The Wall

Back in Potsdamer Platz after what has been a long, tiring day. As soon as I finished writing this morning the weather actually got better - typical - so thankfully there's been no rain.

It's been quite a disturbing day in many ways. I spent the morning at an outdoor exhibition called the Topography of Terror, built on the former site of the Reich Security offices, which included of course the feared and infamous SS and Gestapo. Although most of the exhibits are only in German there was a free English audio guide, so I spent an hour learning about the brutality of the Nazi regime. The site is situated right along-side where the Wall once was, so for many years it was virtually abandonned. A stretch of the wall still stands next to the site - a poignant reminder of the Cold War.

On my wanderings after leaving the Topography of Terror I accidentally came across what was Checkpoint Charlie. There's nothing left of the Wall itself, but the famous sign warning people that they were about to leave the American Sector is still there. I was getting hungry (always thinking of my stomach) at that point so at some point in the next few days I'd like to go back to take some photos.

After lunch (which nearly ended in disaster as I ended up with the wrong meal - meat!) I visited the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauerstrasse - a street that was cut in two when the Wall was built. What struck me most about the Wall is just how ugly it was - and that such an ugly structure fractured a city and perhaps a continent in two. It also struck me as ironic that Israel, where a lot of Jews who were persecuted across Europe under the Nazi regime fled to, is now in the process of building its own wall - failing to understand the lessons of the wall that divided Berlin for so many years.

Bernauserstrasse is the only place where it's possible to see the Wall as it actually was - two walls with a no-man's land in between. The picture is taken from what was East Berlin - looking through the wall on that side at what was West Berlin. I still feel profoundly disturbed by the whole experience - I can only imagine what it was like when the Wall still stood.

I was going to visit a museum this evening, but I'm too tired now and feel like heading 'home'. I've been on the go all day and need some rest. I'm also not really in the mood for visiting a museum right now - too much too digest.