Got up early and showered and packed, then went for the breakfast at 7:00am but found out that the breakfast does not start till 8:00am. Decided to skip breakfast (like a normal work day !)and make progress, so set tomtom for Berlin (365km) and off we go.
It rained on me three times going to Berlin. No problems on the journey, (mostly autobahn) except when I came to charge my mobile phone I realised I had left the adaptor piece that fits into the phone on the mains charger that Savi had brought to Krakow. So had to revert to plan B and take off all the packed camping gear lift the motorcycle seat and plug in the other dedicated car to phone adaptor I used before I bought the multi-way adaptor.
Stopped to refuel and read up on the various hostels in Berlin. Chose one, (Eastener just off Friedrichstrasse) phoned up and reserved a place and off I went again. Arrived and a nice woman called Fatime I think of some Turkish descent showed me all the arrangements. When she showed me the bed in the four bed dorm she explained that the other three people in the dorm were girls. (They came in late and as I write this I only know the name of one girl Anouk. They come from Holland and are in their early twenties)
Went out at about 3pm and decided to do the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag then the Holocaust memorial and museum and finally the Topography of Terror which is an outdoor exhibition sited where the Gestapo used to have it's headquarters and catalogues all the events that unfolded between 1933 and 1945 and how the Nazi's came to power and took control of the nation.
Had a great afternoon!!
The Brandenburg Gate is very impressive and left you feeling the presence of the Nazi gatherings that took place there. The Reichstag Building (the German parliament) is a beautiful building with a glass public viewing dome added by Norman Foster, the principle behind the dome is that if ever the german parliament seems to be getting above itself the politicians can just look up and see the people who they are meant to be representing.
The museum under the monument has a great display of pictures and individual stories of families. There is a database of as many victims as people can establish and you can see people looking up names of relatives trying to get information. It is a very moving experience.
You can look up information on different concentration camps, and so I checked up on Kaunas 9th Fort and also on Plaszow. In looking at the photos of Plaszow during the war I do not think that the house we saw was the commandants house!
I was aware that I had picked up lots of information about how the Jews were treated, but never felt I had a proper understanding of how Hitler and the Nazis actually managed to come to power and to hoodwink if you like the whole German population and establish an effective dictatorship of what was up to then an established democratic country. So I went then to the "Topography of Terror" exhibition.
It takes about 2 hours to work your way along a stretch of about 500 metres of information boards, photos etc that catalogues exactly how the Nazis came to power in 1933 and within a few months had established total control over the whole German nation. It went through the roles played by Goering, Boreman, Himmler and other prominant Nazi leaders.
Then moved on to Check Point Charlie on Friedrichstrasse and realised that tomtom had taken me through here on my way to the hostel. I wondered at the time why people were taking photographs of me as I rode along.
Still there were big plackards at the side of the street with photographs of how it really was at the time.
It was all very moving especially the topography of terror exhibition.
Back to the hostel and met the landlord a guy of about 40 who was an east german and he was explaining to me how it had been difficult at the time of reunification. In the east nobody bothered to own property, it had no value, you couldn#t do anything with it except live in it. The minute the wall came down property took on high value in the east. People had saved for cars and these suddenly had no value at all. Particularly the older generation they found it very hard to adjust to the new way of life. He was a blues musician part time in a band and he had a small 3/4 size spanish type guitar. I asked if I could play it later and he said no problem help myself. In good humour he reminded me of thre world cup result between England and Germany !! later a couple of American students came in. They were already pretty drunk and going out for more. Their names were Kevin and Brad and they had no interest in Berlin culture of history other than gisls and pub crawls !! Been there got the tee-shirt!!
I wrote up my log and then quietly played the guitar on my own in the common room. It wasn't easy being only 3/4 size and also it is a while since I played, however I soon got the hang of it and went through my usual repertoire; hey jude, yesterday, fields of gold, get back, don't let me down etc. At one time a chap who was staying the the hostel came to the door to listen, said it was good, but I wasn't convinced myself !!
Breakfast of orange and coffee, met the girls only two are Dutch, Anouk and Isla, the third girl is called Emily and she is from Ireland. I think they found it a little off-putting to find a bearded stranger in "their" room late at night, however all ok now !
More later
TOR
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