Trabant

After a relaxing start to the day (a swim in the excellent rooftop hotel pool and a session in the steam room) we  found a good breakfast in a nearby cafe (sympathising with the waitress as she chased down the street after a woman who had come in, downed a whisky and then walked out without paying) and then taken the U-Bahn to Alexanderplatz and the S-Bahn to Ostbahnhof before walking down past the longest remaining stretch of the inner Berlin wall on the East Berlin side of the River Spree. The East Berlin side of the wall has been turned into an open air Art Gallery, decorated along its length by local artists in a wide variety of styles.  The river side remains painted white (as it had been by the GDR to make the shadows of potential escapees more visible) and was used after dark as a screen for a multi-projector presentation of the events leading to the construction and later fall of the wall.  There were separate displays discussing the history and impact of the wall and the subsequent integration of  East and West Germany.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped for a pulled pork burger, a chocolate and cherry crepe and a few glasses of gluhwein at the Winter Market in Postdamer Platz.

Berlin also seems to like to celebrate to infamous east German Trabant car, and we have seen many on display - as well as a procession of them today along Mühlenstraβe where I took this blip.