Great to visit Berlin again. A lot has changed since the fall of the wall. Above you can see Checkpoint Charley, now a major tourist attraction. Back then when eastern Germany was still a communist dictatorship, I never crossed into east Berlin through that border, instead we went by Friedrichstrasse Bahnhof. I still recall seeing the Checkpoint from the eastern side, drab and depressing. Four days of eastern Germany was enough; I was always glad to cross over into the west again. Potsdammer Platz is now full with high rises (see picture), but if I recall correctly it was a desolate area before 1989. The buildings in east Berlin still had the bulletholes from the Second World War in their walls.
People forget so quickly. Until 1989 actual dictatorships existed in Europe. I had a chance to travel to them, which as a student was quite exiting. Happy that is over now.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Travel, Vacation
No comments:
Post a Comment