Off the tourist track (Tuesday 5th September 2017)

We stopped on our way to Alexanderplatz in a coffee shop in Weinmeisterstrasse for a coffee and croissant, enjoying the warm sun. It’s still just tee-shirt weather but all the locals a mostly wearing jackets. If you’re ever planning to visit Berlin then Mitte is the place to stay. It’s in East Berlin right in the centre of everything. Loads of shops of all sorts, cafes, bars, trams, parks and friendly locals.

Everything is so casual and relaxed in Berlin. People don’t get stressed or angry at others. They don’t smile too much but that’s OK just go along with the “live and let live” vibe and you’ll be OK. I even bought a little “I Love Berlin” badge for my Renault cap today. So it’s official, I’m converted, in spite of the bad start.

Yesterday we had bought a two-day sightseeing bus ticket so today we jumped in the bus that goes to the lesser known parts of Berlin, off the well-beaten tourist track. We went out into the the ‘burbs – if you could call it that – to get a sense of where the real Berliners live and work. We spent about an hour on the bus and then jumped off at what is known as the Eastside Gallery. It’s the famous section of The Wall down by the River Spree (I didn’t know Berlin had a river until yesterday) which has been subject to much graffiti, street art and murals. The focus of everyone’s attention is the mural entitled My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love which depicts Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker in a fraternal embrace reproducing a photograph that captured the moment in 1979 during the 30th anniversary celebration of the foundation of the German Democratic Republic.

From there we walked to the Warschauer Strasse station and caught the S-bahn (overground) train to Frederich Strasse station. From there, via a bratwurst seller, to the Memorial of the Murdered Jews.

This time the exhibition was open. It’s a free exhibition with just a donation on the way out if you choose. It’s a story that we’re all too familiar with. Generally speaking the Berliners make no bones about their city’s past. After all, one would be foolish to deny that all those atrocities between the rise of the Nazi Party to the re-unification of Germany ever happened. I do wonder how the psyche of the 21^st century Berliner is different to that of a forbear from 100 years ago. A lot, I’d say, and for the good too. They have been witness to so many lives being snuffed out or torn apart for no good reason that it’s not a wonder their current day egalitarian view of life in the community they live in has prevailed.

After the Memorial we got our hiking boots on and headed down the famous boulevard Unter den Linden back to Alexanderplatz. One the way we stopped at the Protestant church St. Marienkirche for a moment of quiet reflection and to view the famous Dance of Death fresco painted in 1485.

Our mission at Alexanderplatz was to visit the department store Primarck (sort of like a Germany Target) to get some new clothes for Kerry. We spent some time there and a manged to put together the makings of a wardrobe that will suffice for the trip.

We strolled home, had a drink at our hotel while we again watched all the workers head home, bought some fresh fruit from our corner Asian grocery store and headed for Rosenthaller Platz for a pizza and beer. A gelati as we walked home toped off a great day.