Day 57...Das ist Berlin baby! - 22nd August

Had our breakky and walked to Topographie des Terrors. Had a repeat of our disaster yester when our camera battery went flat (even though I checked the damn thing that mornign!) so took a taxi back home, then back again. Take 2! (Plus we got rained on when walking there. but it cleared up after)

The Topography of Terrors is on a part of the Berlin Wall that still remains. The Gestapo Headquarters, SS Central Commmand, and Reich Security main office used to be all on this street, but are no more. Now there is a info display with billboards along the wall, with information on the UN trials held for the German war criminals (including Herman Goring - who killed himself 2 hours before his scheduled execution). Surprisingly, Henrich Himmler killed himself before all that, when I thought he was executed. (Thats was Steven Spielberg said anyway). We read the billboards for a while as it was very interesting. Aparently one of the presidents preciding over the trials was a Geoffrey Lawrence! (Not sure if you're reading this Geoff).

After that, we went to Checkpoint Charlie.It used to be the main gateway between the east and west during the cold war. Now its basically a US and English army officer standing ona medium strip charging 1 euro for a photo with them. The whole thing was rather cheap and tacky with lots of stalls selling Russian hats and gas masks. So we walked away from there, down a different street and hired a bike each for the rest of the day. Rattles had suggested it to us, and we must thank him for it.

I had almost forgotten how to ride a bike, and my bike was so big my feet didn't touch the ground! I had to balance on one leg and jump up! I was sure to stack! (I almost did once, but ended up ok). Nate had a speedy looking black one and handled himself well, as he always does :) Going around Berlin on bik was such a good idea. It is easy to get around as there are proper bikelanes. You see everything properly as you aren't in a car or on public transport. But it is quicker and more fun than walking. You definately cover a lot more distance than walking. We loved it.

We biked past the Kreuzberg district which had a very east Berlin style with old buildings and grafitti, onto Friedrichshain. There, we saw the East Side Gallery. The East Side Gallery is the longest and best preserved section of the wall. The wall has been changed into an open air gallery with art all over the wall. On the bike ride there, there wre small bricks in the ground which marked where the line of the wall was. It was weird riding your bike back and forth along it, and seeing cars parked over it. Life goes on eh? The gallery was ok, the art itself was kinda crap. But it was good to see the wall. I thought it would be much more imposing and taller. I mean, Hadrians wall (remember Scotland?) back in the day was 4.74mtall, but they didn't have machine guns I guess. You felt like you could almost jump up and touch the top! Nathan thought it was amazing to see, as the collapse of the Berlin wall was the first major world event that he remembers in his lifetime. To stand there, and ride your biek and shop on the very spot where there was such political unrest in his lifetime was pretty incredible as well.

Berlin looks like Berlin in completely polar opposite ways. In some parts, in certain districts it looks communist and poor. It has a eastern european feel with political statues covered in grafitti and tird looking buildings. On the other hand, it has brand new glass highrises, plasma creens and lights and parks. It all looks very cosmopolitan and modern.

We rode through Alexander Platz to Unter den Linden, Berlins most splendid boulevarde. There was the Berliner Dom (a church) which looked all bombed and smoky, and the univeristy where Einstein and the Brothers Grimm were members. We circled our bikes around in Bebelplatz, which was the site of the first official Nazi book burning in 1933. It was hard to comprehend that here I was, riding my bike through such a beautiful street where some of the most important world acts took stage here. That some major players walked these streets. We laughed and shouted to each other over it, the wind from the bikes whipping our voices away. At the end of Unter De Linden was the Brandenburg Gate and Pariser Platz from the 18th century. I definately recognised the gate! It was cool, I felt like we were in the 'amazing race' and kept humming the theme. The Reichstag was also next door, so we rode around that too!

Mixed among the city were 6 sculptures promoting "germany: land of idea". It celebrated German innovation, including football studs, x-rays, e=mc2 etc. We rode down to the hauptbahnhoff to see the football boots and the audi car (the audi car had mysteriously disappeared however). I saw some cute German street urchin boys barefoot and playing piano accordians. They were great, so I gave them a tip. Nathan loved seeing the big silver football boots and ran amongst them.

The clouds were looking ominous and the street urchins had scattered - they knew what was up. So we raced our bikes back through the city to the shop before it rained. There were a few spots, and the sky was a dark grey. The wind whipped up and had that electricity to it. We did have a quick stop however, at a sculpture on the way. It was hundreds and hundreds of different sized concrete blocks, commemorating all the Jews who died in teh Holocaust. It looked pretty cool.

After dropping the bikes off, it felt so long and slow to walk back home! We showered and dressed while it poured rain outside (the urchins were spot on). We decided to drive to Oranienburger strasse where the street was lined with restaurants and bars (we hoped, and not like yesterday!). It ended up being quite lovely, with a mix of both chichi and rough arty vibe. (again with the berlin opposits). Tachels was there, which is a former department store which became an art squat during the reunificaiton. It has evolved into a centre with art studios, a beer garden and cultural centre. Nathan saw a dark old building, covered with grafitti and heard me mention the word 'squat' so refused to go in. So I went up on my own. It was pretty interesting up there. I came back down, and after a few cheap cocktails and a spanish dinner, I explained properlty what it was and he went back up there with me. It stank like pee in the stairs, and grafitti was everywhere in the stairwell, but the halls were clean and were filled with canvasses of talented artists. A band had shut themselves in a room and music was blaring through the closed door. People were screenprinting and painting, and people were all wandernig around checking it out. We ended up buying a wicked painting by a Dutch artist. The painting seemed to epitomise Berlin for us, with a mix of grey and colour. I loved it and marched out of there with my big canvass very pleased with myself. I would end up dragging the damn thing all the way into france...

Along the street were some of the most classy and exquisite hookers we had ever seen. They were standing in the drizzle with umbrellas and in kneehigh boots. They had legs up to their airmpits, skinny corsetted waists and silky hair. We wished we could have taken a photo, but would have probably freaked them out.

After that, feeling quite tiddly we went home to bed.