Germany (north)

Berlin

All of my life, I heard there were two Berlins. We couldn't find them.

East Berlin just 13 years ago was drab, run down, poor, and falling apart. The wall cut a wide swath through the city, with a dead man zone down the middle. Today you can hardly tell which side you are in, and have to look hard for any traces of the wall.

East Berlin has been rebuilt. It was the historical cultural center of Berlin with the museums and theatre, and the unified Germany wasted no time in restoring it. Over the past decade, investment in the East has been so pronounced that now that is the area with the newest buildings, and the trendy areas. The downtown areas are completely unified.

The wall, once a major fortress with three different barriers, guard towers and patrol dogs, now is just demarcated by a line of bricks wandering along the streets. The area previously reserved for the wall is now refilled with building, roads, and walks. Very few fragments remain --in fact some Berliners feel that too much is gone, since much history vanished with the wall. A few reminders have been put back up, including a recently painted sign announcing that you are entering the American zone, and a corresponding sign announcing the Soviet zone going the other way.

We were hard pressed to find much wall at all. We did accidentally walk into one area with the streets barricaded off and soldiers on duty to keep everyone away. Several blocks in each direction were blocked off. There was even a tank sitting in the intersection with armed soldiers! It took us a while to figure out what was going on, but alas, we discovered that we had found the interim US Embassy, closed to anyone except diplomats.

We arrived in Berlin on Friday, during the Love Parade weekend, the largest techno music event in the world. The city was packed with young people in all manners of dress and costume. We headed 30 kilometers south to Potsdam to find a quieter campground and wait out the festivities. Even there, the techno music blared all night long. It was quite a party scene. We knew that we are getting old when our reaction was to retreat to the parks to read, waiting for the excitement to pass, before exploring Berlin.

Two days ago, a major windstorm hit Berlin. We felt it in Prague, but Berlin bore the brunt of it. There were down and broken trees everywhere, and the sound of chain saws. Some of the parks had considerable damage. However, even with the large amount of downed vegetation, Berlin remains a heavily treed city and very pretty. While there were more branches and trees on the ground here than we saw in total in some cities, looking up it seemed as if there was little missing.

We watched some would-be arborists cutting the trees. In particular, we watched several men cutting down a tree that lay over a telephone wire. They started by cutting off the base, so that the whole of the tree then dangled from the wire! There was then no stable part to work from, and the tree was fully suspended in the air, with branches on all sides of the wire, a crumpled light pole, and a utility shed. I couldn't figure out how they could possible cut it down safely now, and apparently neither could they! They left to work on other trees, and still had not returned to the dangling tree when we left four days later.

We were feeling pretty melancholy by the time we reached Berlin in our travels. In Europe, we have visited countless museums, castles, and churches. While undoubtedly there are outstanding sights in Berlin, we were more interested in just relaxing. It is reminiscent of our feelings after Japan, which we toured in a whirlwind, and led us to mellow out on the beach in Thailand.

We took an excellent walking tour, the best we have had anywhere! Kudos to Bryan of Insight Tours! He made the history fun, and come to life, especially the events leading to the fall of the wall. I also learned many new things that weren't known when I studied history. For example, it turns out that the Soviets did recover Hitler’s body and had it verified through dental records. They kept that a secret, along with other information, until the fall of the Soviet Union and the unification of Germany. We also saw the site for the new US Embassy, which is now stalled. It is in the row of other embassies, but the US now has a policy of requiring a clear zone around all sides of new embassies, and actually asked the Berliners to remove some historical buildings, reroute a major boulevard, and cut off the end of a beloved park, to create the dead zone around the new embassy. Needless to say, the Berliners said no, but the US needlessly reinforced its stereotype of arrogance.

We walked a lot, as always, but we also drove around in Berlin. The city, even the downtown, is huge. While we read tour guide warnings that driving and parking are impossible, we found no problems at all. Maybe seeing the traffic in Asia set a new reference for us, and European traffic just isn't that bad. Oh, except for Prague, which laid out the streets in a totally incomprehensible manner.

We had a great Indian dinner in Berlin. We actually set out for a Mexican restaurant, but stumbled upon the Indian one next door and couldn't resist. We are both feeling the tug of India, and further exploration of spirituality. We hope to make it to Dharamsala, the home in exile of Tibetan Buddhism. We found ourselves reading books on insight meditation and on the Dali Lama's beliefs.

Rhine valley

Berlin was the last major stop on the continent, and we planned to head to Calais in France to cross over to the U.K. We considered several routes. With more time, we would have headed up through Sweden, or at least spent some time on the islands north of Germany. But by now we were traveling fairly slowly, and not really wanting to push hard.

The Rhine and the Mosel river valleys are pretty river valleys, quiet areas with wineries and castles. We decided to make that our mid-way destination.

The area is quite touristy, but in a very nice way. The villages are tiny, with cobblestone streets lined with shops, cafes and pubs. The hills are green, and the views magnificent. The Rhine River was running high and fast, and we spent several hours just gazing at it and the river traffic. The heavy barges whipped right past going downstream, but lumbered against the upstream current barely inching upward.

The weather varied from a light misty rain to heavy downpour, but overall the area was reminiscent of Oregon, so it fit in just fine. We didn't spend enough time here. For example, we found an old castle, which is now a hostel, and would be a great place to stay, but we were already on our way out. We could imagine spending many days here, wandering up and down the hills, exploring castles, and sampling the local wines (can you guess the variety?). But we are due to meet up with an old friend in Ireland, and need to be moving along...