5,000 escapees successfully got across the 'wall' and 565 of them were East German guards?
You can climb the guard tower for about $3 euros...but it is straight up...OMG....no way.
These pieces of the 'wall' are everywhere to be sold? I really wanted a piece of it, but I didn't believe that these could really be legit.
On another trip, to another segment of the 'wall', I found a place where the owner had photos of himself taking parts of the 'wall.'
I bought some from him.
What an amazing adventure in Berlin.
Auf wiedersehen Berlin......until next time.
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