Hello Berlin! (#4)

Our last day in Berlin :(

We didn't have as lazy a morning as usual - we were up, packed and leaving the hotel in very good time. Picked up a berliner at the station (do you see what we did there?) and then took the U-bahn to go and look at Checkpoint Charlie. Neither of us were expecting that much - the guidebooks said it was mostly a plastic replica and not much to see. How wrong they were.

Ok, so the actual checkpoint cabin is indeed a replica and there are two "soldiers" standing "guard" outside (offering tourists the opportunity to have photos taken with them for just 2 euro), but there's also a large and detailed set of information boards on the street, covering the whole story of the checkpoint and also positioning it within the wider Cold War story. There are photos interspersed in the text, and there are also sections of the wall as well as the route of the wall in cobbles in the street. It was very very good indeed, though harrowing in parts.

Then we walked up to have a look at Gendarmmarkt, as it's supposedly used as "London" in many films... we couldn't see the likeness... then took the U-bahn to go on a self-guided walk round the Jewish quarter. It was great - took us past streets in the former east Berlin that didn't seem to have changed much in the past 20 years. There were also several very poignant memorials, in particular the Koppenplatz memorial to jews from the neighbourhood - an abandoned table and two chairs, and then of course the numerous brass pavement cobbles remembering individual jews who had lived there.

But this is a photo of the most powerful monument - it is outside the former Jewish school, which was used by the Nazis as a collection point for the Jewish families before their deportation and murder. The facial expressions are just amazing - haunted, hungry, angry, knowing what's to come.

Utter brutality and inhumanity. Evil.

We also saw the new synagogue with its massive gold dome and the biggest post office I've ever seen - survived the bombing intact and is now a museum of photography.

Then back to the hotel to pick up our bags, jumped on a train to the airport and flew back home, having picked up some pretzels on the way.

So, that was it for our long weekend in Berlin. We had a great time, saw loads and know that there is more to see. Tchuss!