THERE were only two things I really wanted to do on this trip.
We’re not talking general wouldn’t-mind-checking-out or hey-that’s-kind-of-interesting things, but two things I really, really, wanted to do.
The first of these was a watch a cricket match at Lord’s in London. Unfortunately that particular pilgrimage for cricket tragics like myself cut short by a bout of weather so foul that the only possible way to alleviate the pain was to go to the pub and watch Australia play in a very warm-looking West Indies.
The other thing was to do Berlin.
Berlin – and Germany’s recent history – has fascinated me since I first looked at an atlas as a young fella and saw maps of Germany over the years. Being very young I had no idea about world history, so couldn’t quite understand how this country had gotten smaller over the years; indeed how it ended up being two countries for a while there.
I don’t remember the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 (major world events skipping past most 9-year-olds living in Toowoomba) but even back then the concept of a divided city was, well, weird.
And now I was heading there.
Our first glimpse of the scars of Germany’s recent past was actually our final service stop at a little place called Marienborn. Had we been travelling just over 20 years earlier, this is where we would have stopped to go through East German immigration before continuing onto Berlin. The former customs houses are now an open-air museum, while the masses of light towers and a guard tower meant that it didn’t take too much imagination to realise this wasn’t a place you would’ve wanted to linger back then.
It was then onto Berlin, where after a relatively quiet night at the CityStay hostel bar (only open 23 hours a day!) Daniel and I jumped onboard an Insider/Fat Tire bike tour to learn more about this fascinating city. Amongst the strange things Berlin has to offer was just up the road from the TV tower where the East German parliament used to stand. Authorities have dismantled that old piece of junk as it was full of asbestos, and have decided to replace it with – and I’m not making this up – a replica of the royal palace that used to stand there until just after WWII, even though Germany hasn’t had a royal family since Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated in 1918. Go figure.
During the tour we got to see Checkpoint Charlie, the Jewish Memorial, the Brandenburger Tor (in the death strip during the years of the Berlin Wall), and the Reichstag, as well as a stop in a Tiergarten beer garden for a refuelling stop. That had been the main reason for doing the bike rather than the walk, although everyone who came off the walk raved about it as well!
That night most of the crew – plus a few guides and drivers on days off – came along for the Insider pub crawl. Once again memories are hazy, although what does spring to mind is Daniel doing the caterpillar, and an awesome kebab at ??o’lock after coming back from the Matrix nightclub at the end.
The next day was a mixed bag; although that was always on the cards. Some went down to the Eastside Gallery (the largest bit of the Berlin Wall still remaining); others checked out the Jewish Memorial and the Topography of Terror. I went out to near the bombed-out church near the Zoo to pick up a car for Daniel and I to take us around Scandinavia.
That trip is for another blog away from here… But I tell you what, I’m glad I did Berlin.
Now if only I could get back to Lord’s for a match…
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