Germany - Visiting Berlin

We travelled through the province of Thuringen (in the former East Germany) on our way to Berlin. This took us through the Harz mountains, an area of thick woodlands and beautiful in places. Travelling through some former East German towns we could still see remnants of past neglect and in places what I would call 'a no care attitude' towards infrastructure and maintenance.
Stopping at a roadside 'Imbiss' (a hotdog vendor) I stood for 5 minutes waiting for the girl to serve me, but gave up when she showed no interest whilst talking on her mobile phone. I was her only (potential) customer at the time. It was clear to me that some mindsets from the communist era would die hard ....
We entered Berlin from the northwest passing Berlin Tegel airport as we went and followed the instructions of Snoopy to the International Reisemobilplatz in Berlin-Mitte. This was a camperstop about 2km from the old Reichstag and therefor ideally situated for sightseeing in central Berlin, which is why we chose it. As we entered the gate a girl appeared from nowhere and asked if we wanted a site for the night in good English. I responded in German and we were duly shown a site close to the facilities covering four smallish park spaces. This I thought generous and we duly parked Fifi and plugged into the electric supply. Before the day was done we had also noticed that if you arrive with an attitude (read some Mediterranean countries) you will get short shrift from reception! I took the bicycle in the afternoon and cycled to the nearby Invalidenfriedhof and started walking the paths identifying many of those buried there. This cemetery is one of the oldest in Germany and was the final resting place for many military officers of note, going back to the days of the Prussian Empire. I saw Scharnhorst, von Moltke, von Richthofen to name some of the well known.
The next morning we took the U-bahn to the Unter den Linden, the former smart shopping area of pre-war Berlin, which is now undergoing restoration works on a huge scale. It is slowly once again becoming the showpiece that it was. Whether it can rival the Ku'damm in the former West Berlin only time will tell. Speaking of restoration and reconstruction, there is a manic sense of wanting to make Berlin the showpiece and window to the world that it once was. There is no hiding of the fact that billions of Euros is being spent on erasing the legacy of a divided Berlin. With the German economy currently the healthiest in Europe, I would say this goal will be achieved in years to come.

In the Trabant 'crashing' through the wall

Below is what I consider to be something special, and that is a Brandenburg Gate without the hordes of people usually found there. I took the photo at 0700 in the morning before any had arrived. By midday crowds are milling around this area, with major sights such as the Reichstag, Holocaust Memorial, Russian Army memorial and Tiergarten in close proximity to each other.

Brandenburg Gate at 0700

Manfred von Richthofen

On our second full day we took one of the open top tour buses with commentary and did a typical tourist trip around central Berlin. I had not been back since 1981, and Joan had never been, so we wanted to pack in as many of the sights as possible.



Bellevue - the official residence of the German State President

It was one of those hop on hop off buses and we 'hopped off' on the Kurfursten Damm shopping street at the KaDeWe store - a sort of Selfridges type store. Here we found a long sought for French style press down cafetiere, replacing a broken one from many weaks ago. It was a Bodum and marked down by 40%, so smiles all round! Lunch consisted of me coercing Joan into the joys of eating a currywurst and brotchen bought at a Imbiss, something akin to a hotdog from a street corner vendor in New York.

Victory Column, denoting Prussian military successes

Below is Fifi le Van parked in the International Reisemobilstation in central Berlin. Note the closeness of vehicles to each other. This is not a quiet out of the way, grassed over and shaded type campsite, you come here to sight see and hopefully get some sleep. You also get to know your neighbours and discover the joys of language barriers, kids playing around your van, ambulance sirens throughout the night and the wake up 'hello-hello' from the early morning bread bun seller - bless her!

Packed camperstop in central Berlin

We left Berlin after spending three nights and two full days packing in the sights and sounds of one of the worlds great cities. The road took us north to the former East German province of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern where we were to spend the next three nights.