I spent a couple of days in Cologne before heading to Berlin.
Train from Cologne
The train to Berlin was an ICE train. It was very comfortable and fast.
Staying in the East
I had booked into a hostel that is in the East. This part of the city has slow become gentrified in the period since ‘The Wall’ cam down in 1989. Initially it was very popular with students and bohemian types because the cost of housing was cheap. These people are slowly being forced out of the area as the price of flat rents rise.
However, it is still a good palace to be with lots of different bars, restaurants cafes. Of course I was about to find a pub selling craft beer.
Remembering 2012
I visited Berlin briefly in 2012. I also visited the city in 1978. This was followed by another visit in 1984 when I was working for the Department of Foreign Affairs. I have already posted about that visit. Refer to the link below.
I was interested to see the changes that have occurred since my 2012 visited. A lot had obviously changed between 1989 well The Wall came down and when I visited in 2012.
The area around the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag was where most of the work had been done to ‘unify’ the two halves of the city. The Wall ran in front of the Gate and the area on the Eastern side was ‘scare’ about 400 metres wide. By 2012 this had been repaired with a lot of work including pathway across to the new Train Station.
Since 2012 it appears that attention is now being given to area East of the Gate around Alexanderplatz. This area still has the ‘severe soviet style’ building from the communist era, however they rea slowly
Hop on Hop Off Bus
I decided to take one of the ‘Hop on Hop’ Buses that operate in Berlin. These are often a good way to get a quick feel for a city.
The hop off places included, the Olympic Stadium, the main shopping street Kurfürstendamm and Checkpoint Charlie, an area where there is over a kilometre of The Wall. One the circuits of the bus route took in a few of the suburbs in the East. The contrast with the suburbs in the West is still obvious.
Walking from Checkpoint Charlie Down Friedrichstraße
In the afternoon on my last day in Berlin, I went to Checkpoint Charlie and retracted that walk down Friedrichstraße that I wrote aboot in my post on the 1984 visit.
The contrast could not be more stark. In 1984, there was no one walling on the street apart from me. The Buildings were drab and hardly seemed to be occupied. Today Friedrichstraße is lined with upmarket shops and restaurants and cafes.
Off to Warsaw
Next day I made my way to the train station where I caught the train to Warsaw.
Visit to Berlin in 1984
Flickr Link 2017
https://www.flickr.com/gp/twwilko_photos/pU1253
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