Monday August 16th

We left early Monday morning for the drive to Berlin. It was a long day but not the longest of the trip.

We stopped at mid morning, lunch and afternoon tea – about two and half hours between each break. I can’t believe the speed the cars do on the autobahns. I stopped at one of the breaks and looked at the cars speeding past. The buses and trucks are limited to 100kph and cars were barreling past doing at least 160-180. They all have a unique sound as they pass.

Lunch time was a one and half hour break at a pace called Weimar. For those of the historical bent, Germany between the wars was called the Weimar Republic. So after WWI the agreement for the democratic country was negotiated and signed at Weimar. A pretty little town with the menace being Buchenwald concentration camp about 4 KM away. Goethe, Beethoven and Hungarian composer Liszt all lived here at some time. Most of the village has been rebuilt since WWII.

The drive into Berlin was uneventful but the city is very large, being a combination of East and West Berlin. The hotel we are straying at (Ramada) is actually in East Berlin and has all the charm of a communist block of flats, which it was at one time. We have much nicer and better facilities then in communist Germany.

The people are very political and aware of there past. There are different viewpoints about the communist eras. A couple of our guides were children during this era. They can see issues for the older people especially who had no opportunity to plan for their future in the west.

You can certainly notice when you enter the old East Berlin as the buildings are mostly a dull grey concrete structures with no redeeming architectural qualities. One way to decide if you are in east or West Germany is to look at the pedestrian lights. In old East Germany the green light is a fat man and in old West Germany he is a skinny man!

On our way to Potsdam we crossed the bridge that was used for prisoner exchange during the cold war. It was over a beautiful river.
We also saw the Jewish monument. It consists of approx. 2,000 cement blocks on flat ground. They are all different shapes.

Berlin is very flat and has plenty of public transport to get around.
We went out to a Berlin meal last night. The food and drink was very good. Then we did a one and a half hour sight seeing tour (in our bus) and saw the Brandenburg gate, Check point Charlie (the border with East and West Berlin) and Reichstag (Parliament) building, along with many other sights. There will be plenty to see when we come back here at the end of the bus tour.