Berlin

If you are looking for a city with a mix of beauty and a bit of grit, old and new history and lots of humanity, Berlin is a standout.

Our visit started with the obvious, a walk down Unter den Linden towards the Brandenburg Gate, topped by Victoria, Goddess of Victory, wielding her Iron Cross. To be honest, it was a little smaller in scale than we had expected.

Through the gate and across the road was the Reichstag - the parliament building —completed in 1894. It is a most impressive building indeed, unusable by either the east or west during the Cold War, then redesigned by Sir Norman Foster for use by the newly-reunited nation.

Then, a glimpse into the humanity. In the nearby park lies a monument to the murdered Sinta and Roma people - the “gypsies”. Hundreds of thousands of them were killed, and some of the stories were truly horrific. A children’s clinic where experiments were carried out and the child then euthanised - beyond belief.

We also saw the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, a more abstract installation of 2,711 concrete stelae over an undulating 1.9 hectare site. It was a bit haunting, but we couldn’t say we “got it”.

Checkpoint Charlie is probably the brashest tourist attraction in town, with competing museums all around and no shortage of queues for a photo. It was fun to stand astride the former border, one leg West German, the other East.

Then there was Museum Island, on the river, with the quite magnificent Berlin Cathedral to one side, and no less than seven museums housed in incredible classical buildings.

The one we saw, however, wasn’t one of them. On the other side of the river, built into the concrete embankment (and therefore not beautiful) was the DDR Museum.

The DDR Museum was concerned with life in East Berlin, with all the tribulations of living in a police state with a sagging economy. There was a Trabant, a replica East Berlin “new” apartment and a huge number of stories with associated memorabilia.

Unfortunately, though, it was also a great example of how to turn a fascinating subject and quality exhibits into a crappy museum. It was packed, and every time you opened one of the many interactive drawers or cupboards you risked hitting someone on the arse or worse. A much better idea, given the crowds, would be an audio guide for everyone, and exhibits fenced off further back, so that everyone got a look.

Staying with the DDR theme, we had a look at Tranenpalast, the former processing centre for visitors from West Berlin, attached to Friedrichstrasse Railway Station. Translated as “Palace of Tears” in reference to the number of wrenching farewells that took place nearby, it contained some very poignant stories of families and lovers parted, and the officious cruelty of the guards.

Interestingly, when it was no longer in use, the guards didn’t join in the elation - in the East German economy, they were just worried about losing their jobs.

Finally, we visited the Berlin Wall Memorial, near a preserved piece of wall on Bernaurstrasse. This was excellent, too, with a memorial for the 140 people who died at the wall, archaeological exhibits and a viewing platform high up across the street overlooking a reproduction of the wall and the no man’s land behind it.

It was all very moving, and that is probably what made Berlin seem so special. It’s certainly not just a typical, elegant European city; the relatively recent, terrible history, and the great way it has been preserved and memorialised, make it quite unique.

Sadly, we are now leaving, heading for Hamburg.Read more