Berlin - Checkpoint Charlie

We had a massive walking day today of just over 15km! Berlin is very flat so walking is quite easy, and I think I had underestimated just how much we would be able to get through on foot in one day. The kids did remarkably well – they were asking by 3pm if we could catch public transport home, but in fact it was almost the same amount of time to walk as to catch a bus/train, so walking it was. They have been superstars on the walking front over the last 8 weeks - we really have been blessed with kids that are pretty amenable to going with the flow.

To be heard circa 4pm this afternoon…

Craig: “How’s your little legs going, Kitty?” | Katiekoozle: “Good. How’s your little legs going, Dad?”

Just around the corner from home is the Deutsches Currywurst Museum Berlin. For some reason, the kids were desperate to go to it, but we said no - earmarked currywurst for lunch instead.

We are staying “on the East side” in an apartment on Charlottenstraße in Berlin Mitte which is one of the streets intersected by the Berlin Wall. A one minute walk from our front door is Checkpoint Charlie. There is a free open-air information section near the checkpoint which was very handy as it described a lot of history of the Wall, but also pointed out that the double cobblestone line running through parts of the city indicate where the Wall actually was.
We followed the “Wall line” around to an exhibition called the Topography of Terror which has a remaining section of the Berlin Wall. It is also on the site of buildings which housed the central institutions of Nazi persecution and terror – the Secret State Police Office with its own “house prison,” the leadership of the SS and, during the Second World War, the Reich Security Main Office. We can’t really linger in some of these places as there is a lot to take in and the kids can’t be expected the read all of the panels which document the history, so I will put this on the list of something I would like to return to one day.Read more